I was approached by a ThinkTank, back when I was a a working social
worker, and asked my opinion on social capital and its role and relevance
within social care, and how this could slot into some research they wanted
done.
I'm very, and cheerfully, critical of statutory social work, but most of
my career I have thought about, offered, and occasinally modelled new ways of
maybe doing stuff. I'm fat and not in social care any more, so you can work out
how that went. But hey...
By social capital they meant "social capital as the networks and
relationships between people in families and their communities"
The Unreflective Kindness of Strangers
I had written some research for the Childrens Welfare Development
Council that held social capital central (and I will upload it some time) and in
that research I quoted Robert D Putnam who wrote the seminal book "Bowling
Alone". The book was about that how in America once people bowled in
groups- with their workmates, their social club, their faith community, but now
people bowl alone, and how that was ominous for American society.
The quote I
used of Putnam was "The ebbing of community over the last several
decades has been silent and deceptive. We notice its effects in the strained
interstices of our private lives and in the degradation of our public life, but
the most serious consequences are reminiscent of the old parlour puzzle:
‘what’s missing from this picture?’ Weakened social capital is manifest in the
things that have vanished almost unnoticed – neighbourhood parties and
get-togethers with friends, the unreflective kindness of strangers, the shared
pursuit of the public good rather than a solitary quest for private goods"
The Think Tank were wanting to run a project. I suggested that the
best type of research is experiential and applied. I suggested a control
community that fits the above criteria where nothing is done surplus to the
offer of existing statutory social care services. In contrast I also suggested
a project community where a pilot project will be established. Two local
authorities that come to mind when discussing “cases of severe abuse” are
Birmingham Council (where Khyra Ishaq died as a result of abuse, neglect
and malnutrition) and Haringay Council (Victoria Climbie and Baby P) where I
suggest the project be based in one large, ideally “failing” primary school.
I offered to network and get funding,
resources and personnel from companies and the charity sector to establish a
Steering Group that would have encompassed the following personnel:
·
School staff (at least one
teacher/ head, receptionist/ critical friend/ school pastoral worker)
·
Community Mobilisor/ Wardens
·
Housing Department representative
·
PCSO or Community Police Officer
·
Local parents
·
Parent Champions (see below)
·
Ideally a social work manager,
especially from Referral and Assessment as this is the first contact team for
child protection
·
Parenting Commissioner (this was during New Labour, every
local authority had one, no doubt hey no longer exist)
·
Faith Community representatives
that mirror the local faith community statistics (i.e. Muslim Imam for high
Muslim in take, etc)
·
Early Intervention Team/
equivalent- this differs LA to LA but should be the team that runs parenting
courses
·
A national business with local
interest/ social capital intentions i.e. Ikea, supermarket, etc
I suggested the setting up of a network of trained,
established, funded Parent Champions. These were basically parents who were
trained and used, as co equals, alongside school and extended school staff to
run projects and communit, and build social capital, in UK schools. I saw the
UK school system as one of the last systems of social capital left.
I went on to say:
The project worker will work to establish social
capital networks that were not there previously, between the community, school,
social support agencies and ultimately child protection services. In
particular, parents, local residents and civic societies will be offered
training (for example Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, DISC, and
Belbin among others) from contacts I have in the charity sector.
Nordic Fires
The Think Tank wanted to "investigate
potential barriers to more involvement and to reporting such as the legal
situation, and fear of reprisal from those accused" and "explore any
potential community leaders can have to initiate any kind of desired behaviour
change, such as not turning a blind eye towards difficult situation where
children are harmed. For example, research has found that ‘peer to peer
initiatives’ work most efficiently when programmes are aimed at changing
behaviour"
In Bo Rothsteins sprawling essay “Creating trust
from above: Social Capital and Institutional Legitimacy” he
discusses a fire in a Swedish nightclub where “63 young people died (and
at least as many were seriously wounded)……….. This was one of the worst human
catastrophes in Sweden since World War II, and it made headlines all over the
world. The victims of this horrible tragedy were mostly, though not all, young
people (from immigrant backgrounds)……..Very soon, the police and the media
suspected that the fire was not accidental but was instead a case of arson…...
After about a year of police investigations, four young men from immigrant
backgrounds were arrested and…..they were all convicted of arson.
