EMPLOYER TICK-BOX VS QUALITY: REDUCING WORKPLACE ASSAULT. CHILD A ND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

I'm still responding to the massive social media response to the issue of child and youth care workers being assaulted.. I add the phenomena of aggressive, violent behaviour by anyone, to any other in a child and youth care facility. In this blog I have labelled some of the employers responsibilities in this as "almost intangible"and "intangible".

An almost intangible is recruitment.
There was a lot of comment on this. Many said that the wrong people get appointed. It's acknowledged that child and youth care workers in South Africa have to be employed on the basis of qualifications, registration with the South African Council for Social Service Professions, for having a criminal record, clearance from the the Child Protection Register (no record of child abuse) and also from the police for evidence of a criminal record. So much for the tick-box tangibles. 

 The four human, personal character qualities that make up the research found therapeutic personality are: Empathy, Intelligence, Unconditional Acceptance (non-judgemental), and self awareness.
In education and training, these qualities can be learnt and developed. But at the point of employment, they should be integrated as part of the person.

There is more.

 It has to do with the concept of the"wounded healer". In interviewing candidates for  child and youth care posts, I have frequently been told "I have suffered my life, so I know what it's like. I can help these children". Certainly there are among us a good number of people who have indeed suffered . The issue is that for many that pain has not been resolved and redirected into healing for others., then the risk of triggers into reaction rather than response increases the risk of aggressive or violent behaviour in the young person in care.

Then comes the candidates REAL understanding of what child and youth care is really all about...the values, the ethics the purpose, the philosophy and it modus operandi. I unfortunately, have sat on panels where the the interviewers themselves did not have a grasp of this. Recruitment errors then exacerbate the the risk of assault in the workplace. Employers have a role and a responsibility to employ the right people.

Now for a less tangible but essential employer responsibility.

A therapeutic milieu demands that the nature and quality of staff relationships contribute to the reclaiming of young people at risk.... to the development of more coping, less damaging behaviour. Social media posts and comments have mentioned tensions ....manager: worker, social worker: child and youth care worker, younger worker: older worker,  Most of these comments refer to "not caring", "not understanding, "not trusting", hierarchical issues and attitudes.

It's easy to say that staff relationships must be "professional". It's not easy to to define, or practice teamwork, consistency, support, trust, macro and not micro management and the flattening out of age old hierarchical systems. Especially that....especially... role and not title is critical in the relationship style of child and youth care facilities.Social media comment and posts suggest that this is often found wanting. I have noticed that often in government systems people are called by their titles and not by their names, Young people bear the names,client, juvenile, or offender, or inmate. Here is a formula for reactive behaviours.
It is the employer and management that has a critical, primary responsibility to create, engender, and model staff relationships congruent with the concept of the therapeutic milieu. Otherwise ..tension,.....tension makes for acting out. Acting out can lead to aggression.

Team building is not a "once a year" outing to a resort for a braai (barbecue).  Employers have a responsibility to make caring staff relationship a pervasive, ongoing, in-house interaction. After all, the employer cant just give lip-service to the core practice of muti- disciplinary team functioning and the integrated case management approach.

Now for program and programme

In this blog, the word program will refer to the greater reason for the existence of a facility. So, for example ....providing a place for the safety of children and young persons, or providing for young persons in trouble with the law. The word programme will refer to the inputs that are made to achieve the objectives of the program. The Children's Act sets out a list of these as a requirement. The list is not exhaustive but includes: reception, care  and development, substance abuse, recreational,creative, skills development, educational,life skills, diversion, the employer ca tick-box these, but ..the possibilities and the needs depend really on the needs of the young person ,,... and that's the point !! 

In developing an individual development plan (IDP ) for the child, social media posts from child and youth care workers are saying that young people are frequently put through a "one size fits all" regimen. My experience was that this was frequently  happening in the NGO sector in particular. But its government employed child and youth care workers who voice  the often in-applicability of programme to the core individual  needs of the children and young persons in care.

However, from a child and youth care perspective, this is not where the REAL therapeutic reclaiming work is done. Child and youth care workers say that it is in the relationship based interactive responses, engagement and repartee between child and youth care worker and the young person in the life-space and daily events of the child that  reclaim the lives of children at risk.
I agree.
For this to be effective and reduce levels of possible uncontrolled outbursts and damage to self, child care worker, others, or property,  we have to examine the employers role in setting a tone that allows for these intangibles.

