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goodenoughcaring.com is an arena for the discussion of issues of interest to parents, foster parents, residential child care workers, counsellors, youth support workers, social workers, teachers, mentors, social pedagogues, educateurs and to young people who are, and adults who have been, in care. If you are interested in, or involved in the care,upbringing and education of children and young people or in the nurturing of children and young people who are unable to live with their own families goodenoughcaring.com is a site for you. The website welcomes thoughtful views - personal, practical or theoretical - about the care of children and young people. If you want to comment about child care or about goodenoughcaring.com then e mail charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com The goodenoughcaring.com site is archived at the British Library. The goodenoughcaring journal is an online publication which invites anyone wishing to publish papers and articles about parenting, nurture, child care work and related fields or those wishing to write about their child care experiences to submit as e mail attachments papers or articles for publication to the editors at charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com. The members of the editorial group are Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny, Ariola Vishnja, Mark Smith and Charles Sharpe. The current edition was published online on 15th June, 2011 and the next edition will be published on December 15th, 2011. The Journal index can be found at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.htm
News and OpinionThe economic apartheid continues unfettered : government minister says it is right that poor families "have to move to a part of town they can afford to live in."Last night, 22nd January, 2012, Chris Grayling, the Conservative-led coalition government's employment minister said, while defending the government's Welfare Reform Bill, that the reforms would force poorer families to find new accommodation. Mr Grayling argued these were families "who would have to move to a part of town they can afford to live in, but," he insisted, "surely that is right." These remarks are a consequence of the government's decision to place a £500 per week cap on the welfare benefits any family can receive regardless of the family's size can. Opponents of this aspect of the Reform Bill - who include among their number of bishops of the Church of England and some members of the Liberal Democrat party, including its former leader Lord Ashdown - argue that this cap places children who are born into a larger family at a disadvantage. Sources : "The Independent" at http//independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welfare-reforms and Pienaar's Politics broadcast on BBC 5 live on January 22nd, 2012.
January 23rd, late news extra the House of Lords has voted against the £500 a week cap but government ministers remain determined to push this through the House of Commons. Source : BBC Radio 5 live news, 20.30, January 23rd, 2012. Issue 10 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online !In this issue different aspects of fatherhood and what it is to be a father are explored in a poem by Jan Noble, and in articles by Joyce Carol Oates, Alex Russon, Mark Smith and our inspiration for choosing this theme, John Stein. We have two contrasting accounts of a child observation. In one Marie Tree considers the opportunity for reflection a child observation provided her while Moira Strachan observes the relationship of a young boy and his male carer in a nursery school. Marion Bennathan writes about nurture groups in schools and Cynthia Cross recollects the nature of residential child care in the 1960s and compares it to current practice. Jeremy Millar revisits the work and thoughts of Chris Beedell. Noel Howard has written a moving review of Danny Ellis' CD 800 Voices : the heartache and the healing. John Molloy provides a review of Richard Webster's book The Secret of Bryn Estyn. Bob Forrest presents The Kerelaw Papers (The Final Act) and Pat Petrie tells us about the Sing Up for Looked After Children project and its social pedagogic base.The Journal index can be found at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.htm The parliamentary epetition to re-establish the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care has closed. Where now for residential child care?The epetition, initiated by David Lane on the No.10 Downing Street website asking the government to re-establish the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care or its equivalent to provide leadership, support and advice for residential child care services has closed and has attracted insufficient signatures to be considered a subject for debate in the House of Commons. It was perhaps predictable that residential child care would not raise the 100,000 signatures needed for this to happen. At least the petition provided an opportunity to publicise residential child care's need for greater recognition and support. However, the number of signatures the petition garnered, 268, may be cause for disappointment. This is not because 256,645 have signed to end "all the financial welfare benefits of those convicted of a criminal act" during the riots early this year, not because 134,638 have signed to end "mass immigration" nor indeed because 39,173 have petitioned to insist that all Formula 1 motor races should be on "free to air" television. All these may tell us something about what is currently important to those who are signing petitions but they are issues which have a greater constituency than residental child care. No, the disappointment may be that the number of signatories for re-establishing the NCERCC represents such a sparse response from a population which even at a minimal estimate includes 100,000 adults residing in the United Kingdom who have been, at some time in