supporting vulnerable families to prevent children being taken into care
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given by Dann Kenningham, ATD Fourth World (U.K.) at the 2013 FEANTSA conference, "Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation: policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness" http://feantsa.org/spip.php?article1596&lang=enTRANSCRIPT
Supporting vulnerable families to
prevent children being taken into care
ATD Fourth World
Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:
key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness
8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic
Contents of presentation
Introduction to ATD Fourth World
Poverty Is...?
Poverty in the UK
‘Povertyism’ and Poverty Discrimination
How poverty affects family life
Life examples
Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:
key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness
8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic
Introduction to
ATD Fourth World
A human rights, anti-poverty organisation,
established in France in 1957, now works in the
UK and 38 countries over 4 continents
throughout the world to enable the the most
vulnerable to contribute both to overcoming
poverty and to developing the community at
large.
Many families that we work with in the UK have
experience of the child protection system
Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:
key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness
8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic
Poverty Is??
Grass-roots participants worked on these comments over a series of
discussion groups:
Short 3min clip ‘Our voices’
ATD Fourth World
Our Policy, Participation and Training Programme empowers
people with experience of poverty to express their views and offer
solutions to the problems affecting their lives while offering policy
makers an invaluable insight into fighting poverty from the bottom
up.
Our Family Support Programme aims to act as a bridge between
the most vulnerable and excluded families and professionals, giving
both parties the time, space and resources to build positive and
long-lasting relationships.
In doing so, we seek to create the conditions that will allow parents,
children and professionals to work together and learn from one
another.
Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:
key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness
8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic
Getting away from it
ATD Fourth World has always placed an importance on activities that give
people a chance to take a break from their daily struggles, spend quality
time together as a family and embrace new and different opportunities
alongside others in similar situations.
For these reasons, we organise residential breaks for families at Frimhurst
Family House throughout the year. These breaks aim to offer the breathing
space that will improve a family’s well-being, give parents a chance to think
clearly and, freed from their everyday pressures and anxieties, enjoy one
another's company.
Providing such positive experiences for children, young people and families
can, in link with other aspects of our Family Support Programme, act as a
foundation for the longer-term relationships necessary to tackle the more
challenging issues faced by families.
Giving Poverty a Voice
Giving Poverty a Voice supports people experiencing
poverty and inequality to engage with and have their say on
the decisions that affect their lives.
Issue-based discussion forums and capacity-building
workshops, creates a space where people can take time to
express their views, analyse and contextualise their own
experience and work together on solutions and policy
recommendations, therefor actively participating in the
democratic process.
Giving Poverty a Voice is currently focusing on housing & home: an interim report is available@: www.atd-uk.org
Social Worker Training
Programme.
Poverty is a multi-dimensional problem that affects many
areas of people’s lives and that, due to the stresses and
strains of daily struggle, impacts upon their relationships
with the services and professionals whose role it is to
support them.
Redressing this situation through a poverty awareness
training module that is both aimed at professionals and
delivered by people with experience of poverty and
social work interventions is central to our Social Worker
Training Programme.
This project was developed in partnership with Royal Holloway University of London
& ATD Fourth World UK
What is poverty in the UK? Relative poverty is defined as living on 60% or less of the average
(median) household income.
In 2010/11, 13.7 million people in the UK were living in poverty. This is 22% of the population.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, December 2012
38% of children in London live in poverty. London also has the highest proportion of very wealthy people.
London’s Poverty Profile, November 2011
Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in
poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet,
participate in the activities and have the living conditions and
amenities which are customary, or are at least widely encouraged and
approved, in the societies in which they belong. Peter Townsend
Poverty?
Ref: Chambers, 2006: 4
Poverty and children in care
Bebbington and Miles’ (1989) study vividly demonstrated how the cumulative effect of socio-economic disadvantage dramatically increases a child’s chances of coming into the care system.
Child A Aged 5-9 Not on benefits Two parent family Three or fewer children White Owner occupied house More rooms than people Odds are 1 in 7000
Child B Aged 5-9 Income Support Single adult household Four or more children Mixed ethnic origin Privately rented home One or more persons per room Odds are 1 in 10
The Media
People in poverty are clearly discriminated against by a section of the mainstream UK media
Poverty & Discrimination Some government ministers claim that people on benefits “enjoy a lifestyle” and sleep
behind “drawn blinds” while their neighbours go to work, without being challenged on such
assertions.
