7 - The benefit of hindsight: learning for policy and practice

Summary

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.

Mark Twain

Introduction

A Romanian proverb says that ‘a child with many midwives will end up with their umbilical cord uncut’ meaning that once a child is the job of many, the essential tasks of child rearing will be missed. Other countries have somewhat similar proverbs. The Dutch say that ‘many midwives, the child will be lazy,’ the Germans that ‘the child looked after by seven nannies is lost.’ Popular wisdom seems to suggest that as soon as several professionals are responsible for the child, the child stands no chance to succeed in life. In other words, odds are not great for children who, once entering care, become the job of many. Attempting to replace the assumed parental love which is ‘grounded in human nature’ (Dingwall et al, 1983, p 87) in the extreme circumstances when parents are unable to raise their children is not an easy task for any state.

In this chapter, I draw on the learning from this study to make suggestions for policy and practice, emphasising the current disconnect between children's needs and states’ offers to them, between children's voices and the global policies for children in care. This study suggests that the UNCRC provisions, if understood and applied, will help meet the children's needs. However, practice appears to be often disconnected from the children's rights paradigm. Although several studies (including this one) indicate that care works for many children, the discussed findings also indicate that many young people who grew up in the care system faced instability, discrimination and abuse while being in different types of placement. These experiences of undignified care contributed to a low self-esteem which often translated in adulthood into an undignified life: abusive relationships, work exploitation and a loss of the meaning of life. Beyond various disciplines that study children in care, irrespective of the concerns for outcomes, costs and benefits, there is ultimately a moral question that was posed two decades ago by Sir Michael Rutter (2000): ‘why does society value childcare so little and what should be done to change this?’ After decades of research undertaken in different countries, with a few notable exceptions, a state of either tacit frustration or of complacency seems to govern policy and research in child protection.