Memorandum submitted by Essex County Council
Children's Residential Services
"SOCIAL PEDAGOGY
IS A
HOLISTIC APPROACH
TO DEVELOPMENT,
USING REFLECTION
AND PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS TO
EXPLORE, INSPIRE
AND EMPOWER"
1. Essex County Council are introducing
Social Pedagogy into children's services, beginning with residential
services, in response to a number of issues including the following:
— Current training for residential
(and other social care) staff does not equip them for the complex
task of working with groups of very traumatised children.— The
existing culture of children's services generally, as expressed
through policy, procedure and practice does not produce good enough
outcomes for children.
2. Our strategy for implementing a social
pedagogic approach into residential services therefore has four
core elements:
— Training—introductory training
in social pedagogy for over a quarter of the residential workforce
accredited at 30 level 5 CAT points. A smaller number of staff
undertaking additional training to equip them to provide introductory
social pedagogy training to other practitioners and to take a
lead in making changes to culture and practice within their teams.
Training is provided by ThemPra (www.social-pedagogy.co.uk).
— Structural change—as part of
this strategic implementation we are considering how best to restructure
our staffing and services.
— Cultural change—this process
is not just about training practitioners. It's about changing
the culture and ethos of residential services. The leadership
and strategic implementation of the project try to embody central
pedagogic values such as empowerment, democracy, holistic learning
and creativity. In practice that means that individual homes are
being given more autonomy, decision-making is increasingly shared
or devolved, proposals are assessed based on values and learning
not just procedures or outcomes and practitioners are being given
more freedom to pursue new ideas.
— Research—we have commissioned
research to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, including
feedback from children in the homes and residential staff. Research
findings inform the ongoing development of the project.
3. This represents a significant investment
in residential services aimed at improving children's lives in
line with the principles of Every Child Matters by increasing
the level of education and qualification of the residential workforce
and by changing the underpinning philosophy of children's services.
Introducing social pedagogy into residential services is the first
step in promoting a strategic change across children's services
to a social pedagogic approach, with Fostering services and the
Independent Reviewing service in the next wave of development.
These ambitious plans have been possible thanks to the enthusiastic
support and vision of senior managers and Members. We believe
that Social Pedagogy will enable us to realise the aspirations
articulated in Care Matters, to transform the lives of children
in state care.
4. Senior managers within Essex County Council
have visited Denmark to learn more about Social Pedagogy in Danish
teaching and practice settings. They have been inspired by the
potential there is for us to learn and develop our own services
and education of staff through continental European social pedagogic
approaches. We are currently making plans for some exchange visits
for Essex staff with Danish children's homes.
5. Central to the adoption of Social Pedagogy
in Essex is an understanding that Social Pedagogy is not a technique
or model to be applied or imported, it is an interdisciplinary
approach underpinned by cultural and philosophical values. Therefore
our aim in Essex is to construct an English Social Pedagogy, which
necessitates that our whole workforce is engaged in developing
an understanding of Social Pedagogy and how it can translate into
practice in an English context. This is an open-ended process
which is deliberately not defined by predetermined learning outcomes.
Such an ambitious and collaborative change process will take time
and we do not expect rapid seismic changes to practice or outcomes.
However, we believe that for the long-term future of children
in Essex, Social Pedagogy offers the best path for us to pursue
in terms of developing the workforce and improving outcomes.
6. We hope that in the next few years we
will begin to see tangible improvements in outcomes for children.
We have already received positive feedback from children who have
told us that they feel staff are listening to them more and involving
them more in decision making. The staff who have undertaken the
initial training have also given extremely positive feedback,
saying that they found it inspiring and that they believe it has
potential for effecting positive change. At our awareness raising
sessions for colleagues across children's services, including
social workers, youth workers, foster carers and others we have
had positive feedback from colleagues who recognise that there
is no intention to replace their professional roles or expertise,
but that learning about Social Pedagogy may contribute to their
own development.
7. We are conscious that there is an inherent
conflict with existing English policy and regulatory frameworks
which focus on risk, procedure and outcomes as opposed to social
pedagogic approaches which value experiential learning, relationships
and "intre styring" (literally "inner steering"
or moral compass). Feedback from residential staff and managers
has indicated that there is a particular difficulty in reconciling
social pedagogic values and the priorities of Ofsted. We are seeking
to address these potential barriers to creating meaningful lasting
change by working strategically with the National Centre for Excellence
in Residential Child Care and inviting Ofsted to join our multi-agency
strategy group overseeing the development of Social Pedagogy in
Essex.
8. We believe that this is just a beginning.
Our commitment to creating Social Pedagogy in Essex is based on
a recognition that more guidance, regulation or inspection will
not alone transform services. We need a fundamental change to
our theoretical orientation and ethos and a highly skilled and
qualified workforce who feel confident that they are trusted to
care for often deeply disturbed children. That is what we believe
introducing social pedagogy will help us to achieve.
June 2009
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