Effective Communication and Engagement with Children and Young People, their Families and Carers

Ally Dunhill, Barbara Elliott, Angela Shaw, Ally Dunhill, Barbara Elliott, Angela Shaw

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781844452651
• eBook ISBN: 9780857252159
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

This book focuses on providing information and guidance for professionals involved in the newly emerging multi-agency, interdisciplinary children?s workforce. It does so by helping them to understand the theory behind the issues relating to communication and engagement in multi-agency settings for children and families. The book is of use to both students and those already working in the sector who are undertaking professional development to enhance understanding and skills in the new children?s workforce environment.

Chapter 1

Communication: The
historical and current
social policy context

Clare Whitfield

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should have an understanding of:

• Changes in focus over the last 30 years and the move away from segregated, agency-determined support provision to the promotion of integrated, client-led services.
• The importance of effective communication in meeting the current policy aims of:
  – Inter-agency working
  – Inter-professional collaboration
  – Client empowerment.

This chapter will look at the link between the wider policy context and its impact on the relationship between the professional and the individual service user. Social policy structures this relationship as it lays out the expectations and roles of both. Changes in policy aims have direct consequences for the type of relationship and therefore the type of communication between professionals and their clients. However, policy itself is shaped by political ideology. The first part of this chapter will look at the links between political ideology and arising social policy. The second part will examine the impact that recent policy has had on communication between professionals and service users.

Introduction

Communication is central to all interactions between people. This includes encounters between agencies that provide welfare and support, between professional practitioners and between professionals and service users seeking support. Communication in a professional environment is governed by social policy, as it is policy that structures the laws, rules and protocols a professional is expected to work within. It defines the role expected of governments, agencies and professional workers, and identifies the rights and responsibilities of individuals.

How communication between different groups is supported in policy reflects differing views of the relationship between the individual and the state and is characterised by differing power dynamics within these. The relationships between agencies, professionals and service users have changed across the last 30 years. In 1979, welfare and support services were state-run and administered by local authorities (LAs). Although services were provided ‘in house’, paid for and managed by the state, there was minimal interaction between the different agencies that provided welfare services. Professional groups often worked within designated boundaries, with designated roles and within separate spheres. Support available to members of the public was dominated by agency agendas and professional interests, with the individual seen as passive and responsible for following the directions of professionals. In contrast, current policy promotes ‘holistic working’, supports inter-agency and inter-professional collaboration and includes scope for new empowering practices to support individuals in the management of their own cases.

Changes in social policy impact on communication in professional practice in a number of areas. First, policy defines how communication and working between the available services is achieved; second, it structures rules, protocols and procedures that govern how professionals are expected to interact with one another to provide these services. Third, it contains expectations and assumptions about the roles of both professional workers and those seeking help, including their relationship, which influence the type and level of communication expected between them. Appreciating the social policy context in which professionals work therefore provides a background as to why and how communication is central to service provision. There are two central strands to this discussion: the changes in social policy over the past 30 years and the impact of current policy on professional practice.

Social policy structures the environment in which professionals practice and service users access support. Its aims, and the means mobilised to achieve those aims, however, are shaped by political ideology; these different approaches to social policy result in differences in the range of services that are available and how they are provided. To unpack these links, we will look at the shift apparent over the last 30 years from segregated, agency-determined support provision that frames the service user as a passive receiver of support to the promotion of integrated, client-led services that conceive of the service user as an empowered member of the inter-collaborative team. However, before we explore these issues, we must first define three key concepts: social policy, political ideology and the welfare state.

Social policy

The term social policy has a number of definitions, for example it is an academic discipline; however, in the sense relevant here, it refers to a set of policies adopted by an organisation to achieve social purposes (Erskine, 2001, p. 14) as it provides a plan for social action in the real world (Alcock et al., 2001, p. 7). The main focus of social policy is the support of well-being through social action (ibid.) and the term is used to refer to the way in which governments provide welfare and social protection (Spiker, 2008). Social policy therefore can be seen as the rules, laws and guidelines that organise welfare services, such as education, social services, health, social security, criminal justice service, social work; in fact any body or organisation that aims to support citizens. How services are organised and funded; what services are provided and to whom; who gives the support and how these services are carried out, including the role of the service user, are all governed by social policy (Blakemore, 2003).

Political ideology

Developing social policy is not a politically neutral process (Alcock et al., 2000; Anning et al. 2006, p. 4) but is influenced by and therefore reflects the dominant ‘political ideology’. Ideology can be defined as, any system of ideas underlying and informing social and political action (Jary and Jary, 2002). Political ideology can therefore be defined more specifically as a set of related beliefs and values that are organised to form a ‘concrete programme of action’ to achieve certain social management and organisation. In other words, people from different political points of view will see different causes or factors as needing attention; more than that, they will have different ideas about how to address these problems and different solutions, which reflect their political view.

Political ideology shapes social policy in a number of ways: first, different political ideologies identify different issues as ‘problems to be addressed’ and produce different ways of addressing these problems. Second, different political ideologies see the relationship between the individual and the state in different ways, with each having different roles to play. Third, different political ideologies see the interaction between professional groups and the public in different ways.

Therefore, the political ideology of those in power will influence the social policy agenda, the means of implementation and the expectations of professional bodies to enact these policies. Ultimately, then, the changing political aims of those writing and developing policy will impact on the way we interact with other professionals and service users. The experience service users, such as a family, young person or child, might have of accessing and receiving support varies with the aims of social policy and is shaped by the political view of those in government (Blakemore, 2003).