And so we get to tone.

I call it "tone" and say that it is "in the wallpaper" of the facility. It's like this. When I walk in the corridors of a convent, I don't meet anyone, but I know deep down inside me, a calm ,a peace. I suppose it could be called "atmosphere" I refer to it often as the "culture "of the place. In the convent it is created by the calm and peace in the persons and daily life of the nuns. I wouldn't dare raise my voice there.

 I get that sense of it's "tone" when I  when I go into a child and youth care facility. The tone comes , I have no doubt from the top down. The employer and the management sets, creates, the tone, the organisational climate. How problems are approached, how caring is shown to staff and to everyone, how much ownership exists in the way things are done.... it's like what is commonly called the difference between a house and a home. ....Now, ... children and young people are very quick to identify with the wallpaper of the facility and so are the staff without even being conscious of it. Top down in many facilities can determine the tone, climate, wallpaper of the facilities and in government organisations I am frequently told that policy, philosophy, procedure, comes from above. But tone is a within these walls thing. so that tension in itself can create a climate of resentment, masked or blatant oppositional  aggression . This will be mirrored in the young persons in care.

All of these intangibles non tick-box employer responsibilities impact on the possible risk of aggressive acting out and the probability of assault in the workplace. All of this impacts equally on the approach that child and youth care workers have toward behaviour management.

Behaviour management practices then, will have to be explored in the next week blog.

 Until then, stay safe.    




   



  

ASSAULT AND THE EMPLOYER...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

There was a volume of comment made on social media following the link to my last blog on assault in the workplace. The comments implied that some organisational, systemic, policy and procedural conditions frequently exacerbate rather than reduce, aggressive, if not violent behaviours in children and youth in care, as well as in child and youth care workers.

The question, then, is, "What is the role and responsibilities of the employer of social service professionals, particularly of child and youth care workers, in providing and ensuring an environment that reduces assaultive behaviours?" 

This blog starts with the tangibles, the measurables :

In designing a building for teacher training, someone wrote on the blackboard in the staffroom in bold chalk letters, "First establish your philosophy, then design your building to meet it - not the other way round ! That was an "Aha !" moment for me. It's true the building can shape or even dictate philosophy. Philosophy dictates practice. In child and youth care work that was my experience. Close dormitory living, lack of privacy, lock and key facilities that enforce strict routines were a built-in formula for aggressive assaultive behaviour. When moved to more normalised buildings, aggression reduced considerably.....but not entirely

In South Africa, the State is the largest employer of child and youth care workers. So called government tendered architected buildings,some claimed to be  state of the art, some legacy buildings, provide living conditions for children and young people. Comments of child and youth care workers and from my own observations, imply that the employer has some way yet to go in making living conditions visibly, philosophically and practically as least restrictive, most empowering, as normalised and as child friendly as possible. It means that norms and standards for the optimum practice of therapeutic work by child and youth care workers have to be put in place and applied by the employer (as they must for all social service professionals). For social workers these have been researched and set out by the South Africa Council for Social Service Professions ( SACSSP) Norms and standards for the optimum practice of child and youth care workers will follow. None the less, the Department of Social Development has a number of published books of norms and standards for services to the children. There has to be congruence between working conditions norms and standards for worker environments and conditions and t minimum standards of service to the children. You cant as an employer have one without the other.  Some of these are just plain obvious.   

More tangibles and measurables:

Child to worker ratios. Recently the quoted ratio by the Department of Social Development Human Resources dept.  was 1: 5. But then follows some simple arithmetic. 1000 children,.....200 child and youth care workers, So, it was said, there is a current OVER SUPPLY !   It doesn't work like that. Two shifts of 12 hours a day and the ratio becomes 2:5. the with time off sick leave and vacation leave it's 3;5 then some ranks of child and youth care workers are not directly working on-line with children...... It's an UNDER SUPPLY..........hus the staff shortage, unfilled vacant posts and ratios sometimes closer to 1:12 +. Conditions like that increase levels of frustration by the worker, feelings of not coping, not performing as they shouisd... the is conveyed to the young persons who react... assualtive behaviour is then more likely. It is the employers responsibility to provide staff to child ratios that allow for meaningful interaction, levels of individualisation, teamwork and the reduction in the potential for acting out behaviours.

