What is institutionalising for ‘looked after’ children and young people?

ABSTRACT

We look at the subject of institutionalisation for children and young people who are in residential or foster care. We begin by exploring the concepts of institution and institutionalisation. The concepts have different meanings, which can even be contradictory. This draws attention to the reality that family life can also be institutionalising. We explore, what is important from a child’s perspective? What is the quality of their experience? And most importantly how do their experiences equip them to move towards positive and fulfiling adult life? We believe it is important to focus on the quality of experience and outcomes rather than whether one kind of setting is inevitably better than another. We also recognise that different care environments can meet the needs of different children.

KEYWORDS:

• Looked after children
• residential care
• foster care
• institution
• institutionalisation
• therapeutic care
• relational opportunities

Acknowledgments

We thank Ivone Soares de Almeida and her team for the kind permission to include the section on, Lar de Nossa Senhora do Livramento, Porto, Portugal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma Blakemoore

Three of the authors of this article connected at Innovate Services where Emma Blakemore is CEO, Sir Martin Narey is a Non-Executive Director, and Patrick Tomlinson is a consultant. Patrick Tomlinson worked for fifteen years with John Whitwell who was Principal at the Cotswold Community from 1985-1999.

Emma Blakemoore With over 20 years of experience in children’s social work and residential care, her expertise spans social work change-management, safeguarding board development, MASH management, frontline social work delivery, therapeutic life story, and residential work. About her current role, Emma says, ‘It enables me to affect change by placing the child at the centre of our work. By doing this, we creatively support local authorities to secure better outcomes for children and young people. We aim to co-produce more innovative and effective ways of working. This is where real sustainable change happens’.

Sir Martin Narey

Martin Narey DL The eighth of nine children and from Middlesbrough, Sir Martin Narey was the head of the Prison and Probation Services in England and Wales as part of a twenty-three-year career working with offenders. He later ran Barnardo’s the UK’s biggest children’s charity before advising Number 10 and the Department of Education about issues relating to child neglect. He has written and published five reports for the UK government and now holds several non-executive appointments most of which are pro-bono. In 2013 he was knighted for services to vulnerable people.

Patrick Tomlinson

Patrick Tomlinson Patrick’s experience spans from 1985. Beginning as a residential care worker at the Cotswold Community, he has held positions at all organisational levels, to CEO. He is a qualified clinician, strategic leader, manager, and author of numerous papers and books. Patrick Tomlinson Associates (PTA) was founded in 2008 to support the development of people and organisations. Therapeutic models that Patrick has worked on in several countries have gained widespread recognition. www.patricktomlinson.com

John Whitwell

John Whitwell Was the Principal at the Cotswold Community for fifteen years. He worked there for twenty-seven years. Following that he was Managing Director at Integrated Services Programme (ISP), a specialist foster care service, for fifteen years. John has also been Chair of Trustees of the Gloucestershire Counselling Service, Trustee of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust, and Trustee of the Mulberry Bush Organisation. He has been a UKCP registered Psychotherapist and a full member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF). John is also a qualified Group-analytic Psychotherapist. He has published numerous articles and papers on his experience in therapeutic residential and foster care services. www.johnwhitwell.co.uk