As one young man noted, “If even the Prime Minister is calling us scroungers, frauds
and fakes, then ordinary people will believe it, won't they?”
Such misinformation is used by politicians to justify otherwise unpopular economic policies,
such as harsh austerity measures, benefit caps, a bedroom tax and punitive welfare-to-work
schemes.
It is also a building block in the creation of an “us and them” culture that can be seen in the
withdrawal of local health, support, legal and advice services. The heaping of these cuts on
the shoulders of the weakest can only have a massively detrimental effect on their long-
term health and capacity to work and to parent.
One father observed that, “There will be a rise in the number of children placed into care
when their parents can no longer feed, house or clothe them properly due to these
cuts.”
Investing in young people to prevent a lost generation in Europe:
key policy and practice in addressing youth homelessness
8th November 2013, Prague, Czech Republic
‘Povertyism’ and Poverty
Discrimination
An ‘othering’ attitude
Deep-seated and persistent public
attitudes about the ‘deserving’ and the
‘undeserving’
There is a genuine concern that this
attitude is seeping into the national
consciousness and therefore affecting
social practice
Ref: Lister R. Poverty (2004)
Being blamed for being in poverty
Prejudices and pre-conceived ideas
‘Damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ - Being set up to fail
Being denied/ blamed for normal emotional responses.
Being invisible – having no voice
Being judged by assumptions – being stigmatized/ not being trusted
Points taken from workshops with Royal Holloway SWT
Examples of ‘Povertyism’ & poverty
discrimination in child protection
proceedings
How poverty can affect family life
Emotional health
Low self-esteem –”you feel worthless and think others have a low opinion of you and your children”
Depression – “stress and feelings of hopelessness”
Isolation – small social networks and less access to a social life
Loss of identity – “I feel like a number”
Being judged by assumptions – being stigmatized/
not being trusted
Instead of giving me money, my social worker went out
and got me sheets and quilt covers. She didn't give me
the money because she thought I wouldn't get what we
needed. Instead of bringing it to me she took it to the
social work office. I had to go there with my two
youngest ones, I didn't know it was about to rain, so we
walked to the office in the rain.
I've had a similar thing happen to me. Instead of giving
me money to buy food, they gave me food vouchers. It
makes you feel small.
Being denied/ blamed for
normal emotional responses.
I use the Letter Box System. How it works is that you’ve got a child and you want to send them a photo and a letter. You send it, but addressed to the adoption office. As in prison, they open the letter and read the content to check if you’ve haven’t written something you shouldn’t. You are not allowed to say “I miss you”. If they think it is inappropriate, then the kids don’t get it and you get told off. If it’s ok, they send it, but in a different envelope so that you can’t track where it has been posted from. The same thing happens when the child writes back.
We aren’t allowed to say certain things, because in their opinion it might upset the children. On a short term, this seems to keep the child calm, but on a long term this is harmful both for the children and the birth parents.
Life examples
Short Video clip of 3 young care-leavers speaking
about poverty and the importance of support
Finally Patricia’s thoughts…..
I think it’s when you go and see someone in authority.
They do not believe what you’re telling them and they
talk down at you as if you are not human and you are not
allowed to say your opinion. They sort of talk to you as if
you are not human to start off with and then they try to
make it sound as if you have no intelligent brain in your
head… We should all be treated as equals.
Recognising good practice &
Understanding difficult relationships
Recognising that service users are often very fearful of social
workers
Remembering that families have often had bad experiences
with social services in the past
Respecting families in their homes
Acknowledging that most families understand the importance of
having a constructive relationship with their social worker
Time is a very important commodity in building a positive and
supportive relationship
All quotations unless otherwise referenced
are directly from ATD Fourth World project
grass-roots participants who have a real
experience of poverty
Many thanks
48 Addington Square London SE5 7LB Tel: 020 7703 3231 Website: www.atd-uk.org Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ATDFourthWorld www.facebook.com/ATDFourthWorld Registered Charity No. 209367
ATD Fourth World