More tangibles:

Governance... governance structures have to be in place... not just as in business management, but as in a therapeutic environment. It has to be governence that embraces the principles and nature of a "healing space". There are 17 of these principles listed in the policy document for the transformation of the child and youth care system in South Africa....way back in 1997/8. Two of these are worth mention...Democratisation.and its partner, participation. It means that hierarchical systems don't work in therapeutic environments. The Manager, the employer are defined by ROLE and NOT RANK. Everyone.....children, young people and social service professionals all....have an equal voice in the decision making connected to the life of the therapeutic community.Top down systems increase the potential for frustration and assaultive behaviour. Many facilities are reluctant or slow to have community involvement in their governance such as Management Committees or Advisory Committees. They just say that policy comes from "above". The law REQUIRES Children's Forums, which then speacks of the requirement of in house child and youth care forums...... in a therapeutic community EVERYONE has an equal voice. when we can all own the system it reduces aggressive outbursts that lead to assault.

Staff wellbeing and development: Lets start with staff development. Masud Hoghughi always said "what's good for the goose, is good for the gander". Children have IDPs Staff need Individual Development Programmes too. Not just a "you need to work on this thing!", but real tangible growth courses and programmes. Which brings us to SUPERVISION and in-house STAFF TRAINING. and this doesn't mean the "Do as I say" approach that I have encountered so very often.
The employer has the responsibility to treat and respect all social service professionals as equals.This story that one profession has been around for longer than the other just doesn't hold water. As an employer just go back to your scriptures and you will surely remember references to the care of "widows and orphans" we are talking over 2000 years ago.  The profession of child and youth care must, by the employer be recognised as a full profession as any other helping profession. The trivialisation of child and youth care by any employer sets up a formula for aggression and then a spill over effect to the children and young people in care resulting in the kind of assaultive behaviours  

More tangibles..... just a list for employers. 
SALARY, SALARY, SALARY medical aid and pensions.

IOD's (Injury whilst on duty) Workman's Compensation, Well -being policy , HIV and AIDS policy, including training and access to Universal Precautionary Measures, de-briefing, trauma counselling and referral if needed ad finally, career pathways without ceiling. 

What I have set out in this blog are some of the observable tangible measurables which are but part of the responsibilities and role of the employer and which, I believe, move toward the reduction of risk in a facility.

I am PERSONALLY in favour,  of employers having to register as employers with the SACSSP and so eligible for sanctions in terms of employers codes of conduct, organisational ethics and norms and standards for their employed social service professionals. I believe that this will go some way towards reducing the risk of assaultive behavior by young people on child and youth care workers and visa versa.

Watchout for next weeks blog. It will take a look at the intangibles , the immeasurables , the not in a tick-box list of employers role and  responsibilities in reducing risk in the therapeutic mileau.

GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES. FINE BUT NOT FINE..CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This week in  social media was a mixed bag of good times and bad times, fine but not fine. It seemed that with every good time post, comment was raised as another side to the same coin.

Taking up the most social media space was a picture of a child and youth care worker's certificate of registration with the South African Council of Social Service Professions ( SACSSP) at the professional level. It was captioned by an announcement that professional level  registration is now attainable with a "legacy"  four year qualification in child and youth care at level 7 without having to to submit a Portfolio of Evidence ( PoE ) for assessment by SACSSP to demonstrate competence at the new four year qualification at level 8. 

I shared this post to my social media network. It raised near on 100 comments predominately congratulatory and hailing this as good news for the profession. Flip side comment raised the issue of child and youth care workers already registered at the professional level
being employed at a level equivalent to a child and youth care worker at the auxiliary level (level 4) and paid as such.

I am very pleased that child and youth care workers who enrolled in a four year degree on the understanding that it will lead to employment in the field of practice and with the scope of practice associated with the professional level of registration be recognised in the workplace are now able to register. 

One lengthy comment expressed a concern that the South African Qualification Authority ( SAQA) recognised a four year qualification at level 8 or therefor an honours degree at level 8 as a "PROFESSIONAL" qualification. This lone voice cannot be ignored. It would be a concern that recognition and the equality of social service professions across the boards led to the view that "lower qualifications" are regarded as lower status and lower status be regarded as lower pay. It will no doubt constantly be forgotten that social work qualifications, as will community work qualification regulations demand a qualification at level 8. ...... just a caution as as a possible "fine but not fine". 

More good times, bad times !!.....social media reports...

