Check your thinking card set Instructions
These cards have been developed from the Keeping Safe research project. They are a way of sharing core findings and key messages from the research, and have been designed for use as a reflective/discussion tool for practitioners and professionals working with children and young people.
They are designed for use in pairs, teams or small groups, to facilitate discussion and shared learning, but they can also be used individually. Use them how best suits, but we have some suggestions:
The images can be a starting point – what do you think the image is about? What would you expect the messages from the research to be for this issue?
The core messages in the
text can be used to reflect
on understandings. Do the messages align with your own thinking and practice? Do they align with the practice contexts you work in?
The ‘stop and think’ sections provide specific examples/ questions to focus on for discussion. Reflect on good practice too! Are there other examples?
Finally, what are the challenges presented by or in the messages? At what level? What could be changed, what can you do? What can others do? Who is important here?
1 'Placement Moves'
Moving children and young people has significant consequences for them.
The more moves a child or young person experiences, the higher their chances are of becoming victims of sexual exploitation later on. It also raises the chances of them:
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going on to experience abuse in intimate relationships in early adulthood;
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having an unstable housing situation in later life;
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not being in education and/or employment.
Moving children contributes to life feeling unpredictable and uncertain.
It can be experienced as a lack of belonging and lead to feelings of having no control. Without a stable home life, feelings of rejection and insecurity are exacerbated.
Does the way we talk about this and manage this with a young person reflect this?
‘Placements’?
home
home-away-from-home
better-than-home
next-best-to-home
not real home
‘Placement moves’ ‘being taken into care’, ‘placement breakdown’?
‘having to leave home’
‘being moved from someone’s house’ ‘we need you to feel ‘at home’’
‘is this feeling like home’
‘do you feel at home here’
2 Your Risk Lens
Where is your ‘risk lens’? What is the focus of the concern?
Young people were angry at the bodily or behavioural attention they received, and the seemingly limited concern for them and their happiness.
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They know about risks and the potential consequences of risky behaviours;
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They engage in these because they feel frustrated, or they are angry, or they want to have fun.
‘Keep safe’ or ‘risk education’ is too narrow a focus for any intervention. This focus can mean that young people themselves become the objects of concern.
Professionals’ attention on risks can reinforce a young person’s frustrations or anger, if the focus is not on changing things for them or their circumstances, and centres on them changing their behaviours.
Are they attending school?
Are they attending school?
‘Is school safe?‘
‘Are you happy in school?’
‘Is there anything you like about school?’
‘Placement moves’ ‘being taken into care’, ‘placement breakdown’?
‘having to leave home’
‘being moved from someone’s house’ ‘we need you to feel ‘at home’’
‘is this feeling like home’
‘do you feel at home here’