Journey to appointing Children's Commissioner.......

In 1987 Alison Taylor was dismissed from her position in Gwynedd County Council. She had worked in their child services department since 1976, and throughout her time working in this area she had many concerns about the children living in residential care.
Alison Taylor made numerous attempts to raise these concerns, her superior showed little action or interest. Her next point of call was to the management at the county council, however as her superior was married to one of the Heads at the council, Alison Taylor took action by reporting the abuse to the Local Police.
Following this, Alison Taylor was suspended from her work place and eventually dismissed.

The police enquiry led to the lost in care investigation. The report that followed showed that the allegations of child abuse that Alison Taylor made were correct. The children in that lived in many residential homes in North Wales were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse.  The Waterhouse report was published in February 2000. The report has been criticised for only using specific homes and areas; however the cases of abuse found gave waterhouse grounds to make recommendations to improve the care system. These recommendations included, the duty to report abuse, regular visits to each child by a field social worker and the appointment of a Children’s commissioner.

By the time the Report was completed in 2000, the Government had brought the Child Protection Act 1999 into legislation. This was said to have addressed some of the issues. The bravery that Alison Taylor showed, and was condemned for, also brought to light the need for new whistleblowing procedures. In 2001, following the Lost in care investigation, the Welsh Children's Commissioner was appointed, with North Ireland following suit in 2003.

Victoria Climbie, was another victim of child abuse, that brought the lives of these children into the public eye. Victoria suffered abuse at the hands of her Aunt and her partner. Members of the local community had concerns over Victoria's wellbeing, however this wasn't enough to stop Victoria's murder. Once again an investigation took place, and a The Laming Report was produced. The Laming Report found many issues within Social services, that may have saved Victoria Climbie's life. This report also advised the placement of a children's Commissioner.

In 2004 The Children's Act became legislation, and Scotland chose their Children's Commissioner.

Finally in 2005 England caught up with the rest of the UK and also appointed a Children's Commissioner.

Reading these cases and their reports showed that child abuse was still an issue that had not been tackled. The Reports that were conducted 'Reccomended' changes that would be of great benefit to many children, and give workers in this field a voice, so why were these changes 'Reccomended' rather than being essential? Why did it take so long to enforce these changes? It seems to me that the welfare of our children is not a priority with the UK Government. The appointment of the Children's Commissioner has not eradicated child abuse, but i feel that had action been taken immediately, there would have been less cases of child abuse going undetected.

Vygotsky and Piaget-Development Theories. (Group presentation.)

This was my first experience of creating a presentation.
Myself, Bobby, and Saudah decided our topic, and divided the work. I had the task of comparing Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories and their critics.

Using the knowledge I already had, from our studies in class and my own reading, I set about gathering further information to add to our presentation. The reading material I chose from the library gave me a further understanding of the differences between Vygotsky and Piaget, and introduced me to other theorists that were inspired by their work.
By researching other theorists I was then able to pull together the criticisms and the evidence their critics produced. Once I had found this information I searched for online clips to bring these alternative views to life for my class mates.
I chose to use a clip that illustrates Martin Hughes 'Policeman task' and Piaget's 'Three Mountains'. In these clips we see that Piaget believed that a child can only see through their own perspective, however critics disagree. The Policeman experiment shows that children can see from another's point of view, but only when it is explained in a form they can understand. The Policeman task is said to be successful because children relate the experiment to games such as hide and seek.

After finding the information I wanted to use, I then produced slides to be combined with my groups explanation of the two theories.

Panorama:The truth about adoption

I really enjoyed watching this. I found it emotional, but very worth while!
I was surprised at the similarities in the cases reported and the honesty of the social workers when discussing with the children their past , present and future. In fact , maybe a little too honest in my opinion. There were also parts of the documentary that did not surprise me. Children being in the care system for years at a time, incomplete records leading to delays in cases, parents fighting their cause creating more confusion , and the distress these children showed.

After watching this first at home and then discussing it with my class mates I realised that I may have taken the programme at face value. It didn't occur to me that this film could be biased, cherry picking the families that took part. Just goes to show what value my school friends have! :-)

I truly hope that the children filmed find happiness and 'New' mummy's and daddy's, and that our adoption service can be improved for all those involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b019307z/

We Need to Talk about Dad. Channel 4.

Hey all!

This was one that Victoria Recommended! (Big Thank you!)

This programme follows the story of  2 siblings, who's lives changed after their father attacked their mother.
Really interesting viewing that gives an insight into family life after a traumatic experience.