Welfare state

Social provision is made through the welfare state, that is, the institutions that provide support in all areas, such as health, social care, education and youth work. Therefore our third concept is the welfare state. A welfare state is any form of state in which there has been extensive state legislation leading to the state provision of support and services intended to improve the quality of people’s lives (Jary and Jary, 2001, p. 701). The welfare state in the UK was set up following the Second World War under a raft of legislation that initially addressed the ‘five giants’ identified by Beverage (1942) of: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness (Fraser, 2003, p. 236). To this end, state-run institutions such as social security, health, education, housing and employment services were established to provide support for British citizens. Although the term ‘welfare’ is not a static or uniform concept that is easily defined (ibid.), it is generally considered to refer to any support service offered to the public, and has expanded to include, for example, social services and the criminal justice system. How these services are provided are subject to social policy and therefore differ with changing political ideology.

Two main political ideologies are evident: the Conservative government (1979–97), whose approach was underpinned by a neo-liberal ideology, and the current New Labour government (1997–present), whose approach is underpinned by Third Way principles. The debate between these two views centres around three related issues: the relationship between the individual and the state and the associated roles of each; how welfare provision should be structured; and how it should be paid for. To illustrate these points more clearly and to provide a background to changes that saw a move away from segregated, agency-determined support provision to the promotion of integrated, client-led services, we will look at the differences in social policy produced by both the Conservative and the current New Labour governments, with a particular focus on the changing role of the individual and professional.

Conservative governments, 1979–97

The Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, took a neo-liberal approach. The central tenets of this political ideology are: individualism and the power of the consumer, the need for the UK to be competitive in the emerging globalised market and the importance of the free market economy in this process. This political philosophy was apparent in their approach to providing welfare services.

The neo-liberal approach promotes the importance of individualism, seeing welfare and other support as the responsibility of the individual and their family. From this perspective, the welfare state providing comprehensive welfare for all was seen as expensive, inefficient and ineffective (Mooney, 2006 and as a source of further problems, such as a ‘dependency culture’, (see Murray, 1984). The neo-liberal solution to these ‘problems of welfare’ was to ‘roll back’ the welfare state and provide, where possible, residual support, with the state providing a ‘safety net’ in the last resort (George and Miller, 1994), targeted on those most in need. Targeting, they argued, would allow limited resources to help the most vulnerable, increase both efficiency and effectiveness of services and reduce public spending without cutting services.

Second, in order for the UK to be competitive in the emerging global market, it was necessary to develop a national ‘flexible workforce’, which was both skilled and able to move in and out of work as required by business needs (Jordan, 2006). Previously, large industries offered full-time permanent work and a ‘job for life’; now it was necessary to develop new working patterns, flexible to business needs, such as short-term, part-time and contractual employment, and in this way ensure that the nation remained globally competitive. In this climate, it would be necessary for individuals and families to ‘take responsibility’ for their own support needs; not only for individuals to move to where the work was but also to save and plan for times when they would not be able to provide for themselves through employment (Atkinson and Moon, 1994).

A third, and related, concept was the notion that the introduction of free market competition into public service provision would drive up standards and reduce the cost of welfare to the public (Smart, 2003). The Conservative government criticised welfare and support services provided to the public by LAs as ineffective and inefficient, and LAs for showing little regard for the opinions and needs of those accessing services (Mooney, 2006). In order to drive up standards, competition was introduced in the form of the ‘internal market’. Quasi (internal) markets were established, initially within the NHS, but later extended to all areas of social provision (Burden et al., 2000), where private companies competed for contracts to provide public services through the use of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (Mooney, 2006).

The individual is seen as proactive, and this includes the requirement to exercise consumer power, a concept that reflects the neo-liberal notion of ‘freedom of choice’. The individual becomes a consumer of welfare services, making ‘rational decisions’ in the marketplace (Cooper, 2008). If ‘choice’ is offered, then individuals would be able to ‘shop around’ between services. This in turn would build competition, especially as it would provide a market between private and state-run provision. For example, in the spheres of health and education, state provision remained, albeit under ‘new management’, and the opportunities to ‘go private’ were expanded, increasing levels of competition within the new ‘internal economy’ of welfare provision (Fraser, 2003). An example of Conservative social policy that reflects neo-liberal political ideology is the Education Reform Act 1988.

Education Reform Act 1988

The changes made to education under this Act parallel the neo-liberal concerns of ‘new’ management approaches, the use of the internal market and consumer power.

Grant Maintained (GMS) and Locally Managed Schools (LMS) were introduced to take the place of the existing comprehensive school system. These new school structures represented a different approach to management and budgeting. GMSs, those schools who ‘opted out’ of LEA control, were managed by a governing body that represented teachers, parents and local business, amongst others. They had to manage their own budget and were centrally funded, receiving finances directly from the Department of Education (DoE; DfE), and were entitled to determine their own entry and selection policy (Blakemore, 2003, p. 119). LMSs, those who did not opt out, also were charged with managing a portion of the budget (85 per cent of it; Alcock et al., 2000) and planning development, with LEAs retaining reduced but significant involvement (ibid., p. 181). Specialist schools were established following this reorganisation. These schools were joint funded, part from government and part from busines...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Communication: The historical and current social policy context
• 2 What is communication? The process of transferring information
• 3 Listen to me, please . . .
• 4 Children’s voices: Working with children and young people with additional needs
• 5 Engaging with children, young people, families and carers at home and in other settings
• 6 Communicating with children, young people and families in health care contexts
• 7 Communicating with children: The legal dimensions
• Bibliography
• Index