Thinking about thinking about children’s social care

Thoughtlessness and thoughtfulness

It is observable that the public discourse and publications of recent times have routinely been concerned with instrumental action, purely goal-oriented behaviour, often primarily with the economics of children’s social care rather than the effects of children’s social care.

We have developed a thoughtfulness on some matters and as a result a thoughtlessness on others; we have left undone some important things whilst doing other things.

Scientific (research and policy) thinking has been kept separate from our reflective thinking, that this occurs prevents the critical thinking from the position of a reflective researcher-practitioner.

One means of moving on from this impasse is the role of an intermediary organisation to ensure all get everything necessary to meet needs.

De-composition and Re-composition needs all the voices present

Taking a much wider view we can see we are at a moment of economic and social decomposition, and before the cycle turns to re-composition. The domination of a particular economic view structures to social, including the social work/care that is possible.

At this moment we need all the voices present in the thinking about the re-composition that will involve us all. Looking at the voices we can see that national and local government and their agencies along with a few organisations dominate the discourse. These direct discussions, what is to be discussed and how.

New task and role needed – practitioner action researchers

There are few practitioner action researchers.

New deliberative learning process

We need to validate, fund and develop a collaborative learning process that operates through discussions.

The context of the research and researcher are vital ingredients of our understandings of conclusions.

We need diversity of views to resolve the current challenges. We need not only to study the conclusions of research but also the ways they have been constructed. The idea of a deliberative democratic approach is a worthy investment.

The download is a longer article that includes more and a reading of the work of Jurgen Habermas over the decades gives us insight into the deliberations concerning RCC. CLICK HERE TO READ