At the end of the JAM we all came together to share our thoughts about the day and supporting and continuing relationship with young people in practice.
Views about the Jam included, the barriers people are experiencing seem to be similar, however the ideas people developed are different. Generally people got a lot out of the day by being able to work with people who think the same way about relational-based practice.
General points people mentioned included:
- There was a general consensus that that the way practitioners are currently asked to work with young people doesn’t feel right, and it can be painful for workers to withdraw at the point where young people need them the most
- That although people understand that relationships matter, how this understanding is translated into practice can be difficult
- Practitioners believe that confidence is important to do the right thing (and challenge the system in the process)
Further thoughts included:
- Although working in a relationally based way can be difficult it must be achieved
- The Why Not? service from Care Visions was of interest to the majority of people as they were able to see how relational practice is happening already
- There was a great deal of support for love being talked about more widely in this sector so the word was not so challenging for people to engage with, and experiences of love being shown and felt were more common
People recognised this is a difficult area to challenge, and identified that people who are brave enough to tease out all of the complications are needed to support this change Following on from this point, people were aware others do think similarly to themselves about this topic and the change they want to see. They would like to be better connected with people who have similar views and experiences. However for those who think differently, there was a recognition that change is a process that can take time. Those who may not be convinced of this approach may need to be supported to experience the difference of this approach in comparison to current approaches. Also generally, whilst this was a good experience people mentioned they felt they were talking about the value of relational practice ‘in a bubble’, and would like this discussion and testing this kind of practice to be more wide spread.
As many points relating to ‘what can we do next?’ and ‘what we need is…’ were raised during this reflection session we identified as a group that people wanted the Relationships Matter project to continue. Specifically, people identified they would like to:
Test the idea they developed at the JAM and collate evidence about what works and why, what needs to be developed and how. For Kibble this relates to sharing the new job description with Mangers and discussing with management the new anti-procedure and positive procedure. Includem said they would prototype the service within their transitional service. Hot Chocolate will continue to take videos about what love means to them and asked for other people to make videos about what love means and share them. Falkirk will continue to pilot their ongoing support conversations and Care Visions will start to evidence the work they are already doing so this can be shared more widely. CELCIS said they would share working examples of good practice and Young Scot are interested in developing a campaign about love.
Poeple also want to:
- ‘Grab the legislation (Children and Young people Act Scotland 2015) and make it happen!’
- ‘Dismantle what LOVE means’
- ‘Kick negative’s arse!’
- ‘All of us claim this year as the year of love’
- ‘Just do it and show people how we are doing it’
As there is such energy around supporting one another and integrating relationally based practice in service delivery IRISS has committed to continue the Relationships Matter project in 2015′-16. We are in the process of understanding what our partner’s aims and objectives will be for this forthcoming year.