Relationship and Rights Based Family Support - PowerPoint Presentation

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Relationship and Rights Based Family Support

UNESCO

Child and Family Research CentreSlide2

Outline

A working hypotheses and some challenges

Some suggested perspectives/approaches for answers A reflection on Meitheal – A National Practice Model for all agencies working with children, young people and families Slide3

Relationship

The way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being

connected.The way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave towards each other.Slide4

Thinking about Relationships - Between

P

ractitioners and service usersParents and children Practitioners and supervisors Practitioners in different teamsPractitioners in different

organisations

M

anagers in different

organisations

Different

organisations

Between sectors

Between service users, providers, funders, policy makers, regulators, researchers, those adopting different theoretical approaches.. Slide5

Hypothesis

It takes a complex but coherent and cohesive system of protection and support to ensure that children and young people’s rights to be safe, and to maximise their potential, are realised*?

*Needs are met, outcomes achieved…

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Alternative Hypotheses

It’s simple to manage risk remotely and attribute blame when necessary.

If I as a practitioner/manager can cover my statutory duties then that will suffice. It’s easier to get service users to adapt to a complex and monolith system than trying to change the system. Change and collaboration are hard work and time consuming and may cause one to loose focus. The sooner I can finish dealing with these people the better Slide7
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Some challenges

Expecting something that has grown in an ad hoc, arbitrary fashion to behave like a coherent and cohesive system.

Training people separately and then asking them to work together without any great effort to facilitate this. Binary thinking leading to service/profession driven dichotomies. Not routinely asking service users about their experiences. Lack of joined up thinking at government level – coterminousity???

Gathering, managing and integrating data.

Risk aversion. Slide9

A system that bedevils rather than enables relationship based practice? Slide10
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Some Answers

Thinking about rights – adopting a rights based

approach to child protection and family support.Thinking about systems - adopting a systems approach to working with children, young people and their families.

Thinking about the

lifecourse

– adopting a

lifecourse

perspective to working with children, young people and their families. Slide12

Some Characteristics

Related and potentially complementary

Transdisciplinary Potentially integral and integrating Can be commonly understood across different audiences Accessible and inclusive Helpful for organising informationApplied, especially to service improvement

Helpful in responding to complex problems

Helpful in reflecting on relationships, may facilitate relationship based practice Slide13

Rights Based Family Support

What does this really mean?

How is it different from other approaches? Slide14

Human rights standards are given expression in International (human rights treaties) and National law (such as Constitution and legislation)

A human rights based approach is the application ofhuman rights standards to research, policy and practice. What is a Human Rights Based ApproachSlide15

A Human Rights Based Approach to Child Protection and Family Support – Article 19 UNCRC

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to

protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

= the delivery of these measures may be understood as the “child protection system”Slide16

2.

Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the *

establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement.

* The provision of support as a measure of prevention of abuse and neglect is integral to the system Slide17

A Human Rights Based Approach to Child Protection and Family Support

A child rights approach ’

requires a paradigm shift away from child protection approaches in which children are perceived and treated as “objects” in need of assistance’Children’s views must be invited and given due weight as a mandatory step at every point

in a child protection process

Child protection must begin with proactive prevention – this involves supporting parents and caregivers to understand, embrace and implement good childrearing, based on knowledge of child rights, child development and techniques for positive discipline in order to support families' capacity to provide children with care in a safe environment;

UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment 13 (2011) Slide18

Does it take a village to raise a child?

Child invisible within family group, village/system uninvolved.

Child as object of concern for the village/system, separate from family and families’ involvement curtailed.orChild as resilient agent of change and active participant with rights within their family, community and society? Slide19

Critiques/problems with Human Rights

Technical

Minimalistic IndividualisticDependent on the law, legal system Weak enforcement Misinterpreted, misunderstoodDivorced from relationship based practice? Slide20

Bell, 2001 Findings The findings emphasised the importance of the quality of relationships with an adult in the child’s professional network. Many of the children experienced warm, positive relationships with social workers.

The sense of losing control and of lowered self esteem was reinforced where a “procession of different professionals attended the house”.Many feared removal from home and this was exacerbated when this fear was not discussed with them.In relation to meetings and report writing most wanted to know what was being said about them needed assurance that their views were being represented Slide21

Conclusions Where children lack the agency in promoting their own rights they are best promoted through the development and maintenance of a relationship of trust offered by a key professional in their network. Relationships and processes that embody supportive and companionable interactions are more likely to offer opportunities for representation and participation than those which are dominant and submissive.

