8 What participants want to change
In this section we include, along with views from the 32 participants in the study, the views of ten young people who are using throughcare and aftercare services in two different parts of Scotland.
All of our participants were keen to talk about what had helped them, and what could help other looked after children. Some participants found it easier than others to articulate what they wanted to change. Where participants had had positive experiences, they wanted to see more looked after children having similar opportunities. Participants whose experiences had been less positive, perhaps in a particular aspect of being looked after, tended to focus more on why those experiences had hurt them, and how things could be done differently.
Common themes that emerged included:
- having more people that genuinely care about looked after children
- the need to increase stability and consistency
- more encouragement and support for young people
- greater participation by young people
- the need for social workers to spend time with young people and act in their interests
- the need for social workers and others to take decisive action where children's needs are not being met
- increased support for looked after children in education
- good support for young people leaving care and becoming independent
- more positive attitudes towards looked after children and young people
The first four of these themes have been discussed in detail in earlier chapters of the study, so in this chapter we have chosen to focus on the remaining five.
Social workers
Social workers have a key role in making arrangements for looked after children and working directly with them. As Mark said:
A social worker has quite an important job because they're there to help young people.
A number of participants thought that it was better to have the same social worker rather than a number of different social workers. Participants felt it was difficult to build relationships and trust when there were frequent changes of social worker:
Sometimes it's annoying. Having to change and get to know new people all the time, you form a relationship with them then when they've gone you have to start all over with someone else. (Claire)
While consistency of social worker was important, participants also thought that children should have some influence in choosing the social worker to work with them. One participant would have preferred to have the choice of having a male social worker. Participants who had been looked after in residential care would also have liked to help choose their key worker.
Almost all of the participants told us that they regarded how their social worker behaved towards them as extremely important. In general, we found participants to be very understanding towards the difficulties and pressures experienced by their social workers, but felt let down when what they experienced seemed rude or disrespectful. Specifically, they thought that social workers should arrive on time, should try to keep appointments, and should be honest about what has happened when they are late or have not kept an appointment:
She [social worker] just turns up whenever she wants and then says it's my fault because I'm not there when she comes. I ended up cracking up at her and telling her to get lost. (Ian)
Participants felt that contact between children and their social workers should be both regular and meaningful. Several talked about their social workers visiting occasionally, often only before key meetings, and asking only superficial questions. Participants in the two groups also emphasised the importance of valuing young people and taking them seriously.
Liam gave us a list of what he thought should change in how social workers work with children. He thought it was particularly important that social workers should make sure there were opportunities for children to talk and express their feelings.
Liam was critical of the experience he had with some social workers:
The longest they take you out is to Burger King - that's what they do, take you to Burger King and get you a burger and talk to you for three hours …you can't exactly break your heart in the middle of Burger King.
Other participants were also critical of this kind of superficial interaction with social workers. Glenn, who said he had had tons of social workers said:
Social workers never really helped. Okay they take you out to Macdonald's for a drink, that's it. Go to a few meetings. Talk about me and tell me what I'd done but they didn't really physically help.
Many participants thought that social workers should be reliable. Participants valued social workers who did what they had promised to do:
If you tell her something or ask her for something, she always gets it done somehow and that is really helpful because some people you can tell but they never get it done, they take years to do it.
This issue of reliability was also discussed in the two groups, where young people had different experiences of the reliability of professional workers. All agreed that reliability helped young people develop trust, and good relationships with their workers.
As well as doing things for children, participants thought that social workers should really listen to what children and young people have to say. By listening and understanding, participants believed social workers could positively influence both young people's behaviour, and also the course of events for them.
Christopher was 16 when he was charged with a serious crime. Because his social worker had taken time and effort to get to know him well, he was able to make a good assessment of Christopher's needs, which resulted in Christopher getting the help he needed to turn his life around:
The good thing was, because of the relationship I had with my social worker and because of the way he'd done my social background report, they thought I'd be suitable for the Smith unit. The Smith unit was the best unit I could possibly have gone to, because of my nature. He really knew me and he understood me and what was going to work for me and how I would respond best.