The non-payment of government funds for the first quarter (at least) to the non-governmental organisations (NGO's) raised its first protest demonstration. A memorandum of concern and protest was taken by a group of social service professionals to the opposition party at a provincial legislature. The opposition party then held up all provincial debate to receive the memorandum. The comment was..."now the ruling party knows ---- next to  the media!" Media exposure to the crisis now appears to be a pervasive plan of action in the NGO sector. A full and condemning report has already been published in the Daily Maverick and a facebook message in my inbox told of an intention to expose the crisis to an outspoken and highly viewed investigative journalism TV programme.The provincial protest delegation appeared in its placards to have expressed a fear of a repetition toward de-institutionalisation of care services and the negative issues this can raise. The de-institutionalisation of state facilities in the Mental Health sector in this country had tragic consequences. 

A comment in the "registration" posting said "now we won't rest until the closed NGO facilities are re-opened"


Next fine but not fine posts....

"Does anyone know if we will be paid?"  This post raised a pile of mixed comment. Some said that they had not been paid in the first quarter. Others celebrated that they had payments including April. One said that her enquiries led to a response that delays that delays were caused by incorrect banking details having been fed to the payment agency. These were being addressed and will be rectified, they said. he final comment asked "but what about May?"

Good times.

The Child Protection Week as launched with a with a wide range of programmes across South Africa. The most I had on social media were from Our Isibindi projects and others from state and provinces. The State posters gave a number of free telephone numbers and SMS addresses for free calls to report instances of child abuse. The theme appeared to be 'Keep your eyes on the child".

Bad times.

Somehow every year during Child Protection Week and the International Day of the Child (1st June), possibly through public awareness, or a terrible set of coincidences, social and other media are filled with reports of child sexual and other abuses. So here are the bad times on all the social media this week......

A woman threw a parcel from a moving car in the main road through the central business area of Durban.The parcel struck the rear of a car . In the parcel was a new born baby. It died on impact.

There were terrible reports of school child bullying. Two school girls were found hanged in a school hostel.A 9 year old school girl was shot in the crossfire of a cash heist in Chatsworth Durban There is an investigation underway arising from the rape of a 13 year old girl at a school.

...and now for the really bad time news.  Social media reported that, in the Northern Cape, 36% of all admissions to rehabilitation  yearscentres for substance abuse were children between 10 and 19 years. Of 124,526 reported rape cases in the last three financial years financial 41% were children and 5% were children every day!!!. This translates into 46 children raped and 2 children murdered in South Africa every day !!!!! The issue is exacerbated by the reports in social media of the severe violence by which children are being murdered. The report listed.....firearms, axes, spades, pangas, hammers, belts and poison.

Whilst writing this blog a radio report......the family and child violence unit of the South African Police  Force have a shortage of DNA and rape kits  - especially on the Province of  Kwa-Zulu Natal, of an estimated 1000 kits. It means that 1000 rape victims, including children will not receive justice. ..... 

This , I guess is good news...

Thousands marched in Chatsworth in support of the 9 year old girl who died in the cash heist. The demand,.... better protection against crime and its impact on children.

 Public outrage in South Africa is reaching boil over point nationally.

But this is the main point....Good times.....There are thousands of child and youth care workers in South Africa, some without pay, who are providing professional care and reclaiming of children in an environment of trauma. Who are translating voice into action and child well being. 

In the good times and the bad times.... in fine but not fine, ..... aluta continua. !!!!   





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AN ENDANGERED PROFESSION? CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

A question was posed on social media this week. "Are we losing child and youth care workers?". It was unanswered. But other posts when put together provided some answers....

YES!!!

Some child and youth care workers posted that they will leave the profession to go back to their previous field of employment; "I'm going to "give up"and go back to ...... whatever". In a telephone call I made to the Isibindi project that I initiated, I was told, "It's not the project you started. There only a few child and youth care workers left."
  
Others say "God is good,... I got employed .......new job" Others are all but lost to the profession but hanging in ......lost income, losing hope, losing enthusiasm, losing loyalties. Some are considering immigration.

There were also posts from child and youth care workers employed in the non-governmental sector (NGO's) who said that funds/ subsidies/ grants from government have not been payed and that business plans submitted to government in good time have not resulted in service level agreements (SLA's) being finalised or signed. Recently SLA's have been a three year contract. This year funds have not been forthcoming. At least three Child and Family Welfare facilities in two provinces and so their programs, have closed as a result.In one  Child and Family Welfare facility, at least, there was a children's home. The state is the ultimate parent. The  NGO sector does the work of state. 

