The Reality of Relationships in Residential Child Care

My name is Kathleen I began my career in the social care sector over twelve years ago. Initially I began as a volunteer advocate for vulnerable adults. After completing my BA in Social Sciences at twenty four I started my career as a child youth care worker.

Relationship-based working has continually been my passion so you can imagine my excitement when I saw the advert for the Relationships Matter Jam. On the day I was filled with enthusiasm, inspiration and over joyed to be in a room with so many like-minded colleagues and peers. Two girls that I looked after were part of my group. They were clear about their views and wanted to be able to continue relationships with staff they had built close connections with throughout their care experience.

Following the JAM I have been asked to share my research from my MSc in residential child care. My research explores relationships between young people and staff in residential child care. Other than this being my passion, I became interested in this area after talking to two young men I had looked after (both young adults, now 22 and 23) about ‘What work’s in residential child care?’ and they replied the relationships they had developed with staff.

The words resonated with me because these two young men had lived in an 8 bedded unit where being looked after involved: charts, points, sanctions and a behaviourist culture. However, they had also lived in a house in the local community which my manager at the time managed using his new interest in relational based practice.

Words young people have used to describe their relationships with, and what they need from, social care practitioners.

I was not permitted then, or now, to keep in contact with any young person when they moved service, (as outlined in the policies and procedures of the organisation I work for). Yet I’ve found that young people want to keep in contact with me. For example one young man in particular visit’s me at work to let me know about the important developments in his life. He gained employment as an industrial cleaner removing graffiti, a job he was eager to tell me about and highlighted the irony of removing the words he had once wrote.

Within residential child care relationships are consistently highlighted as central to practice and staff are encouraged and guided to develop positive, meaningful relationships to enhance change and promote positive living, learning and outcomes for our young people. A relational approach is strongly advocated and endorsed by the Staying Put Scotland guidance (Scottish Government 2013). In which there is a clear call for positive relationships to continue and support young people transitioning out of care.

For this reason, through my research I am identifying what contributory factors lead to more successful placements and outcomes for young people, with a particular focus on issues of attachment and gender. I am doing this by interviewing ten young people, five boys and five girls and their chosen residential child care workers. All twenty interviews were completed in March 2015. I will use my blog posts to share literature and evidence that promotes good relational based practice, and identify some of the barriers staff have faced and challenged whilst developing their relational approach.

As a taster, during one of the interviews I conducted, a colleague finished by saying a wise man once told him,

‘You don’t have a choice if our young people remember you or not, But there’s one thing you do have a choice in, and that’s how you made them feel’

I smiled as I recalled listening to the same manager when I worked in his children’s unit reciting these words to me, and thinking I’m sure I’ve read that somewhere!? (Maya Angelou)

I hope that relationships for our looked after young people and staff become a natural progression and we move towards a culture of continuous care rather than time limited relationships and care being ‘cut off’.

I have realised that relational practice requires both procedural and cultural changes within organisations in order to flourish. I hope that sharing the evidence I have gathered, more importantly by sharing the experiences of young people and staff, this work will encourage organisations to embrace relational based practice.