‘Starting a chat, that is how we work things through and clear things up’
(practitioner)
One of the findings of this project was the importance of talking about the tensions, assumptions, anxieties, benefits and practicalities of continuing relationships with young people as they leave care*. So we have co-designed a tool to support:
- People to reflect upon their views and values towards, and their enactment of, relational-based practice
- Groups to reflect upon their practice, and to identify cultural and organisational aspects that need to be better understood, or developed, to enable the continuation of care for care experienced young people
The tool is a deck of cards with a themed question on each card. The themes are your views, your boundaries, your practice, feeling safe, expressing yourself, culture, lending, gifts and money, time and mobile technology and social media. These questions have been developed in partnership with Phil Coady and the Relationships Matter Collective**.
We would like to thank those (over 100 people!) who expressed interest in our Relationships Matter conversation tool.
We’ve sent a targeted number of people a free copy, and they are currently testing it out with people they work with and will report on its impact. People from 27 local authorities, eight residential services, 15 children’s charities, seven privately owned businesses, four universities, three funding organisations, as well as the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government, have signed up to test the tool.
Those signed up to test it span 71 job roles, which include advocacy workers, directors of children’s homes, guidance staff in FE colleges, health and wellbeing practitioners, housing officers, leaving care workers, social work students, policy analysts, prospective foster carers, social workers, teachers, transitions teams and volunteer peer mentors.
When testing of the tool is complete, we will provide feedback on whether it supports people to reflect on their views and values when contributing to care for young people who are leaving care.
Impact case studies will be made available in due course. Sign-up to our mailing list to receive notification.
*This has particular importance in the context of the Continuing Care provisions as part of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
**Celcis, The Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum, Care Visions Why Not? service, Tremanna residential home (Falkirk Council), Kathleen Quinn (independent practitioner), Hot Chocolate Trust, and Includem.