The reason these young men gave for setting the place on fire was that their
friends, who had organized the disco, had demanded that they pay the entrance
fee; this, in their eyes, was a sign of disrespect…. Media reports of the trial
indicated that a sizeable group of young people living in the immigrant areas –
who had been to the disco and had lost many of their friends in the fire – knew
who the guilty persons were, but they had refrained from telling the police.
Thus, the situation was very special: even though a lot of their friends had
died or been seriously hurt in the fire, and even though they knew who had
caused the fire, these young people felt that going to the police was not an
option.
A former social worker with extensive experience from Göteborg’s
northern suburbs described the situation in an interesting way. She
argued…..the young people in these neighborhoods were convinced that during the
fire, “the police were standing by laughing while their friends were dying
around them.” Anyone who had seen the media coverage of the fire (knew this was
false). However, the social worker stated that, as a consequence of this deep
mistrust of public institutions, “the rule of law is in a bad situation in
Sweden’s so-called ‘exposed neighborhoods.’ The alternative of the rule of law,
to report to the police, to testify before the court about what you have seen,
heard or been part of, and to let the court take care of administrating
justice, is gradually becoming a less realistic alternative.”
The situation above can be transferred to the UK; and instead of a
criminal scenario one can substitute a sink estate and its community who feel
all social workers will do is work against them- and thus it is better not to
tell social workers about child abuse.
Rothstein goes on to say that “As many have argued, we need to
understand the causal mechanisms between interpersonal trust, collective
action, civil society and trust in government institutions” He cites other
sociologists who suggest that having “efficient institutions” is the
solution, and says “From a political economy point of view, it has been
forcefully argued…. that it is the lack of …. “efficient institutions” that
explains why so many countries remain poor, despite the tremendous growth in
the world economy. The correlation between a country’s level of corruption and
the strength of its economy is quite straightforward – the more corruption the
less economic growth……. In another such study, the conclusion is that “at the
aggregate level, social trust and confidence in government and its institutions
are strongly associated with each other. Social trust can help build effective
social and political institutions, which can help governments perform
effectively, and this in turn encourages confidence in civic institutions”
Rothstein quotes Miller and Hammond’s advice- “(to) search for a means
to establish “efficient institutions” is thus very simple, namely, “to find out
how such disinterested altruistic actors are created, and then reproduce them
throughout the political system” ……In a world consisting of rational
self-interested utility maximizers, this is of course not possible. In
addition, there is the problem that a profession’s teaching its students to
think that this is the only way the world works will make such “disinterested
altruistic actors” in government institutions a very rare species.”
Remote Control
Jean Robinson, a Health Visitor, wrote an open letter to Prof. Sir Liam Donaldson, the
Chief Medical Officer
Department of Health in 2007. (The full text can be seen here)
She made the argument that
people are increasingly wary of asking for state help, whether from Health or Social
Care. Salient points are condensed as below:
FEAR
OF ACCESSING MEDICAL CARE -
Nowadays parents call us and ask for advice when their children have accidents,
because they are afraid to go to A & E, and they know we run a totally
confidential service……..We have been in existence for well over 40 years and
can recall no such requests until about four years ago. There is now no health
professional, or official help line, parents feel they can safely ask for help.
All agencies, including NHS direct, will report anything they regard as
suspicious. Innocent parents who have had one brush with the system, or social
services investigation, or whose friends, relatives or neighbours have, now
find the risk of avoiding treatment preferable to the risk of damage to the
whole family of going for help..
DISTRUST OF HEALTH VISITORS
- Mothers are opting out of seeing health visitors, and are advising friends
not to see them, after they, or someone they know, has had a similar encounter
(to above)…… In some areas, however, merely opting out of seeing a health
visitor (maybe because they… didn’t like her)….. is cause for referral to
social services in itself - thereby confirming the increasingly common
perception of them as the 'health police'. Those who do see the health visitor
are highly circumspect about the information they give…..
CHILD PROTECTION AS SOCIAL CONTROL- Use of child 'protection' or threats thereof, are increasingly being
used to control parents who are seen as unorthodox, or not completely
compliant…….The message is getting round quickly, and parents are opting out of
official sources care even more, or being even more selective on what
information they give, and what they conceal.”
I suggest that the “disinterested altruistic actors” discussed by Rothstein
could actually be local parents. I feel Robinson illustrates a decay in public
trust- especially amongst vulnerable groups- is a by product of a Nanny
state that has compounded the poverty trap, removed most civil liberties,
offered toxic “help” and introduced an amoral “double think” that lacks a moral
compass.
