Relationship-based practice with families in need

Hazel G Whitters, Senior Early Years/Child Protection Coordinator in a Glasgow Voluntary Organisation reflects on her experiences working with asylum seeking families.

===========================================================================

Jungle, asylum, war, removal, displacement, help… the daily descriptors that we are becoming used to reading in our newspapers or viewing on our televisions as we eat an evening meal.

Familiarity can breed complacency. A plan of responsive action and prioritising resources is easy to achieve from the perspective of our armchairs as we view the world through our screens. I have great respect for policy and decision-makers who examine, and respond to the current humanitarian crisis from a strategic perspective inter-mingled with personal stories of human atrocities and suffering. But at best the world is not yet ’Getting It Right for Every Child’.

It seems so much easier to be a practitioner. Traditionally, child care and education workers are used to embracing new ventures, stimulated by the challenges, sympathetic to the child’s needs regardless of the cause, and immune to the frenetic political communications. Play is our medium of interaction and care. Play is our therapy to heal the effect of adversities, and to promote achievement. Play is our world’s common language.

Government statistics tell us that in the UK 36,465 asylum applications were made in 2015-16. I always think it is useful and relevant to place statistics in a context of practice. The cause of human needs must influence the approach to intervention in current proactive response by services. Many years ago practitioners encouraged parents to forget childhood adversities and focus on the future - the premise being that out of sight = out of mind. Today, research (Whitters, 2015, 2016) has given us a greater understanding of human development, and the significant impact of historical influences upon our abilities to operate as successful individuals and effective contributors to society. A high level of human involvement in a learning environment can only be achieved if accompanied by emotional well-being. A plan which has goals, and a process to recognise success. Empowerment which is gained through decision-making for a life-plan is key for human beings to rehabilitate post-trauma.

The voluntary sector is well-placed to respond to these needs as service planning and delivery can incorporate responsive personalised care. A therapeutic approach to supporting the needs of people who are striving to create a different inner working model is essential: Healing of mind and body for people who are determined to forge a positive pathway through life, and who have decided to embrace the culture of another country as a source of support. Engaging with parents who are seeking asylum is straightforward in practice as language and cultural differences are certainly not barriers but provide focus for interaction. Our clumsy attempts to reproduce dialects prompt laughter and shared moments of partnership with parents.

Interactive guidance, in the form of supported play with parents and children, creates a learning environment for families which provides ample opportunity for the promotion of mental and physical good health for children and parents. Experience has shown me that human beings can identify positive aspects from childhood and adulthood. A young teenage mum, who spent time in the infamous jungle at Calais, told me of the community spirit which enabled her to walk tall and view the world with dignity. She talked about the creation of an athletic club in the camp which enabled her to demonstrate physical prowess, and to shine amidst the mud and misery. The resilience of human beings is legendary…

Politicians, strategic planners – good luck. Practitioners - continue what you do best - relationship-based practice with families in need – innovative intervention which helps us to learn and improve alongside families who are embracing life from a different perspective.

===========================================================================

Hazel G Whitters has worked in child protection for over 30 years and was awarded her PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 2015. Her thesis 'Perceptions of the influences upon the parent-professional relationship in a context of early intervention and child protection' is available online from the British Library
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.655502

Whitters, H. G., (2016) The Parent-Professional Relationship in Child Protection. A WithScotland Briefing. pdf: withscotland.org/download/the-parent-professional-relationship-in-child-protection

Partnerships for Impact- making research partnerships work

The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships in consultation with ResearchImpact in Canada and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) have developed a Manifesto for Partnerships between Universities and Non-academics. Here Executive Director Sarah Morton explains what’s in the manifesto and how it can be used.

There is broad agreement amongst research funders in the UK (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/pe/embedding/) that if academics work more closely with partners from outside the academy their work is more likely to have impact. It helps to embed research in real world issues, creates a group of willing and ready stakeholders, linked to wider networks and can help academics learn about the kind of language and methods required for effective take-up of research. At CRFR we often work together with range of public and third sector partners. We wanted to draw together what we have learned from this and make it more widely available. A partnership manifesto was the way we decided to do this.


Where did the manifesto come from?

In my own research (Creating research impact: the roles of research users in interactive research mobilisation) I investigated partnership and found that there were many ways in which CRFR working in partnership with ChildLine Scotland had led to the impact of that research. I presented these findings about impact to the Scottish Third Sector Research Forum in 2014, and the level of interest led to the idea for a manifesto for partnership research.