their lives, in residential child care or residential education (excluding the private "public school" system) and probably more than 25,000 people who are or have been directly or indirectly employed in the residential care and education sector. Given this (admittedly estimated) number the total of 268 signatures on this petition might be thought exceedingly low. This may tell us that relatively few people in this sector of care had felt they benefited from the services provided by NCERCC but certainly the responses received by goodenoughcaring relating to the closure of NCERCC were unanimous in their praise for the Centre. It may be saying that most are content with the recognition, training and support they receive. Another conclusion might be drawn that those who have been in any way involved in residential child care are almost invariably critical of it, or indifferent about it. Alternatively,the result may not represent criticism or indifference but simply demonstrate a lack of awareness of government epetitions, yet the possibility remains that the relative dearth of signatories is a reflection of the pessimism within residential child care; a sense of "Why bother ? Our resources will be cut whatever we say or do." If this were so, it would be an unhelpful pedestal on which to be stuck, given that in these times services to children and young people are diminishing at a significant - not to say alarming - rate, and at the best of times residential child care services have not ranked high on a politician's list of vote winning issues. Now may be a good time, for all those involved in residential child care, including those who support it as teachers, as publicists, as administrators and as politicians to fall in line with the spirit underpinning David Lane's petition. This calls for the development of an articulate and cogent argument for the provision of high quality residential care for those children and young people whose needs it can undoubtably be the best at meeting. Evidence that determined and well thought out argument can bring change is evident in Essex County Council's decision to postpone its plans to close 7 of its 8 children's homes following an application by a 17 years old young man for a judicial review of the Council's closure plan. The young man argued that the authority, in taking the decision to close the homes, had failed to take account of his individual needs. The High Court Judge thought the authority's decision to close the homes by December 15th was unreasonable. Essex County Council has now issued a legally enforcable undertaking not to close any of its homes as long as those homes are needed by its "settled" looked after children and young people (Lauren Higgs,CYP Now November 28th, 2011). This change of policy may only represent a postponement but the young man's determination to stand up successfully for his right to have continuity of care in his children's home is a triumph for him and a fillip for residential care. Comment Jeremy Millar writes : The story of the Essex 'experiment' needs to be told in more detail. The manner in which we chase some magical fix when the necessity of loving relationships for human growth is well established really concerns me and it appears that policy leaders will ignore the evidence base and condemn more children to poor outcomes in life. Richard WebsterThe sad news of the death of Richard Webster during the summer of last year prompted many responses from visitors to our website about Richard and his writing and these were formerly posted on this page. They can now all be found on the goodenoughcaring blog at http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com The Care Leavers' Association The Care Leavers' Assocation is a network of care leavers run by care leavers for care leavers. If you have experienced a childhood in care this is an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking network which offers opportunities to socialise, to meet other care leavers, to share experiences and to get involved with care leavers' issue in meetings that are for care leavers only. Therapeutic Child Care and Social Pedagogy This page, edited by Mark Smith, was introduced to reflect the growing interest in social pedagogy in the UK. A principal focus of the page is residential child care though the ideas which underpin social pedagogy have relevance to the nurture of all children. Your comments as well as articles relevant to this new page are welcomed and should sent be to Mark.smith@ed.ac.uk Earlier opinion pieces published on this page may be found at http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com Previous news items can be found http://goodenoughcaringnewsarchive.blogspot.com Useful Links National Children's Bureau http://www.ncb.org.uk Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care http://www.sircc.strath.ac.uk Psychoanalysis and Therapy http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com Childhood http://www.childhood.org Children Webmag http://www.childrenwebmag.com/ The Planned Environment Therapy Trust http://www.pettarchiv.org.uk The goodenoughcaringblog http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com Irish Institute of Social Care Educators http://www.iasce.ie/
The International Child and Youth Care Network, CYC-NET http://www.cyc-net.org Clare Winnicott : Life and Work http://www.clarewinnicott.net The Child Care History Network http://www.cchn.org.uk/ The Care Leavers' Association http://www.careleavers.com Simon Hammond's webpage http://www.uea.ac.uk/swp/People/Research+Students/Simon+Hammond Adrian Ward's website http://www.adrianward.org.uk John Whitwell's website http://www.johnwhitwell.co.uk/ Social Care Ireland http://www.socialcareireland
Residential Child Care Network http://www.residentialchildcarenetwork.com/ THe Irish Association of Social Care Workers http://www.iascw.ie The goodenoughcaring news archive http://goodenoughcaringnewsarchive.blogspot.com |