Artsmonkey Blog

Two weeks ago I had one of those phonecalls. No,  not that kind of call. I mean one of THOSE phonecalls where the hair on the back of your neck prickles and you just know it’s going to be something good.  This call, went something along the lines of “Hello, you don’t know me but I work for LGiU, you responded to my boss via twitter and we’re doing something you might be interested in…” I listened, my curiosity was piqued by the mention of the words Children in Care and breakfast, count me in!

On reading the information Jasmine Ali Head of Children’s Services Network had sent me about LGiU’s proposal to get people round a table to look at “Only the best is good enough: improving education for children in care” all kinds of thoughts arose, like ‘ How come only 6% of care leavers go on to  university’?  ‘If children in care have wealthiest parent of all – the state, why is the state failing them’? What should be happening that isn’t? Is it lack of aspiration or lack of support from within and around our education system.  What about those who aren’t in the care system but through poverty, neglect or disruptive domestic lives struggle to engage with education fully and get the best from it.? It’s 2010 why haven’t we got it right by now!

The Local Government Information Unit’s (LGiU) strap line is INFORMATION INNOVATION INFLUENCE I’m a great believer in all of these things so I was keen to meet some like-minded people but unsure whether I was the right person to be sat round the breakfast table. I’ve been working with Jo Kavanagh from Medway  Looked after Children Team who is getting her teeth into the very same issue, so  I replied, suggesting she be invited and that a young person who had experience of the care system and who had gone on to University should also be present. Horses mouth and all that.

So here I am on the train home having spent an incisive two hours listening to experts and evangelists from Government, NSPCC and Local Authority settings talking over points raised, quoting statistics, facts, models and ideas and here’s what I’m taking away with me:

The solution will have to be about: the ability to make relationships (there was a lot of talk about social pedagogy (google it) and how building relationships are at the heart of good social work and a young person’s entitlement to have support from at least one trusted adult but it’s also about making relationships between a whole range of interested parties, the professionals who are involved in the lives of young people in care.

Consistency and transition. It has been proven that there are several points in a young person’s life when they are particularly vulnerable we tend to link these points to their learning journey, for example, starting school (sure start was introduced to help make this a positive and beneficial experience for the very young and their parents and carers) and then from primary to secondary education which ties in with emotional and hormonal changes (puberty) and then from secondary education to further and higher education which is, or should be, a much broader period of time given that young people in care aged 16 to 18  are having to deal with independency, and a range of practical issues that many young people don’t have to face until their mid-twenties or on leaving university.

The system we have has too many gaps, there is not enough focus on emotional and mental wellbeing, there is not enough understanding and listening. For the professionals working within that system it is very hard to put away their defence shields and be open to new perspectives. The system is large and there is not enough proof of efficacy, too much patching of the engine when perhaps the engine needs to be replaced?

There are significant obstacles to consistency of care. One is funding, two is lack of professionals with the right level of experience and skill and three is the tension between positive support and preventative measures and safeguarding practise and getting the balance between intervening too early or too late.

There are lots of models and examples of work being done by Children and Families Services across the country to work with ‘aiming high’ (google this as well)  and colleges and universities, or to run summer schools or set up virtual learning networks and even in the south west a ‘virtual school  council’ but there isn’t a framework to capture and evidence the benefits and value of the individual models, there isn’t enough evaluation that would allow for a clearer more focussed solution. May be because some of this work is only beginning ?

And finally, now is the time to act because the figures are shocking and if it’s left too long, the only way to improve the situation will be drastic measures and the people who will lose out if drastic measures and knee jerk interventions are imposed will be the young people themselves and they’ve got enough to deal with haven’t they.

It was good to know that something like LGiU exists, comforting to discover they are passionate, committed people who want action not just words, they’ve been listening very carefully and are ready to ‘kick off’.  Ripples in a pond or maybe in terms of a think tank, spreading thought waves across the social webverse and beyond?

Now I must go and google CHATHAM HOUSE RULES to find out just WHAT happened at Chatham House that resulted in the coining of the phrase.

So far this year snow stopped travel plans and play commenced (as long as my feet and hands are warm I love the snow!). Being based in South Wiltshire I had to go looking for it at first but once it finally settled everything looked beautiful and so began a magical start to the year.

Creativity 4 Health is in its final and most exciting year. The project co-ordinator, lead consultant and I, have put our artistic heads together and come up with a cookery theme for linking the various strands, events and legacies of the project together. Food has always been close to my heart and there has been an upsurge of food-linked art work emerging through 2009. I am now doubly motivated to mine and excavate examples from participating Local Authorities  of how involvement with creative activities has inspired, enhanced and developed emotional, mental and  physical wellbeing for foster-children and foster-carers across the South East (or should that be recipes?). I’m also excited about our celebration event in October that is currently being shaped and planned by Kevin Skinner Ltd. Also the Creativity 4 Health website being developed by Alive With Ideas (and indeed they are!) is moving on apace as is the training package aimed at up-skilling foster carers to participate in creativity sessions with their foster children along with the accompanying *creativity cookbook* we aim to put together.

I’m also excited about working with the new South East regional development agency for the Arts Award  ‘Future Creatives’. Down the road from me the Portsmouth and urban South Hampshire ‘Find your Talent’ scheme has been promoting and enabling young people to undertake the Arts Award  and artists and arts organisations to deliver it in partnership with Artsworks ‘Academy’ project. Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership (OYAP) have just launched their young leaders scheme in association with Creative Junction and Oxford Brookes. The Arts Council England have launched their ‘Achieving Great Art for Everyone’ consultation and I really hope that this time they will listen to feedback and then get out there and talk to the people who respond rather than treat it as an information giving exercise dressed up as ‘debate and discussion’ the comments on Mark Robinsons brief on the ACE website are well worth a read. It’s all go, go, go.

Plus there has been the adventure of enabling young people to take over an empty shop unit aka ‘The Unit’ and turn it into a ‘youth info centre’. Myself and Director Ruth Jones at Firestarter Arts and Keith Gale the Project Manager have learnt so much about the responsibility of taking over an empty shop; from leasehold agreements to chasing changing goal posts from potential funders to handling difficult behaviour and public misconceptions but our voluntary youth committee have given impromptu presentations at local council area board meetings, met and talked with local politicians, community police, city business representatives and managers, been interviewed on local radio and shown determination and skill in acclimatising to a world of commerce with monetary expectations requiring instant outcomes and constant reassurance.

We’re getting there. Summary update = Gala Bingo the owners and our immediate neighbours have continued to support and encourage, a carpenter made us some shop window display boards, a young digital media artist has offered to help us utilise technology to promote information and activities, a local church has donated the collection from a carol concert and we have a badge making machine and to be honest, somehow the badge machine is THE thing – I had no idea just how brilliant a marketing tool a badge machine could be. It’s a very promising start to what was always going to be a challenging year.

Oh yes and this July will see another *shift* in how things happen as Pilot Theatre Company and York Theatre Royal host the third annual #Shift Happens conference . ALT SHIFT on the 5^th and 6^th July looks at Arts, learning and technology; building and strengthening networks, policy, ideas, approaches and conversations – can’t wait! Mentally, I’m already in the queue for the  bar-b-q on the opening evening.  As they say on Twitter and Facebook – YAY!