Findings from my research were discussed at a workshop at the NCCPE national conference in 2014, with a range of experienced researchers and KE professionals adding their experience. It was then discussed by the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Community of Practice and the ResearchImpact network in Canada:

"At ResearchImpact we were happy to be invited to collaborate on the Manifesto." says David Phipps, Executive Director, Research & Innovation Services, York University, Canada. "We shared it among our members who provided feedback to Sarah and her CRFR team. Working closely with partners creates the conditions for research to have an impact beyond the academy. The manifesto provides guidance and tips to help support community-campus collaborations."

The final version has taken on board all comments received and we are confident it is based on the most recent research and informed by the key experts in this field.


What is in the partnership manifesto?

The manifesto takes a process approach to thinking about partnership. It looks at identifying partners, and then goes through the stages of partnership research: starting partnerships, developing funding bids, developing partnerships, and sharing research findings. Advice includes being explicit about what both sides in a partnership can gain, and what commitment is needed, recognising knowledge and resources, and being clear about the difference between research, evaluation and commissioning. A few final comments suggest the need to choose partners carefully where possible, create spaces to reflect on what is and isn’t working, and to include impact assessment so that everyone can show what difference is being made.


How can the partnership manifesto be used?

We hope that the manifesto will provide a useful tool for people interested in research partnerships, whether from third or public sector organisations, or researchers themselves. Whatever stage of partnership people are in, we imagine the manifesto being a useful tool for discussion, development and reflection during partnership research. It can be a means of ensuring everyone is on the same page, by setting out key considerations for open discussion. When partnerships are not going well it might be a tool for reflecting together or separately on what the issues are and how they might be addressed.

Download a copy of the partnership manifesto

Improving care for older people - together

The recently published special issue of the Journal of Integrated Care features articles from practitioners involved in the collaborative PROP - Practitioner-research: Older people project. In this blog, Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin celebrates the aims and outcomes of practitioner-research.

We’re really pleased to be able to share our special issue of the Journal of Integrated Care. This collection of journal articles was very much a collective effort, produced in part over a shared writing retreat in October 2013.

When we set out to write these articles together, we had two primary aims:

• First and foremost we wanted to showcase, and champion, practitioner-led research. Practitioner voices are often absent from traditional academic publications, though it’s estimated that that there likely to be many more practitioners who are active in social work research than there are university-based researchers in the field (Lunt, Shaw and Mitchell 2008). We thought it would be valuable to broaden the conversation in academic journals by including the wisdom and expertise of practice.
• Second, we wanted to expand the conversation about the integration of the health and social care systems in Scotland. The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Scottish Bill (2013) was passed in January 2014, but local governments and health boards are still determining the realities of this system-wide change. In this special issue, we offer insights from the ‘coalface’ and share some lessons from practitioners involved in a wide-range of integrated practice. 

In talking about integration, the practitioners involved in this special issue take a wide view. We argue that integrating or involving people who use services in their planning and evaluation is one form of integration. Joint working between practitioners from statutory and the third sector is another - as is the integration of academic research and practice-wisdom. These definitions of integration echo the Scottish Government’s policy memorandum to the Bill, which states: “reform based on centrally-directed structural changes would be unlikely to deliver the shift in outcomes required” (2013: para 157).

We agree whole-heartedly. If integration is to work it needs to include the whole spectrum of people and practices involved in health and social care - practitioners, carers, people accessing these services, policy makers, academics and so on. This special issue is a reflection of integrated working as much as a set of robust insights into the workings of integration in everyday practice. As we discuss in the introductory article to this issue, we have walked the walk and have produced these articles in a cooperative way.

The articles in this special issue reflect individual research projects undertaken by practitioners in Scotland working to improve services for older people. We called this the PROP project, which stands for Practitioner-Research: Older People. As a collaboration between Alzheimer Scotland, CRFR, IRISS, Glasgow City Council, NHS Lothian, VOCAL, and West Lothian Council. Funded by the ESRC with support from the Scottish Government’s Joint Improvement Team, this project represents a model of joint working between practitioners of different disciplines and a bridge between academic research and practice wisdom.

This special issue is just one of the outputs produced as part of this project. Nine practitioners took part on the PROP project and each has a podcast and postcard about their research on our blog. You can also download the full research reports of the papers included in this special issue.

The second PROP project has recently started: Practitioner research: outcomes and partnership will run until December 2015. For more information contact Stuart Muirhead.