The basis of the social capital project I had in mind was to promote
“participationalism as a government agenda, with either service users being
empowered, or school heads and teachers being seen as the experts in regards to
what they wanted by way of resources and social workers involvement in their
schools.” And to see the end of “Professionalism and managerialist models
(that) continue to stifle, overlook, and/or actively work against grassroots
endeavours.”
The Think Tank wanted to "investigate how Social Capital
between families and communities can improve
coordination between communities, actors and agencies and consequently achieve
more efficient service delivery"
I discussed this in the research I did for the CWDC in that the school
was better placed to know the local need, screen for it in the school, and
then as the local authority to deliver. But what happens now is that “What
is being offered at the moment are so many managerial conditions that don’t
even see a family … sat somewhere in a central office – they will
try to delegate out positions for people we don’t need, people that don’t fit
in with our strategic models … and they can only work in a certain way, you
know, why not just delegate this money and let it be used appropriately … They
don’t know – they might know what the five [Every Child Matters] outcomes are
but they don’t know what they look like in practice”.
A forum/steering group should be formed in a local estate to this end
and suggested local partners such as Police, youth services etc would take pressure off the state and transfer it into a
structure of shared responsibility.
I suggested the research project looked at the pilot study known as ViCP
(Parents working in child protection). The ViCP Scheme is described here
The
scheme substantially increases the capacity of children's departments to
deliver family support to vulnerable families. This sort of input constitutes a
vital part of ensuring the welfare of children is safeguarded as well as
promoted," Tunstill adds.
Originally
a three-year pilot in two local authorities in 2004, the ViCP scheme now runs
in the London boroughs of Bromley, Lewisham and Islington, and in Southend-on-Sea.
The scheme is about to be launched in Coventry and CSV is in talks with others.
There
are currently just over 100 volunteers. Sue Gwaspari, head of part-time
volunteering at CSV, says: "They work with children at risk of serious
harm through neglect. They give basic parenting help but, unlike parenting
classes, this is done within the home so the volunteer sees them in their real
circumstances. Volunteers are not a threatening presence in the home - they
have no powers to take a child away, they are there to listen and help. They
have time to go in several times a week to build a relationship with a family
and can turn up when it suits the family, at weekends and evenings which social
workers just can't do."
She
points to the fact that none of the families who have been helped off child
protection plans by the scheme, have had to be re-registered. "Bromley
said it would expect 11% or more who come off plans to go back on them,"
Gwaspari says. She adds that the figure is even more significant as often
councils use volunteers as a last resort before taking a child into care.
Again an important caveat; social workers need to be part of every stage
of the structure of shared responsibility; not only to ensure safeguarding
continues within the context of support but also to ensure the social work
model, which is pre-eminent, is the common thread in all the work. The other
two “systems” abroad- educational and medical- are not based in anti oppressive
practice, or empowerment, or reflective.
Psycho Geography
They also wanted to strengthen links between individuals,
families, education and protection agencies and I suggested that teachers
should train alongside social workers in child protection. Multi agency
training dies not always leads to schools fully understanding core processes of
CP such as the importance of timely referral, the need not to ask leading
questions, the need not to involve parents in potentially serious presenting
situations. Co training need not be expensive at the university level- many
teachers and social workers share the same facilities- and child protection ABE
training with the Police need not be the full blown week/ two weeks residential
but only needed on certain pastors such as the part where actors posing as
children are in interviewed in suites, etc- trainee teachers need only be
observers- this would lead to massive impact.
I argued that the role of the physical environment should not be
overlooked. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as "the
study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment,
consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of
individuals." and is a vital part of social capital.
Chocolate
This was understood hundreds of years ago by George Cadbury. The
Cadburys were pioneers in employee welfare and labor relations, setting
standards which other enlightened employers adopted. Cadbury Brothers was the
first firm to introduce the Saturday half-day holiday, and also pioneered in
closing the factory on bank holidays. In 1918, Cadbury Brothers established
democratically elected Works Councils, one for men and one for women.
Departments elected representatives to these Councils by secret ballot. The
Councils dealt with working conditions, health, safety, education, training,
and the social life of the workers.