Michalea was in one of the groups of young people using throughcare and aftercare services. Michaela told us about her contact with a worker from a specialist service for young people leaving care. She described how this worker listened carefully to her talk about her history of stealing from people. The worker then helped her to think about why she was stealing, and the effect this had on others. From this, Michaela was able to change her behaviour and stop stealing. Michaela had a strong view that social workers should spend more time with young people engaged in this kind of work.
We discussed earlier the importance which participants placed on being helped to understand past experiences. We found that participants who had experience of social workers doing life story work thought that other children should also be able to explore their history in this way.
A number of participants had strong memories of the personality of their social worker.
These participants and others thought that social workers needed to have personality to work with children. Part of this was in expressing warmth towards children, and caring about the child themselves and what happened to them:
I had a fabulous social worker, I still recall…he was a wonderful man, a big tall man with a beard, really a father type figure. So he was very, very nice and I think he had a personal interest to make sure that I was okay and settled. (Shona)
One participant commented on the hours that social workers are available. Simone, aged 17, felt that social workers should be more available in the evenings and on weekends. She also thought that when a social worker was not at work, another social worker should be allocated to the child.
Many participants talked about their desire to have a normal life. They welcomed the opportunities that being looked after brought them, particularly normal, everyday experiences. Part of childhood is visiting friends and sometimes staying overnight. Participants described their experiences of the procedures for checking that friends, and their parents, were suitable for them to visit and stay with:
But one thing I disagree with is police checking if you are staying with friends. To me like I have got friends and I have known them for quite a while and I trust them. And it annoys me when I have got to get a police check with them because I feel embarrassed, ken saying "What did your dad do, this or that?" And I ken that social workers are only looking out to make sure that nothing happens when you are staying in that place. But I think if they trust them when you have known them for a while then I think it should be fine. (Tanya)
Some children, when they knew a police check would have to be made before they could stay with a friend, chose to give up the planned overnight stay. There was a strong view from a number of participants that these procedures needed to change.
Police checking for friends and relatives, and the barriers this imposed on young people's ability to 'blend in' and lead the same kinds of lives as their peers, was the most common complaint raised with us during this study:
Get rid of the police checks! (Kirsty)
The decision to remove children from home
Some participants commented on the importance of looking after and accommodating children at the right time. They believed that children should be accommodated when they needed to be, and not remain in situations which were not best for them and their development. One of the participants, Mike, who is a qualified social worker, and has worked with children himself, said:
It saddens me to this day to hear social workers say 'Oh, you've got to keep kids in their family'. It's a mantra! And I really strongly believe in my case being taken out of an abusive situation helped me, and helped my brother and sister.
Some of these participants thought it was important to recognise when parents were not able to properly care for their children, and take appropriate action. Claire had strong views about children needing to be removed from home when their parents were unable to care for them properly. She wanted to tell social workers:
They should definitely put children into care when their parents can't look after them properly. (Claire)
Carrie also felt that social workers are sometimes too reluctant to remove children. Her mother had a long standing alcohol problem and associated mental health issues. Carrie and her younger brother and sisters spent periods of time in care and with extended family. Carrie feels strongly that social work let her, and her family down by not acting sooner to remove the children from a chaotic and neglectful home situation:
I still can't believe how any social worker would just let that happen.
While these views were strongly held by a number of participants, others felt equally strongly that more efforts should be made to keep children within their own families. Mike felt that assumptions were wrongly and unfairly made by the authorities at the time, that his father, a single man, would be unable to care for three young children.
Theresa felt that her teenage years would have been much happier, if more effective help had been provided to the family to allow all the children to remain at home together. Even Carrie, despite her criticism of social work allowing the children to remain at home for so long, wondered whether her father might have been a suitable carer if he had been provided with the right kind of support.
The mixed views on this topic, and the strength of feeling it generated, reflects the complexity of the decisions which social workers and others working with very complicated situations, must balance every day.
Education arrangements for looked after children
In general, participants placed a high value on education, whether they had been successful in this part of their lives or not. They recognised the importance and value of formal qualifications:
I think qualifications play a big part in where you want to go. (Denise)
Many participants thought that there should be a much greater emphasis on the importance of education for looked after children. They wanted to see the support available to looked after children, such as individual tuition, increased. Some participants also thought that the support available to help children get into school, and stay in school, should be improved.