Watching this gives us girls an idea of what it is like to be an older brother, coping with the feelings of anger and responsibility. I would say that although the breakdown of this family was due to a violent attack, that was totally out of character, it can be related to siblings from divorced parents.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/we-need-to-talk-about-dad/4od

Something I pinched from Bobby's blog! Mary Ainsworth BBC Radio 4.

Listened to this a few weeks ago. Thanks to Bobby for finding it! :-)

This podcast was by Bob Marvin, one of Mary Ainsworth's students. I found this a great way of understanding the outcomes of the 'Strange situation experiment'. Bob Marvin also gives a great insight into Mary Ainsworth's life.

The main points I took from this were:

• Type A (Insecure Avoidant) Mother returns, child acknowledges mother, then turns to carry on playing. This is known to be the most independent classification, in the past this has been seen as a positive trait, however a child of this type is said to be insecure and is lacking the emotional comfort a child needs. Parent's of this type are said to only respond to their child's positive behaviour.
• Type B (Secure Attachment) Mother comforts their child when they return, child id easily pacified and continues to play. Parents of type B react to both positive and negative signals.
• Type C (Insecure Ambivalent) Mother only responds to negative signals from their child.
• Type D (Previously known as Unclassified/Disorganised.) Child may appear dazed when their Mother returns to the room. Type D has been connected with personality disorders in adult life.
• Bob Marvin talks about adult attachment in this programme. He says that a person may be insecurely attached as a child but, through positive attachments, become securely attached in adult life. This is known as Earned Secure.

Hearing that the children we may know as insecure can become secure in the future gives me a warm fuzzy feeling! It seems all may not be lost when it comes to attachment theory.

Derren Brown-The Guilt trip.

I have got to be honest and say I have never been a Derren Brown fan. I have always found him a little weird and i'd never wanted to watch any of his programmes!
Although I still think he's weird, I found The Guilt trip fascinating! Thanks to Fiona for suggesting we watch it.

In this show Derren Brown used Ivor Pavlov's theory of Conditioning to produce feelings of guilt. Using an unsuspecting Surestart worker called Jody, who fitted the type of person who is most likely to make a false confession.

By inducing mild feelings of guilt then playing a bell sound and a touch on the shoulder (Conditioned stimulus), Jody began to feel guilt on Que. (Unconditioned response.)

The actors were also directed to confuse Jody and he began to have doubts in his memory. During dinner Jody was distracted while the actors swapped his plate, making it seem as if Jody had forgotten eating his meal. This reminded me of Piaget's Perception experiment.

Then as a trail run , Derren asked the actor's to play out a scenario where Jody would find a set of stolen pearls in his room. The conditioning tools were used and Joby started to panic. He then decided to hide the pearls and blame one of the actors. This is something that children often do to avoid being caught out.

This was great to watch, seeing how conditioning works and referring it to our studies. I did feel a little uncomfortable watching it, as I felt so sorry for poor Jody! Luckily he saw the funny side of it :-)

Jacques Lacan

Woah! Read up on this ages ago, but I didn't get chance to share it.

Jacques Lancan, like Sigmund Freud, is known as a Psychoanalyst. He also uses stages to explain how, when and why a child develops and relates this theory to the unconscious mind.

The First stage, from the age 0-6months is known as 'The Real' stage.
At this stage Lacan says that the child has no self awareness, believing that they and their mother are in fact one person. During this time Lacan also says that a child has no need for language as their mother provides all it's needs without having to communicate.

Next is the 'Mirror' stage. 6-18months. This, I think , can be taken literally, as it is when a child develops a sense of self (I/EGO). The child begins to recognise him/herself as an independent person , separate to it's mother.

The Phallus stage has similarities with Freud's theory. This is where a child will battle for their mothers attention and wishes to become her desire. Unlike Freud's theory , this is for both male and female infants. Following this period it is suggested that their Father will put a stop to this behaviour, this is said to be Castration. Castration is a critical time for children as this is when a child starts to develop speech. Lacan suggests that once their father demonstrates his power, the child realises that their mother does not solely belong to them, and that they need to be able to speak to communicate with her and with others, so that their needs can be met. At this time, children also learn about rules eg 'Fathers Rule' and children put this information into use by following the rules of language.

I can see why Lacan has set these stages and I believe that there is alot of truth in what he says, however this theory can only relate to the Nuclear family. I would be interested to know whether the same kind of stages are followed within a single parent family???