Children in care need to be heard
Ravi Chandiramani
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Young people from the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) debated in the House of Commons chamber last Friday, the first body of people other than MPs to occupy the green benches.
And tomorrow (6 November) is 11 Million Takeover Day, when it's hoped that 30,000 children and young people will take over the roles of adults in the annual initiative organised by the children's commissioner's office in England. Youth participation, it would appear, is alive and kicking.
However, earlier last week in a small Commons committee room tucked away from the cameras, other more marginalised voices were heard. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Looked-After Children highlighted a pressing need for social workers to heed the voices of society's most vulnerable children. The call came as the Social Work TaskForce, set up in the wake of Lord Laming's review, prepares to issue its final report later this month.
This is not to denigrate Takeover Day and the UKYP, which provide important examples of young people seizing the initiative and having their say. But these endeavours inevitably tend to involve young people who are already among the more articulate. For looked-after children, local authorities are now rightly required to set up children-in-care councils to give them a voice and see matters from a service user's point of view. Again though, as a representative forum, it will be the more articulate young people in or from the care system whose needs get heard.
With the tragic case of Baby P in mind, Laming himself highlighted the importance of children's voices being listened to, whatever their age. But last week's Parliamentary group meeting suggests this happens too rarely in reality. As a corporate parent, listening to children does not mean saying "yes" and doing as they wish. It does mean saying "no" when necessary but explaining why, like any good parent.
But many social workers are overstretched by staff shortages and bureaucracy, undermining their ability to devote sufficient time to vulnerable children, whether in care or not.
The poor outcomes of so many looked-after children cannot be addressed unless their voi-ces are heard and they feel in some control over their future. This won't happen overnight. It is about long-term, cultural change. That's why hearing a child's voice must be fundamental to social workers' training, in theory and in practice. If its importance is ingrained early on, it will be more proactively sought out on the job.
- Ravi Chandiramani, editor, Children & Young People Now.