Some participants thought there should be changes to the way teachers support looked after children. Participants valued teachers who showed a genuine interest in them, encouraged them to progress and supported them when they made mistakes. One participant suggested that teachers should know and understand more about their pupils' situations in order to be able to help.
Glenn suggested that there should be a wider range of subject choice available to children in schools:
If they had other things like brick laying, things like working outside, more outside jobs or training.
Another participant suggested there needed to be more support for young people in vocational training when they left school. Others emphasised the importance of practical support being available at the time it was needed, such as money to buy books or equipment for courses.
Good support for young people leaving care and becoming independent
Almost all the participants in the study had experienced leaving care and becoming independent. Many participants identified becoming independent as a key stage in young people's lives where there was a need to change and improve services.
Thomas and Alexander, who had both lived in residential care, thought that the preparation for independence needed to be improved. Alexander didn't find it easy to live independently when he became 16. He commented that in residential care:
Everything is done for you.
This makes it very difficult when young people move on. Thomas suggested that residential care staff should be better trained to help young people prepare for independence. He thought it was important for staff to understand how becoming independent is a gradual process, during which young people learn and develop life skills:
Young people should also have the opportunity to shop for food and choose what they would like to eat for that week. Give young people the chance to do chores so they can earn and save up their own money, and they could learn how to budget their own money.… After this give them a six month small scale trial of having a bit more independence, to give them confidence for when they're moving on to their first accommodation, to give them a better chance of making it work.
The accommodation available to young people leaving care was an issue of some concern to participants we interviewed, and the young people we spoke to in the two groups. Young people thought there needed to be a wider choice of different kinds of accommodation. Tara suggested living in supported accommodation as a useful step towards independent living for care leavers. One participant stressed the importance of properly assessing young people leaving care and addressing the needs identified through assessment.
Two participants had spent a number of years in residential schools which were away from their home area. When they were leaving school, these participants found that they were unable to stay on in this familiar area. This was because, even though they had been placed in these schools on a statutory order, they did not qualify for priority housing in the area. Both had had to leave the support system they had built up over the years, and return to the area (and influences) in which they first had difficulties.
When the right help and support was not available at the right time, participants did not understand the reasons why, nor did they know how to challenge such decisions.
Carrie thought that young people need to be better informed of their rights and entitlements when they leave care. She also thought it important that throughcare and aftercare services recognise that it can take some young people time to learn how to manage their lives. Young people can make mistakes and need to know that there will still be services and support available to them if something goes wrong:
Real parents would try to help, even if you were older, and young people who have been in care might need more time than others to work things out and get themselves settled down. They need to kick back a bit - they shouldn't be punished for it forever. (Carrie)
Attitudes and perceptions of looked after children should be more positive
In the introduction to the study, we referred to the lack of current research that has a focus on looked after children and good outcomes. We quoted Fraser, who said:
There's never anything in the press about people such as myself having a nice time in care.
Most of our participants talked about the need for a shift in the attitudes to, and perceptions of looked after children. Sometimes this related to a particular person or group of professionals. While there was most concern about the public perception of looked after children and the media representation of looked after children's lives, participants also talked of encountering unhelpful attitudes among professionals whom they expected to be more informed, such as social workers, teachers and health professionals. Some thought that general attitudes needed to change and that there needs to be more said publicly about the positive experience of children being looked after and the successful adults they can grow into.
Some participants talked about the worries they had as children:
I wasn't really scared of anybody finding out, I was more scared of their opinion of me as a person rather than my situation. Would they think it was my fault? And then I told my head teacher about what was happening at home and he told me there were three other people in the class who were in foster care and I was like "'who is it?". That helped me realise that normality isn't what you first think and that you need to deal with the person … and that as long as I was myself I was normal. (Ross)
Similarly, Jodie talked about her awareness of somehow being different because she was being looked after away from home. She thought that there should be good publicity about being in care and there should be more positive role models.
Ross believed that people should be much more aware of looked after children and the reasons why they are looked after. In particular, adults needed to better understand these situations from the child's point of view. Mike said he wanted to see more positive images of looked after children and young people in the media.