Reclaiming complexity: beneath the surface in residential child care

ABSTRACT

Residential child care is an inherently distressing and multi-layered endeavour undertaken by staff who are often poorly trained and supported. In addition, the children, and the adults who care for them, can provide a convenient receptacle for the split off negative feelings of professionals, politicians and the public. The complexity and difficulty of this work is often unrecognised and a simplistic response based on a programmatic, behavioural framework, reinforced by performance-based management and an audit culture, is common. This paper argues for the usefulness of a different approach, drawing on psychoanalytic and open systems thinking, to provide a more nuanced understanding of what is happening in these volatile settings that can guide interventions which match the complexity of the work. Alongside advocating the use of key psychoanalytic and systems concepts to improve understanding, it argues for the importance of providing a containing and reflective environment for staff.

KEYWORDS:

• Residential child care
• psychoanalysis
• open systems
• containment
• reflection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This approach is committed to understanding what is occurring beneath the surface for individuals within organisations, as well as examining how the task and structure of organisations and the impact of their external environment interact with this, to affect the success of the enterprise.

2. The use of the male pronoun reflects the original text.

3. The paranoid schizoid position.

4. The depressive position.

5. ‘Good enough mother’ in Winnicott’s terminology. He argued that this was a continuation of the prenatal experience and was specific to the mother child relationship.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judith Furnivall

Judith Furnivall is a lecturer/consultant at the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS).  She has completed the MA in Consulting and Leading in Organisations: Psychodynamic and Systemic Approaches at the Tavistock Centre and is currently studying for a PhD at Stirling University as well as undertaking the Tavistock Qualification in Consultancy.