Reflection, before we blame Social Workers

Reflection, Before we blame Social Workers

Before I go onto to outline the context behind the title to this blog, it is right that I highlight my relationship with Children's Social Work Service (CSWS). My mother in the late seventies was removed by CSWS and placed in the care of the Local Authority (LA) due to abuse and neglect of various kinds. Mum argues that due to her needs not being met, she never settled, ran away from the home she was placed in and fell pregnant with me aged 16. Mum went on to have 5 children to 4 different young men before the age of 25. This is when CSWS became involved with me and my siblings. Finding that we were exposed to abuse and neglect, we were then also placed in the care of the LA.

After 18 months, we were returned home, the case was closed, and the abuse and neglect continued. This led to my school exclusion, heroin addiction, exploitation and eventually 4 prison sentences and poor outcomes for my siblings, including a third generation of children being removed (my nieces and nephews). The so called intergenerational cycle we often hear about. The reason I outline my personal experience is that it could be argued, I have a bias to criticize CSWS when they seemingly get things wrong. After all, I have personal experience of their limitations with catastrophic consequences.

Somehow, against all odds I am now a University Teacher, delivering a MSc degree to Prison Officers for Leeds Trinity University. This is due to 15 years of Youth Justice experience working with the most vulnerable children in Leeds. In part, due to my so called Lived Experience of Care and Justice, I have a proven track record of engaging youth with this intersectional experience in participation projects. Mostly speaking to Heads of Service's about how services can be improved. This led me to become the only Child Looked After Specialist in the country to work between Leeds CSWS and Leeds Youth Justice Service to prevent children in care being criminalized where possible. I have written 2 books in this time which in my own way constructively highlight the limitation of services working with Children and Families, and my own suggestions of how we can improve.  

So, with this in mind, I can not help but feel a deep sense of responsibility to write something when I witness the demonisation and stigma towards Social Workers after recent serious cases where children have been harmed in the most horrendous way. I will not comment on any of these individual situations, because I am simply not educated in the circumstances. Therefore, it is likely to be an unhelpful contribution. What I can say is that I have a 6 years old daughter and when reading, or hearing the news reports, it breaks my heart as it does with others. This emotional response is what I assume instigates or triggers commentaries such as the one that can be seen below. Understandable, but again completely unhelpful. I will now attempt to articulate why I have come to this conclusion. 

In 1993, there was a murder of a child, by other children that shocked the nation. I was only 12 at the time myself. However, I can remember the impact of that horrible event. Four years after, the then Labour government won a land slide election with a 'Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime' mantra. This capitalised on popular opinions that we were just too soft on young people and they needed to be held to account. This led to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. In 2003/4 Police targeted youth in their Offences Brought to Justice Policy as these were the easiest crimes to convict. It is known as 'net widening.' Children entering the Youth Justice System as a result increased. Only a decade later the Youth Justice System acknowledged the negative impact of criminalising vulnerable children. We are now congratulating the Youth Justice System for diverting children away from the system all together. Mainly through reducing what we call first time entrants, as well as significantly reducing the number of young people in custody. Who knew?

You may or may not have already understood the analogy of this social change and the vilification of CSWS and Social Workers in particular. I have worked with many vulnerable children over my career that have been moved miles away from home whilst in care, often against their will. Due to their anger, they have often lashed out, smashed a window or got into a fight. These children have then been criminalised, making their circumstances far more challenging. This youth justice approach was of course linked to a horrible event that they have no connection with or understand. They may have to revisit this time of their life, if like me they work in a field that requires enhanced criminal record checks. The point here is that we should be careful what we wish for. Calling for CSWS to be better at protecting children, is unlikely to manifest into the desires of those doing the calling. Besides, saying we care about abused children, assuming Social Workers do not is almost harmful in of itself. As with Youth Justice changes, it could even be harmful for the very people we claim to care about. It has to be stressed, that I am not saying there should not be accountability. Just that this needs to be done through an independent review. It should not be done through media vilification. I believe the same when it comes to general criminal offences. These issues are all connected because as human's, we are all connected.

The other issue that springs to mind, is that we seem to be confused about how we as a society think of child abuse, neglect and adversity. There are various studies which indicate that the poor outcomes for adults in our society are in many ways connected to the childhood experience. Therefore, we recognise that children like myself end up in youth custody, excluded from school and addicted to drugs because we couldn't cope with the circumstances. When this takes place, we again tend to vilify and alienate children and adults when they experience outcomes such as criminality, mental health, drug addiction or domestic violence. Not that any of this is deterministic, but there is a link identified by science (See ACE's Studies). It saddens me to think that if me or my siblings were victim to the most serious and fatal outcomes, the community would have been outraged. However, because we didn't meet that threshold, I sat in a cell all alone and no one seemed to care a less. It should not take a fatality for us to be passionate when children experience harm. For every child that is excluded from school, placed in custody, in care or addicted to drugs should also drive that passion. Laming (2016) estimated that 50% of children and young people in custody are care experienced. According to MoJ (2016) data, 1 in every 4 adults in custody are care experienced, with 1 in 2 being permanently excluded from school. 

Therefore, instead of blaming CSWS, or Social Workers when we read or hear stories that are heartbreaking, maybe we should ask more questions of ourselves as a society. Why have we constructed a society that demonsises and excludes young people and adults living with the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect? Do we do enough personally to connect with those that need us the most to reduce marginalisation? Do we vote for policies that aim to eradicate the factors that leave vulnerable children and families dealing with circumstances that lead to poor outcomes in accordance with the science? Do we read enough to understand what CSWS are up against? If the answer is no to any of these questions, let's just reflect and consider this before we cast judgement. Think about how we can all make a 1% difference to society for the most vulnerable, by showing up in a positive way, rather than simply criticising other people, regardless of their position in society. We can make the jobs of services that bit easier by all of us making a personal positive contribution. I hope I have outlined that calling for better practice through vilification in the media, may not translate into better outcomes for the vulnerable. History tells us this. 

Thank you for taking the time to explore this blog,

Andi