Poverty –aware PRACTICE: Listening to Families

1. Poverty –aware PRACTICE:Listening to Families ATD Fourth World and Prof. Anna Gupta

2. Participatory approaches with families living in poverty The relational experience of poverty is one of social and political exclusion and discrimination, including the absence or marginalisation of the voices and participation of the poor in policy, political and social circles (OHCHR, 2012). Lister (2015) urges us to reconceptualise how we understand poverty by listening to people who directly experience it. Only then can we begin to create truly effective and respectful anti-poverty policies and practices. People who live in poverty know the solutions to their problems better than anyone else. Asking their opinions and giving them a voice is essential if we are to come to any true understanding of poverty and what can be done to eradicate it. (ATD Fourth World family member)

3. ATD Fourth World ATD Fourth World is an anti-poverty organisation with over 40 years' experience of tackling inequality and promoting social justice in the UK. We work in direct partnership with families and individuals experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Families are involved in the organisation as ‘activists’ who themselves contribute to developing and implementing the anti-poverty work that ATD Fourth World undertakes.

4. PVERTY MATTERS:UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights – about the UK in 2018 • In the past two weeks I have talked with people who depend on food banks and charities for their next meal, who are sleeping on friends’ couches because they are homeless and don’t have a safe place for their children to sleep, who have sold sex for money or shelter, children who are growing up in poverty unsure of their future, young people who feel gangs are the only way out of destitution, and people with disabilities who are being told they need to go back to work or lose support, against their doctor’s orders. • For almost one in every two children to be poor in twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one.

5. Poverty matters to children and families • 4.1 million children, now live in poverty, a rise of half a million - many in working families • Foodbank use is rising – directly attributable to low/inadequate income and benefit changes • Over 130,000 children were in temporary accommodation over Christmas 2018. • Children’s centres, youth services, refuges and other support services being cut • Increasing numbers of children on Child Protection plans and continuing rise in compulsory out of home care – year on year • Over 83% of children on child protection plans for emotional abuse and neglect in 2018 – 4.4% sexual abuse & 7.7% physical abuse • A child in the most deprived decile of neighbourhoods nationally had an 11 times greater chance of being CPP and 12 times greater chance of being LAC than a child living in the most affluent decile.

6. Giving Poverty a Voice The Giving Poverty a Voice: Social worker training project– • Participatory methodology • 8 workshops bringing together individuals with experience of poverty and child protection social work intervention, practitioners and academics. • Aims to contribute to the knowledge base the development of critical social work practice and a training programme run by family members for social workers • Have published articles, summary of workshops and conference presentations

7. Relationship between poverty and social work Families living in poverty are more likely to experience some form of social work intervention in their lives. As well as having an understanding of how poverty impacts on the lives of children and families, social workers need to have a critical awareness of the impact on their practice: Lister (2013: 112) defines poverty as not only being about material disadvantage and economic insecurity but also a ‘shameful social relation, corrosive of human dignity and flourishing, which is experienced in interactions with the wider society and in the way people in poverty are talked about and treated by politicians, officials, professionals, the media, and sometimes academics’. Poverty is……..?

8. Poverty is…? • Poverty has both material and emotional/psychological components • Material = direct consequences of low income, e.g. • Food and fuel poverty • Debt and reliance on loans • Inadequate and insecure housing • Emotional/psychological = indirect consequences of low income derived from wider societal perceptions, e.g. • Shame as a result of stigma/discrimination/stereotyping (‘povertyism’) • Lack of self-esteem • Pressure from unrealistic societal expectations about needing to have the ‘latest’ things • Feelings of failure for not being able to provide for children

9. Links with the child protection system in England • From support to policing – “Disappearing help” -effectively robs what should be ‘an automatic resource for families who are struggling’ • Fear, blame and distrust permeate the CP system - feeling judged increases stress and undermines parenting • The impact of poverty often not recognised–complex inter-relationship with parenting problems ignored – e.g. mental health • “Othering” processes and poverty related shame compounded by shaming inherent in a deficit-based, risk-averse child protection system (e.g. parents blamed for using of food banks)

10. Shame and child protection practice • Home visits were highlighted as shameful experiences when social workers behaved dismissively or disrespectfully (checking fridges and bedrooms) • Feelings of shame were also connected to parents’ sense of ‘a lack of control’ over decisions that impacted on their lives. • Child protection conferences (meetings) were particularly singled out as spaces where participants felt ‘lost’, ‘invisible’, ‘powerless’ and ‘voiceless’. • Family members spoke of sometimes not understanding what was going on at the conference or even why it was being held, and as a result ‘feeling stupid because you don’t understand’.

