Professor Andrew Kendrick, Glasgow School of Social Work. Introduction John Campbell, Senior Lecturer, Glasgow School of Social Work. Strathclyde Faculty Professorial Lectures 12th February 2009.

2. … it is essential that we provide the necessary warmth, affection and comfort for children's healthy development if we are not further to damage emotionally children and young people who have usually had a raw deal from life (Children’s Safeguards Review, 1997)

5. Anti-residential bias Institutional Homely Unnatural Natural Risky Safe Bad Good Residential Family

7. “ Eddy’s always been there, but me and Eddy have bonded all well, that’s what I’m saying. I call him, he’s my dad, you know what I mean, but he seemed to have always been there when I was restrained or, anytime I’m angry, I’ve left the building, he always seems to be there.” (young person) (Steckley and Kendrick, 2005) “ She was like, a, like a sister, because… we… you know, we figured we looked alike and… we were really close. She was like family to me. (young person) (Jim Anglin, 2002) “ I always regarded this place as my house.. Everybody that was here was part of my family. All I’ve wanted for the last three, four years is somebody to be there for me. Somebody I can turn round to and talk to. (young person) (BBC, Social Workers) Family as metaphor in residential care

10. ‘… we have suggested that the imputed dichotomous contrast between given and chosen relationships is analytically shallow and that, in practice, there is a complex process of suffusion between familial and non-familial relationships.’ (Pahl and Spencer, 2004) ‘… children who, for whatever reason, are in state institutions may consider certain professional carers, highly committed to them, as ‘given’, although later in life they may recognize that their commitment could not be reciprocal.’ (Pahl and Spencer, 2004) Not simply families of ‘fate’ or ‘choice’

11. Not simply families of ‘fate’ or ‘choice’ Routine relations (of work, etc) close friends Chosen Relationships Pahl and Spencer (2004) more distant kin ‘ traditional’ family fictive kin Given Relationships Low Commitment High Commitment

12. The boundary between ‘familial’ and ‘non-familial’ relationships is increasingly blurred in everyday lives. There is certainly evidence for an extension of family relationships in terms of the language used so that individuals and practices may be described as being “like family” where it is clear that this is a positive evaluation. It is also evident from some of our studies that these non-familial intimate relations provide practical and emotional support for particular family members in such a way as to enable particular clusters of family relationships and practices to continue. (Jamieson et al. 2006) Blurring of boundaries

14. We met a number of participants who had experienced feeling accepted, secure and a sense of belonging in residential care. In the best experiences, participants thought of their residential carers as a kind of family… What often characterised the positive relationships in residential care was the continuing sense of security and safety, which could be relied on. (Happer, MacCreadie and Aldgate 2006, p.17)

21. It is in understanding children and young people’s centrality in the complex mesh of relations, relatedness and relationships that residential child care must find its true potential.

22. They didn’t treat it like residential, they treated me like family, basically… there was one worker who treated me like a daughter… it was more like a family home than residential (Female, 17)

23. Anglin, J. (2002) Pain, normality, and the struggle for congruence: Reinterpreting residential child care .Binghampton: Haworth Press. Carsten, J. (1995) The substance of kinship and the heat of the hearth: Feeding, personhood, and relatedness among Malays in Pulau Langkawi, American Ethnologist 22, 223-241. Carsten, J. (ed) (2000) Cultures of relatedness: New approaches to the study of kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carsten, J. (2004) After kinship. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Forrester, D. (2008) Is the care system failing children? The Political Quarterly 79 (2), 206-211. Garfat, T. (1998) The effective child and youth care intervention: A phenomenological inquiry. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 12 (1-2) Happer, H., MacCreadie, J. & Aldgate, J. (2006) Celebrating Success: What Helps Looked After Children Succeed . Edinburgh: Social Work Inspection Agency. Jamieson, L., Morgan, D., Crow, G. & Allan, G. (2006) Friends, neighbours and distant partners: Extending or decentring family relationships., Sociological Research Online, 11 (3). <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/11/3/jamieson.html>. Kendrick, A. (1995). Residential care in the integration of child care services . Edinburgh: HMSO/Central Research Unit. Kendrick, A. (ed.) (2008) Residential child care: Prospects and Challenges. London: Jessica Kingsley. Mason, J. & Tipper, B. (2008) Being related: How children define and create relatedness, Childhood 15(4), 441-460. Pahl, R. & Spencer, L. (2004) Personal communities: not simply families of ‘fate’ or ‘choice’. Current Sociology, 52 (2), 199-221. Simpson, B. (1994) Bringing the ‘unclear’ family into focus: Divorce and re-marriage in contemporary Britain, Man, 29 (4), 831-851 Sinclair, I., Baker, C., Lee, J. & Gibbs, I. (2007) The pursuit of permanence: A study of the English child care system . London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Steckley, L. & Kendrick, A. (2005) Physical restraint in residential child care: the experiences of young people and residential workers. Childhoods: Children and Youth in Emerging and Transforming Societies International Conference, 29 Jun - 3 Jul 2005, Oslo, Norway. Whitaker, D., Archer, L. and Hicks, L. (1998) Working in children’s homes: Challenges and Complexities. Chichester: Wiley.