The current pandemic has highlighted the issue of schools being the main hub for social care for children. I will outline the problem with this and then outline how the pandemic has presented three opportunities we can capitalise on to fix this issue. I believe the solution could help other groups along side children as well.
As community services have been cut schools have increasingly become the hub for child social care. We have seen in the pandemic how school closures have affected children and in particular disadvantaged students. We, as a country, are already aware of the impact of a lack of social care for older citizens; however, the pandemic has highlighted the issue for other groups in society as well. As a teacher, I strongly believe that schools have a large role to play in social care for children but that we are failing our students if we are the only ones providing it.
Firstly, schools are only open for 180 days a year, meaning that the issues that have been felt during schools closures were already happening 185 days a year. When a school is the main place for support for children than support is only given for half the year. Additionally, children only start attending school at the age of four. Even then, issues can missed or support can not be given if children have poor attendance or are schools refusers (more likely for disadvantaged students). Identifying issues can be harder in secondary schools, where older children are more worried about bringing issues in to school for multiple reasons and where teachers only see a child for an hour at a time or for 30mins a day as a form tutor. It can therefore take time to gain the trust of a child or collect a whole picture. This is especially difficult in schools that have a high turnover in staff or a lot of supply teachers (more likely in disadvantaged areas).
Secondly, schools are predominately focused on the child. In order to help and support children, then the whole family needs to be worked with and supported. Although schools can call parents in, they do not see them regularly and some parents can distrust schools due their own experiences. This is the current procedure in place with groups and agencies working around a child but in practice this happens for few children and only for children who need the most help, due to a lack of services and these most often being privately run. This is a system of treating the problem instead of preventing it. If we could do this more regularly it would mean intervention and help could be given sooner.
Lastly, teachers are not trained social workers. Although we receive safeguarding training and have a duty of care to identify issues, we are not qualified to treat them. We are trained to teach and impart knowledge not support families. As a teacher, I have been asked by parents for advice and help and have found myself completely unable to help. I am not trained and I am not a parent, even if I was it doesn’t mean I would be in the best place to give advice.
However, there are three opportunities this pandemic has bought about that can be capitalised on to solve this. I believe that we should establish community centres staffed by volunteers and qualified social workers that can become community hubs for support and help. Above all, they could help more than just children but others in the community as well. These centres could offer help and advice, run classes and education and be there to support when schools are closed in holidays.
The first opportunity here is the push for people to retrain after other industries going out of business. The government retraining website would have suggested social care for many people and we should encourage people to retrain in this area. However, people won’t be able to retrain without support. A bursary should be provided so that people can afford to train in social care. If not people will not be able to as they will need to prioritise finding another job straight away to support their families. In Denmark, the government supports people who are unemployed for a number of months so that they can take the time to gain the qualifications and experience they need to get the job they want. If we are seriously about “levelling up” we need to give people the support and time they need to do so.
The second opportunity is the sense of community and the volunteers that have come forward. People have seen the benefits of volunteering and felt the rewards that come with it; many will want to continue. This community centres will need volunteers to help run them so that they qualified social workers can focus on outreach work and supporting. Adding to this, volunteering and giving back is proven to benefit mental health. This will help to bring communities together and keep the spirit from the pandemic alive.
Lastly, high streets and town centres up and down the country now have empty units. These empty units could be used to house the centres. In a similar way to charity shops who don’t have to pay business rates. Having these community unit on high streets, will draw people back to them and bring a centre back to towns. When the economy does open up, it will mean people will come back to high streets and are more likely to shop and frequent others services in town centres.
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