Conditions and benefits
were superior to those workers generally knew in the Victorian era. Young
employees were encouraged to attend night school and were allowed to leave work
an hour early twice a week. When the Bournville factory opened in 1879, it
featured heated dressing rooms, kitchens for hearting food, gardens, and
extensive sports fields. Management negotiated special workers' fares with the
railway company. The Cadburys even provided swimming pools for employees. They
also encouraged the spiritual development of employees, starting morning
prayers and Bible readings in 1866, continuing for half a century. Around the
turn of the century, the Cadburys established medical and dental departments.
They established a Pension Fund in 1906.
George Cadbury was a
housing reformer active in the Garden City movement. When the growing company
needed to build a new factory, the Cadburys decided to move out of the
unhealthy Birmingham industrial quarter to a country location on the outskirts
of the city. They named this property Bournville.
When they built the
Bournville factory in 1879, they built 16 houses for senior employees. In 1895,
George Cadbury bought an additional 120 acres and began to build more houses in
the garden city. He sought to provide affordable housing for wage earners in a
healthy environment. The community was not limited to Cadbury workers, and was
designed to be mixed in both class and occupation. Cottages were grouped and
set back from tree-lined roads. Each plot had space for gardens, and building
was restricted so the gardens were not overshadowed. In 1897, Richard Cadbury
built a quadrangle of houses for pensioners.
To preserve the character of the Bournville Village for future
generations, George Cadbury founded the Bournville Village Trust in 1900. The
Trust was always separate from the company. Several Cadbury family members are
still trustees today. The Trust continues to follow the original principles,
including the preservation of parks and open spaces. The Trust has established
12 different kinds of special needs housing, diversifying the population even
more than in the early days. Self-build co-partnerships, where members do the
work themselves under expert direction, built 400 homes.
(http://www.quakerinfo.com/quak_cad.shtml)
Social experiments without taking this into consideration include
utopian experiments that fell foul such as Fordlandia in Brazil
The Research Project, then....
The Think Tank wanted to run a "review the current literature on child protection and safeguarding
children, academic, Government and third sector organisation’s reports in
this area"
I gave a warning of caution in this area. There is no shortage of
excellent source material about child protection, but the problem is interface
with the real world, and mode of application. Year after year social work
academics write books on anti oppression, safe practice, etc, and every year
social services departments continue to see children die, staff burn out, and
needs go unsupported, as they turn into toxic, child harvesting oppresive
departments. So the academics keep their mortgage in the Cotswolds, theyre as
right on as ever, and they turn a blind eye to Rome burning over the hedge. I
felt that the Think Tank didnt need to "establish what the main barriers
to a more effective safeguarding children policy are" as to me these
seemed obvious- a lack of investing in local people and community and building
in their strengths, centralised and bureaucratised delivery, and dysfunctional
social care workforce.
Finally they wanted examples of what worked. I listed some innovative,
localist, community driven solutions in the UK and abroad, such as:
House of Dutch Language
(http://www.huisnederlandsbrussel.be/en/huis-activiteiten.html)
Broadwater farm
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/multicultural-britain-an-unlikely-success-story-509634.html)
“Majic Bus” project
Giving local residents the chance to learn experientially by taking
them out of their situation, as per the educational experience invented by Douglas Brinkley.
FAST (Families and Schools Together) started in the USA. Its website is here
Harlem Community Zone(HCZ)
Called "one of the most ambitious
social-service experiments of our time," by The New York Times, the Harlem
Children's Zone Project is a unique, holistic approach to rebuilding a
community so that its children can stay on track through college and go on to
the job market.
Results have included:
Of the 161 four-year-olds that entered the Harlem Gems in the 2008-2009
school year, 17% had a school readiness classification of delayed or very
delayed. By the end of the year, there were no students classified as
"very delayed" and the percentage of "advanced" had gone
from 33.5% to 65.2%, with another 8.1% at "very advanced," up from
only 2%.
Over 98% of Promise Academy II's students scored at or above grade level
on the math exam, outperforming their counterparts in New York State, New York
City and District 5, as well as black and white students in New York State
In English and Language Arts (ELA), over 93% of Promise Academy I third
graders tested at or above grade level, outperforming New York State, New York
City and District 5 peers, as well as black and white students in New York
State
Over 84% of Promise Academy II's students scored at or above grade level
in ELA, outperforming on average their counterparts in New York State, New York
City and District 5, as well as black students in New York City
Family
Group Conference ethos (FGC).
