As part of my current practice, I am a teaching assistant working with children aged 4-7 in an infant school. My current role is within year one and consists of supporting teaching and learning in the classroom. As part of this essay, I will be looking at what a community is and why a community is important to children and young people. I will also, look at the skills and values that are needed by practitioners to support children and young people.
There are many different ideas and definitions of what a community is. Every person has a different perspective on what a community is and where communities take place. Communities are often identified by the purpose of their location, interest, and identity. They range from the street where you live, the hobbies and clubs you attend, and the friends that you socialize with. With advancements in technology, communities are not just the physical place or group that you go to. Communities now happen online, where you will be interacting with people whom you do not know and will never see physically. For example, the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire shows how social media is a form of community. This virtual world offered support from people whom they did not know or they cannot see physically (The Open University, 2018).
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MacQueen (2001) offers a definition of community as being a group of people with different characteristics, social ties, perspectives, and the same geographical location or setting. This definition of community, relationships, and connections between people is important to understand how people interact with each other. However, Putman (2003) argued that communities must have lots of different relationships that will then weave into the groups and communities formed. These groups and communities will be able to help each other and partake in mutual support and trustworthiness. It is the social capital of communities that is instrumental and fundamental in forming communities from the connections of different people. Whilst these different definitions of communities offer an adult’s view, they do not give the views of children and young people and how communities affect their lives (The Open University, 2018).
The way in which children view a community is very similar to the way that adults do. Just like adults depending on the values that the child has will determine the way in which they view a community. Bessell (2017) interviewed a range of children in Australia and they came up with a definition of community. A community must be a space in which people are connected socially and are known to each other. They should provide support, friendship, respect, and kindness to everyone in the community.
Bronfenbrenner (2018) states that children live within complex layers of the socio-ecological model. These different layers within the model highlight that human development is a combination of family, community, and the wider society. The child is based in the middle of the model and will move through the different layers when using the different communities. Children need a wide range of opportunities from a young age to form relationships that they will take into different communities. These different opportunities will ensure that children can use the three different types of social capital to connect with different people and their values.
When talking about communities, people often positively talk about them. What children see as being important to them are the ways in which they integrate themselves into the group, friends, status, and a sense of trust and safety. The positive aspects of a community can often be seen in the aftermath of disasters. The video clips regarding the disaster of the Grenfell Tower fire show how the community and community groups came together to help the people who had been through the ordeal. Positive relationships with adults in the community are important for children’s well-being. They can create a wider social network and help children to develop a sense of value, purpose, identity, and attachment to a community.
Whilst, people talk about the positive effects of a community, there are also negative effects that can make children and young people feel excluded from the community. Different types of communities can have a negative effect on children and young people. Young people joining gangs, being made to commit crimes, online bullying and grooming are examples of negative effects on young people. Some of the negative effects that came about in Bessell’s (2017) research were how adults exercised their power; adults not allowing children to use public spaces and play equipment in parks aimed at younger children.
To support children and young people, practitioners need to work together with a wide range of skills and values. Skills are the ability to conduct a particular task with expertise, while values are beliefs that individuals hold about themselves and their profession (The Open University, 2018). Each different practitioner will have their own set of skills and values that they see as important and central to their profession. These skills and values shape how practitioners conduct their job roles. With two people’s skills and values not being the same, it can offer challenges when everyone is working together.
When working with children and young people there can be a wide range of practitioners involved with a child and their family. These different practitioners will have a wide range of skills and knowledge to work in a holistic approach. To work in a holistic approach, they should focus on the whole family, making sure that they are empowered and integrated with all the different practitioners in a coordinated way. The skills and values that practitioners will use integrate into a way where all practitioners work together. Interprofessional working between groups of practitioners should work together in an integrated and effective way, with the family at the center. These skills and values should benefit the common goal that all the practitioners will work towards.
Within the video clip in Activity 3.1 (The Open University, 2018), Yvonne identifies some key skills that are needed when working with children and young people. She states that being patient, not having quick fixes, taking small steps, supporting others, and being aware of your own mental health and well-being are important skills and values to have. Whilst, these are good skills to have they are not the only ones that are needed in order to effectively support children. Gavin, in the audio clip which is part of Activity 3.5 (The Open University, 2018h), identifies some different skills and values that practitioners need when working as part of a multi-agency team. These are good communication skills, being clear on job roles, empathy, sharing ideas, and being prepared to listen.
However, there can be difficulties and challenges when practitioners work together. The fragmenting of services makes multi-agency working more difficult. While the government has tried to streamline services and merge services together, they have created more challenges for multi-agencies to work together. Some of these challenges could be not having the time to meet together, the amount of staff and their workloads, lack of space to hold meetings, not being able to meet face to face, and some practitioners not having the correct knowledge.
These challenges are highlighted within serious case reviews which are carried out after the death of a child. The recommendations that are made in the review are there to inform and promote changes. The serious case review into Daniel Pelka’s death makes recommendations on how practitioners can work together in a holistic approach around the child and their family. These recommendations will then change national policies and procedures. ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018) shows many of the recommendations around multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. It talks about the shared responsibility between agencies, information being shared effectively, and inter-agency training.
To conclude, there are many different ideas and definitions about what a community is. Children and young people require lots of different opportunities to forge relationships to help them be part of a community. There are lots of positives about being part of a community, and positive relationships are an important aspect of a child’s well-being. Whist, there are positives there are also negatives. Even though children and adults have similar views of the community, definitions do not take into account the child’s view. Finally, when practitioners are working with children and young people, they use many different skills and values. There are many positive skills and values that practitioners use when working as part of a multi-agency group that will enable practitioners to work in a holistic approach with families. However, when these skills and values are not used correctly, they can lead to serious consequences. Serious case reviews highlight the challenges that practitioners face when working in a multi-agency environment. These challenges go on to inform national policies and procedures which will help to improve services.
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