It is valuable and feasible to ask children their views about difficult and sensitive issues. Children want to be seen alone, want to have the time and the opportunity to build a relationship, they want information that is accessible and appropriate and they want to be offered real choices - services, ways of participating, being represented. Slide22

Caution - Child Rescue Paradigm

Model, in which children perceived to be at danger – risk oriented.

Removed from the scene of danger, and are treated exclusively as individuals with little thought to the essentiality of their connections to family, community, culture, landscape or other aspects of their environment meaningful to them. Historically dating from late 18th and early 19th century Europe. This approach frequently carries a subtext of disparagement of children’s natural and social surroundings, which may be regarded as pernicious.Bissell et al,

http://www.iicrd.org/resources/research_reports/ICPRC1

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Accountability Based on Blame Current drive for accountability could lead to a culture of blame. Driven by politics and media…Risk obsessed, risk to organisation or risk to child?Mistakes hidden, frontline practitioners blamed. Poor outcomes but paper trail showing who’s fault it is, usually near the front line… Slide25

Human Rights Based Accountability Based on transparency rather than blame. Best interests of the child is primary consideration in achieving accountability. Children and parents participate in accountability measures. Positive focus on promoting safety that is risk inclusive – culture that encourages practitioners to identify failings and seek support to resolve. Slide26

Rights and Relationship

Relationship is the natural vehicle for the

realisation of rights. Leading to interventions that areRespectful → avoiding opposite Transparent → accountability, outcomes, partnership Strengths based → partnership Participatory → partnership, outcomes Ecological →

capitalising

on formal informal networks

Integrated → framework and mandate for collaboration

Evidence informed →avoiding a vacuum for ideology

Bell, 2001; Landy

e

t al (forthcoming) Slide27

A Systems Approach

A system can be understood as a collection of components or parts that are connected to each other and organised around a common purpose or goal (

Wulczyn et al, 2010)Slide28

Services that use a systems perspective,

A

im to protect all children, to unite all actors behind a common set of goals, and to create a long-term response that is robust, properly coordinated, and adaptable to new problems.The need for issue-based expertise and responses will not go away but it should be placed within the context of the overall child protection system(

Wulczyn

et al, 2010)Slide29

Whole Child Whole System Approach

Provision of services in ways that

recognise the extent of children’s own capacities, the multiple interlinked dimensions to their lives and the complex mix of informal and formal supports that they draw upon (Agenda for Children’s Services, 2007).Slide30

Consistent with Rights Based Approach

This child rights approach is holistic and places emphasis on supporting the strengths and resources of the child him/herself and all social systems of which the child is a part: family, school, community, institutions, religious and cultural systems. (General Comment 13) Slide31

Lifecourse

Persepctive A metatheoretical world view that supports a theoretical orientation towards considering development as a life long processA

unique opportunity as a forum

for

transdisciplinary

integrative

efforts

Baltes

, 1987 in Daniel and Bowes, 2011Slide32

Thinking about abuse and neglect

Munro, 2010Slide33

Some benefits of

Lifecourse

perspective Relationship dynamics change over time Important transitions can be facilitated The limits of service delivery categories can be exposed Learning relevant to human services improvement can be transferred more readily Fits well with the human rights and systems approach Exposes structural

factors Slide34

Ultimately relationships are key to

Build a complex but coherent and cohesive system of protection and support to ensure all

children and young people’s rights to be safe, and to maximise their potential, are realised. Slide35
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Meitheal National Practice ModelSlide37

What is Meitheal?Meitheal is a National Practice Model to ensure

that the needs and strengths of children andtheir families are effectively identified,understood and responded to in a timely wayso that children and families get the help andsupport needed to improve children's’outcomes and to realise their rights. Meitheal – A National Practice Model for all agencies working with children, young people and their families (2013, p.1)Slide38

Meitheal Principles Children First Guidance, 2011Voluntary process

Involvement of at least one parentHolistic & ecological Strengths and needsIt privileges the voices of the parent/carer and child Aligned with the wider Child and Family Agency Service Delivery FrameworkOutcomes focusedSlide39

Questions....

fergal.landy@nuigalway.ieSlide40

Questions....

fergal.landy@nuigalway.ie