Social media posts from child and youth care workers in the NGO sector were " Every year we don't know if we have a job, we have to wait to see if the funds arrive." For this reason many NGO's will employ child and youth care workers on a fixed term contract that expires at the end of each financial year waiting to renew the contract if funds are available. This year has been a year of particular uncertainty with some child and youth care workers in some facilities  holding on without pay hoping for pay with back pay.

I don't know whether delays can be explained by the Department of Social Development new Minister's refusal to sign her Department's Annual Performance Plan (APP) saying that her Department was in a "shambles". She could not present her budget to parliament for the current financial year.

All this is reminiscent of the Social Work crisis of 2008 when though poor salaries and conditions of employment,social workers were leaving  government positions to find jobs in the private business sector or immigrating, mainly to the UK. The shortage of social workers in South Africa resulted in Social Work being declared a "scarce skill". Now sometimes in the social media referred to as a "Critical and scarce profession". 

Child and youth care workers in South Africa are voicing the same grievances.I believe that now we either face, or are in, a child and youth care workers crisis.

Let us all hope that something was learnt from the Department of Social Development's response to the 2008 Social Work crisis. The intention was good, but the long term effects are haunting us today.

Firstly, bursaries were made available to students gaining entry into Schools of Social Work at universities nationally. So many students were attracted into Social Work studies as a result of the funding that emerging graduates flooded the market and became unemployable. Today that situation still prevails Yet, the bursaries remain on offer..... No bursaries for child and youth care workers. This year I am told, with the financial crunch, so far, bursaries remain unpaid. Imagine !!

Secondly, there was a move to train and employ a "general worker". We were told that parliament believed that a multi-disciplinary team approach would confuse families. The "do all" worker concept was based on a model in Cuba. Funds were made available for delegations to visit Cuba and then to train these general workers. Fortunately for the social service profession field pressure from the Social Work and Child and Youth Care Professional Boards and the voice of professionals squashed this initiative.

A new Child Care Act was introduced and costed. The costing model took into consideration that 110,000 social service practitioners would be needed to operationalise the Act. Three  funding models were prepared...... an ideal model, a medium model and a basic model. Today the basic funding model is not operationalised and the Act is undergoing revision to further improve service delivery to children.

In this time of crisis the NGO sector was expanded. It was a structure that employed social workers. Today the NGO sector is shrinking noticeably nationally as a result of lack of funds.

Back to square one. 

Unsustainability of projects initiated by the Department of Social Development is clearly an issue this  We are not spared this pattern. Unsustainability is again affecting the field. This time child and youth care workers are affected in numbers. 

It is obvious that the availability or rather the unavailability of funds or maladministration is behind this pending crisis. 

Surely a substantial Department of Social Development budget has now to be tabled and approved .If then there is a problem  National Treasury must  release funds to avert a national welfare disaster. We cant afford a crisis in the professional care of the children and young persons at risk in South Africa.

A CRY FROM THE HEART OF A SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORKER

There was a very moving cry on social media this last week. A child and youth care worker expressed anger with herself, with God and with her unpreparedness despite her education, theory and training to effectively deal with a crisis in the life-space of a child. The emotion of anger was clearly a composite of feelings....empathy, confusion, guilt, helplessness, inadequacy,....trapped in "not knowing", and I'm afraid to say, possibly a level of fear that she will be held personally responsible by the organisation, for the child's acting-out

Her pain, her cry, her self blame , I thought, was precipitated if not exacerbated by three contributing issues.

The first is the shock when it becomes evident in the actual working situation that child and youth care is not what you thought it is. The impact on the child and the child and youth care worker of the effect of trauma in the lives and so on the behaviour of traumatised children is scary. To live, work and to be a supportive help in a climate of pain and crying out is not easy.

It frequently becomes complicated because of the reasons we have for coming into the profession and the work from that first decision. We can be enticed into the work because of the idea that it is "noble" to be a helper of neglected, abandoned and abused children at risk. If we have an expectation that it will feel good  DOING good - it frequently doesn't turn out like that until we make the shift to feeling good about our good professional practice. Our expectations and reasons for becoming a child and youth care worker have to be a matter of very careful reflection and intro-spection. The good news is the the qualities of the therapeutic personality and character CAN BE LEARNT ... and this is where training and education come in. I tried to find out as much as I could about what to expect  I'll never forget Ernie Nightingale ,a South African doyen in the field. "I cant tell you what it's like  until you experience it. It's not a Sunday School picnic". He was of course right. Trauma, theory has it, establishes neuronal pathways that drive feelings in traumatised children. Feelings drive thinking. Thinking drives behaviour. It takes considerable professional knowledge and skill to rebuild neuronal pathways that result in more positive feelings, and so a more positive world view.

