Walk in the shoes of those we work with
Jackie Tiotto
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Jackie Tiotto is director of children's services, Bexley Council.
Walking in the shoes of those we work with is a phrase often used to remind us of the importance of total empathy if we are to understand the reality of others. The options for change set out in the recently published Care Crisis Review require policy makers, leaders and practitioners to re-imagine the intent behind this phrase in daily practice and conversation.
As part of an appreciative inquiry in July with Nigel Richardson who chaired the review, I asked him particularly about three of the fundamentals for change - the proper implementation of relationship-based practice with families, the basis and intention of Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and the concept of families as a resource in our system.
The review describes the sophisticated processes and measures we use in England to monitor how well children are protected.
Given the rising numbers of children who live in public care and with strangers (more than 60,000), we wondered about the extent to which we have begun to overlook the importance of relationship-led practice as the means of enabling families to identify support within their own familiar networks.
This first question led us to a second - if Section 17 was about offering help to parents and carers so that they could take responsibility for the upbringing of their children, why then does it often feel in practice as though this is a monitored position that may almost be a precursor to formal intervention by the state?
The review asks us to consider how genuine help and support as originally intended would feel for families? Evidence suggests that they would feel genuinely understood regardless of outcome. They might say that we listened to understand and not to respond - that our ultimate judgments about next steps have given them a chance to lead decisions, to identify their own solutions and to test them without fear that a standardised letter would arrive telling them coldly that the removal of their children was now a possibility.
Finally, we talked of the resources and wisdom that exist in all families, and their entitlement to use both during times of difficulty. The idea of a family-led conversation - sometimes called a conference or network meeting - sits front and centre of this notion. Richardson was compelling in his description of families being given a chance to lead on their home turf with their own players - their network - being large in number. He refers to it being their "home game" in stark contrast to the norm, where they are expected to always be on the "away ground" and therefore without the advantages that come from familiarity and security.
I was struck by a simple but powerful theme in this inquiry space - the importance of kindness and respect as a basis for the help offered to families and children living in difficult circumstances. Both are only available to us when and if we choose to make genuine relationships and walk some way with them in their shoes.