Hi fellow Raphaelers! Loving the site and the comments and tips and am really pleased to have the opportunity to share my experiences of working with children and young people that have been through the UK care system.
I am turning 30 this year and am desperately trying to come to terms with the fact that as yet, I haven’t won the lottery, landed my dream job ……or become famous for my achievements… not in a Jordanesque way but in a worthy, known for my art kind of way!
I work with Young People who have been through the care system. These are young people who have spent time/ grown up in the care of the local authority. Once they turn 18 they are classified as ‘care leavers’ and as adults, are expected to live independently, dealing with bills, rent, the weekly food shop and all the daily grind that I am still trying to get my head round now as a woman brought up within my own stable family (as I type I am consciously ignoring the mound of washing in the corner and the prospect of jam on toast for dinner is very real).
My role as a Personal Advisor means that I have a caseload of 25 young people aged 18-24, I meet with them to discuss their housing, benefits, education, employment, relationships and anything else that may be going on in their lives and I support and advise them.
Alright so I’m only a “corporate parent”, and they are over 18, and they don’t actually live with me (actually lots of them are only those faceless scallies that you see on the street that’ll never amount to anything and people cross over the road to avoid) but, THEY ARE MY RESPONSIBILITY.
Do you have kids? What are they like? What would you do to stop them feeling pain, committing a crime, becoming homeless, going to prison. I bet you’d walk over hot coals, that’s how I feel about these kids too.
I only met my kids when they turned 18 and I can actually only be their parent until they’re 21 (or in the unlikely event that they do continue in education, until they’re 24) and, to be totally honest I am actually only legally obliged to see them once every 12 weeks- 4 TIMES PER YEAR. Yeah, that’s right government…that’ll be enough to keep them on the straight and narrow, get them into education or a work placement, help them to find independent accommodation in the borough that they WANT to live in, not the only one that’ll agree to take responsibility for them, make them genuinely believe that they are worth something and they can achieve and they do deserve better and to deal with any of the other day to day issues that they might be struggling with over these three years.
The governments Every Child Matters agenda states that all young people deserve the following:
To be healthy
To be safe
To enjoy and achieve
To make a positive contribution
To achieve economic well-being
I agree whole heartedly with these objectives, but I don’t think that they can be properly and fully achieved in just 3 years.
I think that any young person needs a stable home, preferably their own family but, if not, then a long term, stable loving, foster placement. Not like one of my kids who can list well over 20 placements that she’s had in the last 10 years (she’s now 20). I think that any young person deserves to feel healthy and safe, to have the knowledge and understanding of what will keep them safe, mentally, emotionally, sexually, physically. Not like one of my kids who has a rare form of asbergers but is currently sofa surfing because he hasn’t yet got to the top of the council housing list. He can’t cope with going into a hostel as he doesn’t feel confident with people that he doesn’t know.
It is incredibly important that all young people have the opportunity to make a positive contribution to society, several of my young people were really interested in going on a week’s volunteering trip to Bulgaria with Vinvolved and attended interviews but…it was cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of interest.
I believe that achieving economic well-being is currently a distant dream for my young people; currently only 7 out of my 25 have a job.
Very often meeting kids aged 18 is 10 years too late. They don’t trust people, they’ve been let down and have left school with few qualifications and low self esteem. Then, just when you build a relationship with them, they open up and you really get to know them, you close their file and that’s it, they’re on their own again (another point to note; the average age children leave home now is 27- unless they’re care leavers…)
Despite all of this, I love so many aspects of my job. One of my young people has recently been awarded a Merit in his college course, another has been recommended for an internship with the FBI in America. These achievements make me so proud and remind me that with a bit of love and care and encouragement, from lots and lots of sources, anyone is capable of achieving something worthwhile. So, I will keep at it - if the budget cuts allow me to and, fingers crossed I will keep seeing the silver lining on the cloud that is the care system.
With love,
Tanya.
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