Mixed blessings

    Diary of a Children’s Fund manager.

    We set up a development day for newer services to share ideas,
    information and look at outcomes and monitoring. As a starter for
    10 we ask them how they knew what they were doing was making a
    difference. Much shuffling and unease follows. “It’s not a
    trick question” I say, but nobody is keen to come forward.

    Years ago I was part of some early Quality Protects roadshows to
    try to get social work staff thinking about the link between the
    different and often extra paperwork involved and better life
    chances for children in care.

    Many were struggling to make the link between the reasons for
    monitoring things like attendance and performance at school and how
    this could be used to make the lives of looked-after children
    better. Today there is understanding and acceptance of the need to
    do this but it has taken time.

    By mid-morning coffee break at the Children’s Fund event
    the mostly voluntary organisation workers have that look of people
    coming out of a cinema after a lunchtime film – blinking, giddy and
    baffled by what an hour ago were familiar surroundings. Before
    coffee I

    suspected quite a few would be behaving less politely if we were
    not funding them. Then the caffeine kicks in and straight after the
    break someone declares: “It seems to me that the only way we can
    show you the impact we make is by asking hundreds of questions and
    filling in loads of bloody forms.” Some people are close to
    clapping.

    Things improve after lunch – mostly due to a presentation from a
    small voluntary group that has introduced a simple assessment and
    review system. People can relate to this and begin to see the link
    between doing, monitoring and outcomes.

    Small group work follows. One group describes a family where
    their intervention has led to better attendance at school, and mum
    says she feels better about the kids and herself. Not only that,
    the strong link between the school and the family service meant the
    family was fast tracked to some extra help. This sort of progress
    should not be lost, we just need to find simple ways of capturing
    it. The day ends well.

    I tell my friend about the day. I think he’s winding me up
    but he tells me about a game of “speed bingo” in an old
    people’s home. Speed bingo, he says, is the method used in
    the home to judge the improvements in dexterity and alertness of
    the regular players. They play this double speed game once a month
    and chart the changes in finish times. The dabber action can
    apparently get pretty frantic.

    For a second I can see the sense in speed bingo. Then I make a
    note to contact the evaluation team to talk about outcome
    monitoring and human rights. Cheers.

    Connexions case notes

    As with most of my clients, Lisa wanted some support, but she
    was not sure what that would be. Lisa is 18 and referred herself to
    me eight months ago. She is in her second year of studying A-levels
    and lives alone in a privately shared house. When I first met Lisa
    she seemed very quiet and did not speak very openly.

    As adults we are always testing each other to see who we can
    trust and learn from, this is also the case for young people. As a
    personal adviser, I do not have many restrictions on time spent
    with a young person. Having the freedom to work in this way enables
    me to use time to build a rapport with my clients. Lisa and I
    decided to meet on a weekly basis for one hour.

    Over time, Lisa began to trust me and would tell me how other
    professionals would sometimes not do what they said they were going
    to do. Many young people have a lack of belief in the system and so
    it can take time to rebuild their trust in it and in me as a
    professional.

    Lisa had several issues that she could see no way of resolving.
    She had been living alone for a year after her father was sent to
    prison. Her mother had died when she was younger. She said she had
    been fending for herself ever since, prostituting to help pay the
    rent. Dealing with delicate situations such as this requires me to
    establish the boundaries of my role. Lisa agreed to a referral to a
    sexual health counsellor who aims to raise her self-esteem and help
    her understand relationship issues better, and she began attending
    on a regular basis.

    We still felt it was vital for her to continue our sessions.
    Working together we were able to prioritise what could be changed
    to help her in the immediate future. We decided to apply for
    support from the council to get her rehoused immediately in a home
    where the rent was lower.

    Lisa was nervous about talking to another professional about her
    personal life. She wanted me there to support her so we met at the
    housing department at 9am, collected a ticket and waited for our
    number to be called. But things are never simple. She was too old
    and she didn’t have the right documents, so we were turned
    away. Back to the drawing board…

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