Core questions•What are the themes of the module and why are they important?
•What are some of the different ways of understanding children, young people, their families and the services that are provided for them?
•What knowledge, skills and values are required to support ‘good practice’?
Learning outcomes1.2 [Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of] the theories, concepts, ideologies and policies shaping childhood and challenging practice with children, young people and families.
2.3 Apply concepts and theories to interpret, critically evaluate and develop practice with children, young people and families.
4.3 Practise critical reflection.
The Themes:
1. Knowledges, skills, values and technologies for collaborative practice
The module will emphasise that practice is composed of three inextricably linked components – knowledge, skills and values. Exploring these is a crucial part of identifying good practice in work with children, young people and families. It is important that we keep coming back to consider these components but also to question ‘whose knowledge?’, ‘why those skills?’ and ‘which values?’. Increasingly, technology features not just in the lives of children and young people but also in practice and the way in which services are provided. Finally, the idea that this practice should be a collaborative activity will be central to the module – understanding the perspectives of others and shaping services with those who use them rather than on their behalf.
2. Diversity, inequality, and rights
Families will have very different experiences of life. These are influenced by a range of factors including where they live and their access to resources. Also some children, for example those who are disabled, will encounter different issues in their lives from those who are not disabled. In fact, some children and young people will experience multiple inequalities and disadvantage. The module will aim to enhance understanding of the realities of inequality and diversity and their implications for practice. Services for children have also been increasingly influenced, and challenged, by an acknowledgement of children’s rights. The place of rights will be explored and advocated throughout the module.
3. Spaces and places where children, young people and families live, learn and spend time together
The module will consider the wide range of spaces or contexts where the lives of children, young people and families are affected by socio-economic factors and social policy. You will be encouraged to investigate the different meanings that children and young people and their carers/parents attribute to a whole range of different spaces – not just physical, but also social and discursive. What implications does exploring spaces from this new perspective have for the spaces in which we ourselves work and live?
4. Relationships between children, young people, families, community and societyThe module will promote the idea of looking at children and young people not in isolation or even just in the context of their immediate families, but through a careful consideration of the impact of a broad range of factors in their environment, their community and wider society. This ‘web of relationships’ provides a social-ecological model to understand not only their lives but where services or policies might intervene to make a difference to them.
5. A critical understanding of policy, practice and services
The module will question why services are delivered as they are and explore new ways of practising. In particular, the module will introduce ‘social constructionism’ as a theoretical tool to help you to question assumptions we make about how things are; is the ‘current’ or ‘normal’ way of viewing the lives of children, young people and families the only way or the best way? How do these accepted ways of seeing things come about?
Emerging ways of practising will include ‘social pedagogy’, a method of practice more common in northern Europe.
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Exploring the books:Co-constructing practice
The introduction gives you an overview of how the book chapters relate to each other – the more theoretical ones are in Part 1 and examples from practice are given in Part 2.
In relation to the social ecological model, it suggests a wide range of issues can be viewed using this approach, including health, poverty, child abuse, and child development. The model describes the inter-relatedness of all aspects of people's lives. The theory of social construction will be applied in order to question the nature of subjects as varied as family, childhood, disability, and mental health. The introduction also introduces the concept of co-construction. This is relevant to the theme of working collaboratively with children, young people and families – another way of describing the approach to practice that K218 will advocate.
Children and young people’s spaces
As well as introducing the chapters in this book, the introduction provides some of the theoretical background to the investigation of children’s places and spaces. The example of the children’s playground should help you to see the nature of a ‘space’, how spaces are seen and how they are created, as well as changes reflecting ‘social, historical and discursive’ processes.
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Are there factors outside of Paula’s family that are affecting their lives? Low income, Poor community relations and support networks.
What was your view of Paula and Anthony? Do you think there are different ways of seeing them as parents? They are the very stereotypical 'young parents', and the negative connotations that has.
What ‘spaces’ in the lives of children and parents are we seeing in this programme? Educational, Community, FAST and Home
What kind of knowledge, skills and values might the practitioners working with Paula’s family need to have? Professional skills and knowledge of practice and policy, but also empathetic skills to relate to parents and make them feel able to communicate.
Can you identify any issues that relate to forms of inequality, diversity or children’s rights? Inequalities affect the educational and health life chances of children and young people from poor backgrounds.
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Aspects of practice
•Do we need specific knowledge or theories? How much is practice about common sense?
Child development knowledge
•What are the most important skills for working with children and their families?
Group fascilitation skills/idea sharing/building trust/empathy
•Are values important? Why?
•Do the answers to these questions vary depending on the age group of the children and young people, or are they common to all ages and settings?
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Setting Standards
An example of trying to define common standards for all workers can be found in The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the children and young people’s workforce in England (DCSF, 2010). The six key areas promoted here were:
1.Effective communication and engagement with children, young people and families
2.Child and young person development
3.Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child or young person
4.Supporting transitions
5.Multi-agency and integrated working
6.Information sharing.
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Measuring Standards
Targets and tables
Think about the following three examples of measuring a service. Identify as many advantages and disadvantages as you can for each one. Try to identify a fourth example that you are familiar with and undertake the same analysis of pros and cons. You might want to exchange ideas about this in your tutor group forum.
League table of the GCSE/Standard Grade results to be published for all schools PROS: Parents and children can choose schools with the best academic records CONS: Schools may not register a struggling pupil for an exam to improve their figures.
Children considered to be at risk should not be subject to a multi-agency ‘protection plan’ for more than two years A child protection plan could be dropped before the two-year point, leaving the child at greater risk.
95% of two-year-olds should have received the MMR vaccine. Vaccination Implementation may leave parents feeling that all the power resides with the medical profession and that they have no choices. A scare about possible side effects in 2003 resulted in a failure to achieve this target – some outcomes require the support of the public.
Youth Centre must achieve accreditations each year PROS: Young people can gain certificates and experience in different skills, such as cooking, arts & crafts, sports awards. CONS: Can take time and resources away from the other young service users, and can make the environment too school-like and structured.
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Reflection
•Have you found any of your study this week interesting or challenging? Why?
•How do you think some of the theories you have encountered might apply to practice?
Key Points
•There are five key themes, emphasising theories, frameworks or aspects of working with children young people and families, which will recur throughout the module.
•Practice can be seen as consisting of three intertwined elements of knowledge, skill and values.
•What constitutes good or effective practice is complex and open to discussion and debate. Attempting to measure good practice through outcomes can play a role in improving practice with children and families but also has some major limitations.
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