Working with Children

Are You Considering a Career in Child Care?

Having worked in residential child care from the late 1980’s until 2006 I have noticed several indicators to predict which new staff members may survive the long and poorly paid hours.

What was uncovered was that a care worker needs an extremely thick and durable skin with the camouflage abilities of a chameleon. A heart constructed of diamond, the verbal skills of a hostage negotiator, all the tacked and awareness of a cardiovascular specialist, the stealth of a ninja and the physical stamina and combat experience of a SAS solider.

The most important quality though would be a slightly warped and very un-P.C. sense of humour.

A typical shift began at 6:30 am with some of the staff showering followed by the checking and packing all the safety equipment, the food supplies and vehicle. The young people and the remaining few staff who found mornings a particular challenge, were awoke at 8 am for breakfast. By 9 am the kitchen was cleaned and closed and by 9:30 am all were loaded into a large twin axle mini bus.

The day was taken up driving the 150 miles through the winter blizzards and snow drifts coving the roads to the foot of a very large, dark mountain. The journey then continued up a rather steep, twisting and dilapidated mountain track, with a shear drop to the valley floor on one side and a crumbling mountainside on the other.

Accompanying the sound of the over-revving engine, was the rather tuneless screams of “we are going to die” only ceasing once the vehicle had mounted the top of the ridge and had parked amongst some old mine workings deep in the mountains of Wales.

In this environment, these skills and abilities can be demonstrated by the care worker finding novel ways to encourage groups of inner-city teenagers to willingly and enthusiastically disembark from a nice warm bus into the pitch black and freezing atmosphere of the Welsh mountains.

Another demonstration is the ability to encourage a sense of wonder in the minds of these young people in regarding the surrounding moss-encrusted ruins of the abandoned slate mine buildings, which give only the barest indication that human civilisation ever existed.

The ideal care worker also needs abundant personality, charm and wit to persuade these reluctant teenagers, to change out of their designer clothing, and dress in grubby caving suits, rubber boots, helmets and head torches, and squeeze their “Super-size-me-Ronald MacDonald” bodies through the tiny mine-entrance hole to a narrow, damp and lightless passage, deep into the mountain.

Unfortunately these talented staff are rare and they tend to be overlooked and under-valued. They are hardly recognised or honoured by employers and it is seldom explained fully, to the applicants at the interview stage, that these traits are skill requirements for the job.

Fortunately social workers, inspectors, and the boss, have a tendency to work during the day when they are safe from the children. These professionals generally do not understand or particularly appreciate the forms of stress relief that care workers require.

The boss, especially when he is showing around venture capitalists who are destined to become your new boss, may not be supportive of any stress management techniques which fall outside of the typical focus group.

Over a 72 hour shift, some relaxation time for staff away from responsibility is important, and midnight would be regarded as a fairly safe time to be carried, squawking like a parrot, on the shoulders of a colleague to the amusement of other wild and crazy looking staff members, and is unlikely cause alarm to anyone of a sensitive nature.

All of these antics were followed by “individual client report writing” and the accounting for the day’s expenditure.

Naturally the day ended with the full body length bubble wrap squashing final.

Employees who lack these qualities are generally socially responsible individuals, that tend to be good natured and kind. Have a good, moral sense of personal and social duty towards their fellow man. They may follow religious edicts which have a requirement to giving back something to the world, or working off bad karma. There are even the, “I really love kids and would really want to help them” personality types; they all have something in common: they have all been known to leave in tears after a few short hours.

‘Why don’t they like me; why are they so horrible to me?’ They cry, the answer, “Because they can”.

Any new staff member embarking on this voyage of the “Good Ship Childcare” should be aware of were all the exit signs are, the location of your flotation device and have a working knowledge on how the life boat works.

These young people, who have been often neglected, have been the victims and the perpetrators of violence, sexual abuse and criminality. They have experienced very little true friendship and have little trust in adults, particularly when those adults may represent authority.

Young people can be cruel and capricious, manipulative and devious and some adults cannot deal with this side of young peoples’ behaviour and find the experience too upsetting.

So fellow shipmates, if you are unable to make these young mutineers walk the metaphorical gang plank, you generally end up walking it yourself.