“An Evolution not a Revolution?”
26.07.19: This week I have been busy braving the tropical temperatures of over 38C (!) in London, travelling far and wide across the capital to visit a variety of Centrepoint services. These have ranged from low support self-contained flats, to higher support services with staff available 24 hours a day. Whilst speaking to staff in services this week, apart from the common theme of how to manage in this heatwave(!); what has struck me has been the high levels of skills and experience Centrepoint has within its staff team. And although services can be diverse in location, support level and the needs of the Young People they work with, I am realising that we have more in common with each other across the organisation than our differences. All the staff I have met are passionate about helping Young People to fulfil their potential, and often have gone above and beyond their job descriptions to provide a sense of a ‘home’ to those who reside in our services.
For example, I had the pleasure of attending a Housing and Support Staff Monthly Team Meeting this week, where I heard all about how staff had taken some young people ten pin bowling locally after they had learnt that they had never done this (having travelled unaccompanied across Africa and Europe to seek asylum in the UK), as well as having a ‘service outing’ including games and a picnic in the local park. Staff also spoke about working in partnership with local social services to provide opportunities for Young People to ‘step outside’ of their life in the city of London and experience a residential farm holiday in Wales, learning new skills and experiencing the UK countryside. Reports that the young people that attended learnt to milk cows and participate in the day to day farming tasks, were reflected on by staff to have been confidence and self-esteem building if at first somewhat daunting!
Staff have also continued to be open to what a Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) can bring to their ongoing work with Young People. Although there have been some big changes in UK politics this week, perhaps even arguably ‘revolutionary’, my growing awareness of the great level of skills and experience in our staff teams, has made me reflect that the Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) approach in Centrepoint will be an ‘evolution’ of what Centrepoint has been doing for the past 50 years, rather than a ‘revolution’.
Why an evolution then and not a revolution? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of ‘Revolution’ is ‘a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system …. A dramatic and wide-reaching change in conditions, attitudes, or operation’ whilst an ‘Evolution’ is a ‘gradual development of something over many years as they adapt to their environment’. Centrepoint has been around addressing youth homelessness for 50 years now, and their support model has had to adapt to the changing needs of the population it has served over this time. Youth Homelessness has changed somewhat over the past five decades, as evidenced by a recent research report by Centrepoint; ‘Talking About My Generation’ (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/media/3375/talkin-bout-my-generation.pdf). PIE builds on these existing skills and experience of the organisation (and its staff) over the past 50 years, to apply the latest psychological skills and knowledge to practice, to ensure that we are helping young people in the most up to date evidence based and effective manner possible.
The level of skills and experience of our staff in terms of both their professional qualifications (e.g. Social Work, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Youth Work, Housing Support etc) as well as their ‘on the job’ experience is highly valued within a PIE. These skills and experience will be further supported and developed within the organisation as we move forward in our future PIE training offers for staff as well as the roll-out of formal reflective practice later in the year, but are also valued and appreciated to date. Staff are already thinking in a psychologically informed manner at times, it will just be about increasing the consistency and evaluation of our psychologically informed practice moving forward. For example, I have witnessed staff thinking about how a young person’s early experience of trauma may impact on their later behaviour or mental health, as well as being reflective about issues in their day to day practice such as how they build relationships with young people. I have listened to staff generating ideas about how to work with young people to improve the physical environment, and in some cases seen where staff have literally got their hands dirty clearing up and improving spaces when needed, as well ‘going that extra mile’ to link a young person in to an education, training or leisure activity.
Finally, PIE also argues for the role of communication and sharing of this good practice, to ensure that all young people wherever in the UK they need to access our services (i.e. Bradford, Barnsley, Manchester, Sunderland or London) have the opportunities to achieve ‘a home and a job’, and a better future. Positively, whilst there are still challenges to overcome on Centrepoint’s PIE journey, I have seen this week that we have a great foundation to build upon and continue the ‘evolution’ of our services towards a Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE), which after all is perhaps a good thing in this heat as it’s far too hot for a ‘revolution’!
