Embrace the unpredictability of adolescence
Andrew Webb
Monday, May 27, 2019
In 1802, Wordsworth wrote: "The child is father to the man." In 2019, the phrase has added meaning: Greta Thunberg, at 16, has shown us a clarity of thought and purpose that puts world leaders to shame and she has inspired young people to speak out and to take action through school strikes.
While it has been good to see media coverage of these actions, it was equally depressing to watch the debate about climate change being reduced to inane questions about whether schoolchildren should be allowed to strike (of course they shouldn't be "allowed": the point about a strike is that it is an act of protest or calculated disobedience). The ensuing debate about whether there might be some topics over which young people might be permitted to strike hit an absurd, patronising low point.
In recent years, the natural and social sciences have developed at pace to increase understanding of adolescence; and, as anybody whose job includes spending time with them will tell you, young people can be bold, liberated, inspirational, self-assured and knowledgeable. For many, the combinations of their own neurological development, family and social environment create vulnerability that will last well into early adulthood and which needs a holistic, supportive, non-judgmental response. Adolescence and young adulthood are both life stages that involve experimentation and risk, and while it is positive that some social policy and service design such as for children in care now require us to think beyond the cliff-edge of the 18th birthday, the default is to treat adolescents as a problem.
Whether to ration services and manage cost or to be seen to be "tough" on unacceptable behaviour, our laws and policies label adolescents, compartmentalise them and promote debate about how best to "fix" them. We have excellent research into the criminal justice system that demonstrates how destructive our youth justice policy can be - yet, we don't change it. There has been an upsurge in the reporting of young people who are psychologically troubled, and the response has been to complain about the lack of mental health services. As I discovered when I was helping co-ordinate responses to the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, the pressure to do something to fix the unfixable is almost impossible to resist - even when all the evidence tells you the appropriate response is to equip parents and frontline professionals to recognise what is normal and requires care, patience and nurture and to identify the few who might be at high risk.
Research in Practice's "Mind the Gap" briefing highlights how we need a more fluid, transitional approach to working with adolescents and young adults: not just in safeguarding, but in all public policy.
Instead of trying to create a homogenous, "life-ready" population of 18-year-olds, our policy and practice needs to embrace diversity in all forms, live with risk and uncertainty and be asset-based - radical non-intervention for the many resulting in there being enough specialist resources for the few who really need them.
- Andrew Webb is a former ADCS president