So its easy to feel inadequate even if we do have qualifications and training in child and youth care work. It is the age old story of the application of theory into practice. And I must add..... especially if the lecturing /training staff don't have considerable first hand experience of the realities of child and youth care work. Book learning is useful but simply not enough.

There has been research in child and youth care work ( I confess to not remembering when nor by whom!) which showed that a person with no training takes 5 years to reach an acceptable level of practical competence. A person with training takes 3-5 years, and a person with a university degree takes 2-3 years. 

So, there is inevitably a gap between training, education and competent practical handling of the more critical incidents in the realities and situations that can arise in the life-space of traumatised children and young people.

This brings me to the second issue.

Organisations have to understand this. Firstly because of the tension that it creates between more experienced , possibly lessor qualified staff and the fresh graduate. But because organisations should be providing supportive help. There is this concept called "what works" otherwise known as praxis. Good theory informs good practice , but, equally, good practice informs  good theory. The better child and youth care organisations work to develop procedure manuals based on the combined wisdom and experience of child and youth care workers on what practically has been found to work within the theoretical and ethical models they adopt. Some organisations call this their protocols and some their guides. Essentially it sets out what can and what has been found to work when dealing with any number of predictable circumstances in the life-space.  It is constantly reviewed and updated. The procedure manual provides at least a first line of approach to fresh appointees. But it must be accompanied be regular in-house training and good regular supervision.

This is what, for me, appeared to be missing and needed as an essential for the child and youth care worker who cried out last week. I don't particularly like the term supervision but I guess we are stuck with it. It sounds like a top down process and this can easily, in a hierarchical system become "snoopervision". I prefer "intervision" Supportive personal intervision. I do hope that she was given that.

Then the third issue. What she faced was point blank school refusal. We have to expect as child and youth care workers that we are going to experience school refusal in the same way as we must expect many other somewhat predictable acting out behaviours. This is not the place to give guide-lines on specific behaviours .... these should be discussed as a full team and set out as a guide in the procedure manual, but enough to say that school refusal is a psychological crisis and has to be handled as such . But in the experience of a starting out child and youth care workers can very easily be interpreted as an act of defiance, confrontation and rebellion. The setting-out child and youth care worker without professional team support may well feel powerless and inadequate. I read into that emotional cry a fear of having to face ridicule, a possible dressing down and at worst having to face disciplinary action and possible sanctions..... it happens. !!!  

The cry of that child and youth care worker was a cry of  her growing pains, a cry for informed help and support and a preparedness to put out there her personal, raw vulnerability. It is to be admired. It is a cry for us to organisationally critically assess the value we place on the inner being of child and youth care workers and their practice in the forefront of healing interactions with traumatised children    .

THE GLASS CEILING .. MANAGERIAL APPOINTMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

This week on social media was a question. Who best to manage a child and youth care facility/project?

Very soon after my first appointment as Director of a childrens' home, a 12year old boy gave me my first aha experience and my first lesson in what makes a manager in a child and youth care programme DIFFERENT. I came into the position from teacher training . He said "Don't bring your teacher/ headmaster thing here!     We LIVE here!"

The AHA moment was a life-changer.It meant a start towards understanding what it meant to be active in the field of child and youth care. The first step was to attempt a grasp of what child and youth care was NOT.

It is NOT Pedagogy as in teaching; it is NOT Psychology as in Psychological therapy; it is NOT parenting; it is NOT classic Counselling, it is NOT Social Work and its NOT Management as in any other type of business. It is unique. It has elements of all these, but in its uniqueness, it has a world view, a style, an approach, a philosophy and a body of knowledge and a set of skills that is all its own.

What that 12year old taught me was that I was perceiving, experiencing and responding to situations through the lens of my world, my training, education  approach and past experience. Totally not withing the "fit"of the child and youth care world.

I think it took at least two years before I more intimately connected with what was really needed of me.... and that involved at least two to three years additional intensive training and education IN THE FIELD.

