Find moment to ‘reach’ troubled children

Two of last year’s must-read reports were Counting Lives, the Children’s Society’s extensive review of the emerging issue of child criminal exploitation, and Youth Resettlement, the Probation Inspectorate’s thematic inspection of the state of resettlement for children leaving custody.

On the face of it, they are about significantly different subjects. But one issue that anchors them together is the age-old problem of how we can really “lean in” to the worlds of children in trouble.

When I worked as a social worker in the 1970s and 1980s, this question was at the forefront of my mind with almost all the children with whom I worked. It remains the question of greatest significance today.

Children in trouble inhabit very different worlds to our own. We labour hard to develop personal relationships with such children to bring about change, but this is against significant odds. Think about the number of opportunities an organised criminal gang has to contact a child on the street and compare those to a youth or social worker. Calculate the material goods and street status that exploiters might appear to be offering compared to those available to the same workers. It can be an uphill struggle to reach some children.

One great opportunity is ours, however, and we must take it. For almost every child in trouble, there will be moments when the façade of bravura falls away and we have a chance to lean in and reach that person. These are “reachable moments”; chances too precious to be casually discarded. For criminally exploited children, this could be when they are arrested, often many miles from home, and they look into a future full of hazards of distrust, debt bondage and family rejection. For a child in custody, this could be when they are beginning to contemplate a return to the community; we know the overwhelming majority of children in custody describe their plans to turn their lives around in these moments, yet high reoffending statistics suggest these good intentions do not last.

If a skilled worker is available and can engage with these children at this moment, and if policymakers can ensure that a relationship established here can be sustained beyond the immediate moment, we have a real chance to reach children who are slipping through our fingers.

This requires imagination and will not be cheap. It might mean, among other things, that workers who encounter children many miles away from their homes will need to be allowed to bring them home and keep in contact with them as part of a disruption plan. It also means that we need to have a long look at how any relationship established in custody can be sustained after release.

Playing pass the parcel with children in trouble should have had its day by now. We must make sure we are able to seize these “reachable moments” and truly lean into the lives of children in trouble.