11. Understanding marginalization – Angela’s story • I believe that going to school is important. Kids need to get a good education because it will help them find a job when they are older. If they can find a job then they can earn money and I want my children to earn money so they can pay their own bills and become independent. • Two and a half years ago, in a case conference, the school complained that my daughters were being late for school and sometimes missing school altogether. It was because they had no zipcards. This meant they could be thrown off the bus and the school complained about their poor attendance. • It's fair to say that it was disrupting their education. They were missing out. But I don't remember the school or social services ever asking if they could help. • I realised that we needed a plan to get their zipcards sorted out but it was not easy: • Firstly, you have to apply online but I had no computer at home and no way to get online. • Second, you also need an email address to apply online. I don't have a computer so I didn't need one.  • Third, to apply for a zipcard, I needed the girls' birth certificates. And I needed passport sized photos too. We had lost the birth certificates a long time ago so we had to order them online and that cost money. And we didn't have any passport sized photos so we had to buy them as well. • Importantly also the importance of support and advocacy (provided by ATD workers)

12. Recognise complexity – systemic causation • “I am supporting a couple of families where it’s clear that there is material deprivation, but there is also severe depression from the mother and that is raising questions over whether she can look after the children. So it’s not clear cut what the issues are at play there. If the child is taken away, no one will say it is because of material deprivation, but that the mother can’t cope because of mental health. But it’s not that simple, there are many factors building up and material deprivation can play a huge role. Parents are judged because of the way they are suffering for things sparked by material deprivation”. (ATD family member)

13. Lack of Recognition&Respect • A lack of empathy • Double standards • Lack of recognition of family circumstances • Lack of recognition of efforts made, changes and progress • Misrepresenting people and not respecting knowledge • Communication breakdowns • … unless it’s part of the training and social workers realise that the person walking in to them is already scared of them, protective, panicking for their children – unless they know that, they don’t understand the human reaction – you know they think “why’s she so aggressive?” Because I’m bloody terrified they are going to take my children away! It’s normal, it’s not abnormal.  • “When I read it I thought ‘this isn’t me!’ ….I couldn’t even understand it, all the jargon in it. It’s not made for lay people it’s made for academics that are going to read it. But for the parent, when it’s about you, you want to understand it, you want to know what they are saying.”

14. What is Recognition&Respect?

15. A family member’s perspective • “social workers are perhaps one of the most intimate relationships we have with the state, and it’s someone who has a lot of power over us… if that person is not treating us with recognition and respect, what it’s doing to our self-esteem, our sense of themselves, regardless of the success of the social work relationship, is actually terribly damaging. • It’s reinforcing all the negative stuff we are seeing in the media or hear politicians talk… Whereas if actually you’ve got at least one person in authority that you feel is on your side and who does recognise you, that actually can be quite a turning point…”.

16. POVERTY-AWARE RELATIONSHIP-BASED SOME practice implications (1) • Ask yourself: What are my values and beliefs regarding poverty? What are the implications for my practice? • Critically reflect on and challenge assumptions of own and others especially in a risk averse system that individualises blame - often fuelled by dominant political and media discourses • Incorporate social & economic context into all assessments and interventions • What is this family’s story? • What is life like for this child and this family in this housing and in this neighbourhood? –inc. disability, racism and immigration issues • What are the material circumstances and how does this impact on functioning (including psychological impacts) • How do I know this? What can be done together? • Recognise complexity: • A multi-factorial analysis of causes of problems – avoid simple & often blaming explanations • Inter-relatedness of poverty and other forms of structural inequality with other problems (e.g. mental health, domestic violence) • Material/ practical help helps • “The kids wanted to go and do holiday activities. They go and do it from 10-4. But it was too expensive for us to afford it. So social services paid for them to be able to go for a week to the summer clubs, which gave us a break, which really made a difference for us too. And they paid for a school uniform.”

17. POVERTY-AWARE RELATIONSHIP-BASED SOME practice implications (2) • Advocacy is important – welfare rights & support through the CP system (including peer parent advocacy) • Value families’ hopes and aspirations – ask what would help them not only parent their children safely but also enable them to flourish? • Engagement / co-production with families to develop more humane processes and practices • Going to a conference for any family is going to be shaming and there isn’t any way to completely alleviate the shame, but we can at least ask what we can do to make the process a little bit easier, alleviate the anxiety, give the families an understanding/more knowledge about what the process is all about. • Acknowledge context, recognize strengths and build trusting relationships: • It took time, but I could feel a change in me. I was being accepted rather than changed. I wasn't being changed to fit what someone else thought I should be; I was changing because I was being helped to realise that I needed to. It was my choice to change; not theirs. • Attend to micro level of everyday experiences of people in poverty, in which they feel the effects of and resist material and affective impacts • ‘If you don’t believe the person in front of you is equal – how can you treat them with recognition and respect?’ • Social activism – alongside people living in poverty is also crucial

18. Challenges & Opportunities?

19. ATD Fourth World 48 Addington Square London SE5 7LB Tel: 020 7703 3231 Website: www.atd-uk.org Email: atd@atd-uk.org Twitter: @ATDFourthWorld www.facebook.com/ATDFourthWorld Registered Charity No. 209367