The world view thing is an essential part of who we are .Its normal It is deep within our psyche. When a tailor sees you, he sees your body shape , your stature and your probable best clothing size and style. When a hairdresser sees you, she sees the condition of your hair and the shape of your face. When a doctor sees you , she sees f your pallor, your eyes and if she can, your finger nails. So with me it was the child and youth care system as a school and the children as pupils.

It wasn't said from what or which type of programme the child and youth care worker on social media was employed when this question was asked. But it was clearly a pointed question expressing dissatisfaction about two issues. One was the experience of being managed by someone who was not a child and youth care worker. The other a level of frustration about being managed by persons from other fields when a child and youth care worker could / should have been appointed. This is certainly the case in Departmental organisations and now we hear in the community based programmes of the Isibindi project on what appears to be on as a national pattern.

I really cannot be said that child and youth care workers at the professional level do not have training and education in management. The degree, and the diploma curricula have modules on Management and Administration  contained in the qualification.
Fundraising is  really the responsibility of the Board of Management . So there is no real justification in appointing a fundraising manager to a child and youth care setting which, certainly has been the case in some NGO's.

Then there is the legal requirement in terms of the Social Services Act which in the regulations is very clear that a child and youth care worker can be  supervised only by a registered child and youth care worker.

SOWETO??... So where to? It is abundantly  clear that management of a child and youth care facility should and can be done by child and youth care workers. Child and youth care workers want it to be so.... not only as they want to resonate with their managers, but also they want a career pathway that breaks through what they presently experience as a glass ceiling.

  



   


   

HOW AFRICAN IS SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD CARE PRACTICE ?

Comment in the social media this week posed the question of the cultural relevance and so the effectiveness of South African child and youth care practice for black African children and young persons. The question was directly asked whether the present model, the "Circle of Courage" was a cultural fit as an  assessment profile and planning tool for the Black African child and whether it is now time for South Africa to find its own indigenous model that takes African traditional spiritual and other cultural practices into account.
A follow up comment contrasted the writer's perception of the culturally pervasive temperament of say, a Zulu child or young person with that of a Native American child from which the model originated  and so again the question of an African cultural fit.

Apart from the obvious euro-centric or "foreign" practices in some residential services such as language and food, the absence of interventions relating to traditional spiritual and cultural thinking around issues of healing, life events and causality were identified. One post merely said,"Spirituality as Therapy....my soon book.....a PhD"  That's all.... Simple but powerfully said.

I once asked Martin Brokenleg about the apparent absence of a spiritual component in the Circle of Courage. He said " It's there. Its a thread , you have to look for it.. It's not directly articulated in the book." I would think that is is most likely to be found in the Belonging quadrant but then also in any of the other three. 

The social media post suggested that the Circle of  Courage works better for the black African child if it is linked to the Bronfenbrenner ecological system of child development. Makes sense. In Bronfenbrenners 5 layers of ecological developmental influence, there is a circle of ecological influence which he calls the macro-system. This is the big world of the child which then shapes the child's development and includes societal and cultural attitudes and values as well as the economic and political social ecology. There is no doubt the prevailing cultural thinking (including spirituality) has a cascading effect into the child's community, immediate family ecology, into child rearing practices and home.

The question though, is whether the micro-system of the Treatment Centre and its culture is in anyway congruent or reflective of it. I think that religious and spiritual thinking is central to a black African child's meaning making and interpretation of life events.

John Mbiti, a highly respected African philosopher writes  "Because  traditional religion permeates all the departments of life, there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and the non-religious,between the spiritual and the material areas of life" He goes on to give examples of where traditional spirituality is carried by Africans - into the fields ,the beer party, the funeral, the school, the examination room, the houses of parliament.
By implication it is then carried into the Childrens' Home.

Lovemore Mbigi agrees ..." in spite of colonial domination ", he adds.

This is my observation as well......when good things happen, when bad things happen, when a baby is restless and crying a lot,when there is gain, loss, even for others, the African way is to find meaning , to interpret the signs, and to do so spiritually.

It was Tom Garfat in his doctoral thesis who said that an intervention is only as effective as it is experienced as effective. (by children and young persons then) 

I am as concerned as the social media posts that we can pay lip service to, or ignore the seminal place of spiritual and religious thinking in our interventive plans. For me, this has to do with the centrality of causal thinking in the child's Africanness If we dont address the perceived causality then our interventions and our models are out of kilter with the child's reality. They cannot be experienced as effective by the child.

I think that the time is right now for child and youth care in South Africa to put together distinctly African models for the ssessment and interventions....an African "circle of courage"