Hayley Prew’s article about her experiences of children’s homes in our September 13 user-led issue made for distressing reading. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also provoked a flood of responses from children’s homes’ providers wanting to tell their side of the story.
I am pleased to report that the majority of these responses – though sadly, not all – have been balanced, with providers making an effort to understand and empathise with Hayley’s situation while at the same time stressing that the ‘care’ she received falls well short of current good practice.
It is reassuring to hear the lengths to which children’s homes providers say they have gone to address many of the issues raised in Hayley’s piece, and I am in no doubt that there are other children out there who could give a very different account of life growing up in a children’s home.
However, I – like Hayley – refuse to believe there is no room for improvement. And the way to achieve that must be to listen to the children.
One of the biggest issues for Hayley – and for the other young people who contributed to the user-led issue who had also spent time in children’s homes – is the ‘rules’ in children’s homes and how they are implemented.
There may well be perfectly sensible and legitimate reasons for having some of these rules. But has the rationale behind them ever been explained to the children at the receiving end? And has anyone ever asked them about the impact of living with these rules? Has there ever been any discussion about tweaking them to make them more acceptable to all parties?
Hayley’s main goal in getting involved in the user-led issue was to force social workers and service providers to really listen to the young people who use their services and understand what it is like to grow up in care.
It is reassuring to hear that many children’s homes offer children a far better home life than the one Hayley experienced. But there is no room for complacency. Re-visiting individual children’s home’s rule books would be a good starting point for even the best providers.