Whilst this idea is a long standing tradition
within the Maori culture, somebody systemised it and “sold” it to social
services across the world. It seems vital ideas and outworkings from FGC
have been missed in the UK. In fact if the whole concept had been taken on- and
not just seen as a residual hoop to jump through before children were removed
via the courts- the need for Every Child Matters and the Common Assesment
Fraremwork deliveryt system would have been redundant.
Playstreets
The “Playstreets” concept which started in Belgium is a
good example of the empowerment of communities- it’s completely the
responsibility of the local residents to make it work. A “Playstreet” is a road
in a residential area where the speed limit doesn’t exceed 50 km/h. Play streets
can happen during holidays for a maximum 2 weeks. Two thirds of the residents
must be happy for this to take place. There needs to be at least 3 responsible
adults- “godfathers” and “godmothers” who should be residents themselves. They
sign an agreement with the council. They are the link between residents and the
councils although parents remain responsible for their children- this is not
meant to be an alternative to childcare. The process is simple:
·
Applicants fill in a request form
·
Police/PCSO’s investigate the
street qualifies
·
When agreed, the applicant needs
to identify 2 godfathers or mothers
·
Residents must be 66% in favour
of Playstreets
·
Godfathers and mothers need to
sign the agreement to the council
·
Godfathers and mothers evaluate
the success of the project at the end
·
The council insures the
godfathers and mothers (public liability), block off the streets, and provide
each street with a play chest, which contains toys and other items to play on
the street. On some occasions, they can also offer jumping castles, circus
equipments, trampolines....
HABBEKRATS
Habbekrats is a Belgian educational service for underprivileged youth
between 12 and 25 years old, offering several projects. Workers accompany
youngsters in a spirit of solidarity, equality and justice. The emphasis is
laid on prevention, but they also offer relief to those who need it. The core
offer is flexible and their website is here
The Wire
The Wire Project was
founded by Paul Sanderson MBE
in 1996 as a direct response to recognised issues involving drug and alcohol
addiction, high teenage pregnancy, low literacy levels and low ‘community
esteem’ in the community of Wick, Littlehampton, West Sussex.
The project acted as a
vital link between Schools, homes, Police and Social & Caring Services
providing advice and intervention for young people and families.
The charity provided
activities, support and advice for children, young people Activities run by the
WIRE included parenting courses, playschemes, night-clubs for 14-18 year olds,
discos for 7-13 year olds, afterschool clubs, toddler groups and the Festival
of Wick.
The WIRE was part of Spurgeon's, a children’s
charity who provided the managerial, administrative and financial backbone to
The WIRE’s work. Together with the locally formed UnderWIRE Advisory Group, The
WIRE gained long-term stability and support to help strengthen the foundations
of the project.
The project was so
successful that similar projects were set up around the country, including
Crawley, Portslade near Brighton, Bognor Regis and Oxford.
The WIRE was based in two
different locations. In 1996 it was in a port-a-cabin on the car park of the
then Wickbourne Chapel. When the new Wickbourne centre opened in 2005 half the
team moved from the temporary office that became their permanent office at
Flora McDonald Junior School.
In July 2006 Paul
Sanderson was awarded an MBE
for his work with this and other similar projects.
In 2007 The WIRE Project came to an end due to funding changes, but it's
legacy lives on in the form of many other organisations and activities that
started up during those 10 years.
Finally I ditected
them to the Adalbert Evers’ “User involvement in social services. Various
strands of thinking, elements and tools” table. Which speaks for itself.
welfarism
|
Professionalism
|
Consumerism
|
Managerialism
|
participationism
|
hierarchical
governance of service systems
full
coverage/ uniform services
equal
standards
boards and commissions
for corporate governance
quality
control by state inspection
social rights and patients' charter
|
case
management
upgrading
of educational levels
upgrading professional advice and
consultancy
quality
control through professional self control
public
service ethos
|
competition
individual choice
market research
vouchers
customer orientation
consumer lobbying
consumer protection
|
managed care
target setting
upgrading managerial and economic concerns
external quality management
complaint management
|
collective self help
volunteering
strengthening user and community based service
providers
strengthening local “embeddedness”
orientation towards empowering users
more service dialogues
more user control in designing and running
services
|
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