More parenting, less corporate

Luke Rodgers, chief executive of the organisation Care Leaders, was a keynote speaker offering constructive challenge to elected members, chief executives, and senior leaders across local government and health systems about what it means to be a ‘Corporate Parent’ and in fact what an oxymoron the phrase is.  His phrase “More Parenting and less of the Corporate” struck a real chord.

One particularly impactful workshop which highlighted the lived experiences of our young people, required us to hand over our mobile phones and then work out how we would manage our daily lives without access to WiFi and the internet – imagining that we couldn’t contact our friends and families when we wanted to or were worried; not being able to find the answer to any question we may have needed to ask ourselves through a quick search on the intranet… Needless to say, we were all struggling to imagine living without what have become basic essentials to so many of us, and yet none of us could be certain that all of our young people had this same access.