A Framework (Summary)
It is a model that emphasises the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ rather than the ‘What’. We feel that an enormous amount of ideas are generated around different types of interventions in an effort to initiate changes of behaviour in this client group. An equal focus on our motives and on devising more effective ways of delivering services would generate greater success.
The model is based on a foundation of three practices:
The model then emphasises the importance of human qualities, such as Honesty, Integrity, Trust and Resilience, that are critical to service delivery and yet not the focus of any practitioner or policy maker training.
Theories devised by academics, researchers and practitioners around the subject of children and families also deserve consideration. Theories such as attachment, attunement and brain development should shape the delivery of services.
Penultimately, the model focuses on the application of the above, underlining aspects such as evaluation, training and professional supervision.
Finally, the model underlines the importance of appropriate service delivery structures and other contextual influences to ensure effective outcomes for vulnerable children & families.
The Framework ends with the quote below. This rather simple sentence is, we feel, of great importance, as it can be used to transform our need to defeat the arguments and thoughts of others into an attitude that is based more firmly on collaboration, understanding and creativity.
This work with children and families is extremely difficult. One of the reasons for this is the amount of often unresolved and generally unnamed emotions that are connected with these situations. If, as practitioners, we spend a great deal of our time directing these emotions at each other in ultimately unhelpful ways, rather than in using our energies to fully understand the essence of how each other perceives and in considering how these might combine to create new solutions and new perceptions, then surely we are wasting opportunities for development:
‘Oppositional conflict should be seen as a dynamic that can promote creativity, rather than the more common competitive and attritional process.’