Where are the stewards of English Residential Child Care today?
NCERCC sees that the following definition of stewardship embodies the values and actions necessary for to take responsibility for Residential Child Care, “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” https://www.communitycommons.org/collections/Stewardship
Stewards must have a vested interest in promoting and protecting the definition, role, task, purpose of something. Stewards work on the front lines, actively building consensus and encouraging the cross-sector collaboration necessary to create lasting change. The first step in effective system change is shifting mindsets and changing mental models. The policies and practices of any health system are based on certain deeply held beliefs and assumptions about how to best improve health and well-being.
All involved in any activity can be a steward. It is not something that can only be held by leaders, and often others outside of a group identified as exercising the formal responsibility of stewardship hold an essential accountability. Often there can be a ‘call back’ process if the stewards are considered to be drifting off task and jeopardising the definition, values and actions.
Two essentials for evaluating the effectiveness of stewardship are;
Do you feel a sense of belonging? This centres on relationships and support
- Do you feel there is a sense of pride in RCC?
- Is there a strong network among people and places?
- Are we involved in collective problem-solving activities?
- Do you feel a participant or a passenger?
- Do we feel our community is strong?
- Does our future look positive? If not, are we taking measures for positive change?
Do you feel that what you are involved in is thriving?
- Do we feel recognised and respected?
- Do we have an abundance of resources that enhance the quality of what we do with and for and about children?
- Do we feel inspired?
- Do we feel resilient – I have, I am, I can?
- Do we feel growth and creativity are possible?
- Do we feel hopeful, and free from threat and dread?
- Do we feel our lives are ours or determined by someone and somewhere else?
What do we need our RCC stewards to believe, know, and do?
Thriving as a sector
- We all share an aspiration for RCC to thrive in thriving children’s services.
- We are translating aspiration into action.
Thriving together
- We get positive RCC in positive children’s services.
- We support our colleagues across children’s services and have the expectation that they support us.
- We all need a secure base.
- When people feel valued and cared for within a community, they are more likely to contribute and participate in creating healthy, equitable places.
Creating a future where everyone thrives requires much more than isolated programmes and projects, policies or reactive measures. It requires a fundamental reorganising of the systems that we rely on every day—bridging social, cultural, and institutional boundaries.
The practice of stewardship of Residential Child Care
RTH-15EssentialPractices_FINAL.pdf adapted.
| Connecting across difference |
| Weave Vested Interests: actively seek to understand the values and priorities of others. Emphasize curiosity, vulnerability, and deliberative dialogue in shaping a way forward.
Value Unheard Voices: Develop authentic working relationships with others. Ensure that all change efforts are done with, not to those they are meant to support. Earn Trust: Prioritize transparency through continual, authentic communication. Repair harm through honesty and reconciliation. Build and honour mechanisms for mutual accountability. Strengthen Interdependence: Distinguish unique contribution whilst creating enough structure for ongoing and emergent forms of collaboration. Nurture alignment. Build Shared Power: Build capacity, energy, and power for shared action across individuals and institutions. Draw others into stewardship and help them to deepen their practice so it becomes ‘the way we work the way we are’. |
| Create transformative Opportunities |
| Expand Aspirations: see the “whole system,” not just isolated sectors.
Change the Story: cultivate stories of hope. Create conditions were for positive change about what is possible. Choose solutions that advance multiple goals at once and are mutually reinforcing. Work over the short and long term simultaneously: appreciate decades-long work at hand and the need to make decisions now that bring a different future to life. Recognise investment in the future: seek to develop and support funding sources and financing mechanisms that will meet children’s needs |
| Learning and adapting |
| Embrace Complexity: appreciate that the work of social change is messy, unpredictable, and always evolving. Cultivate comfort with the unknown.
Promote Abundance: challenge the art of the possible with ambition. See tensions and differences as opportunities to create new understanding and possibility. Solve problems by being creative with existing resources, rather than first seeking more resources. Create a culture of continuous shared learning: Integrate new information and perspectives. Consider Legacies Past and Future: Explore positive and negative legacies to create a different future. Use Data to Chart Progress: actively find ways to share and integrate data. Use that data to support create a path to progress, coordinate and track shared progress |
Where are the stewards of English Residential Child Care today?
The NCERCC view is this ethic and group is needed.
NCERCC sees we need to create this group urgently. Will you assist?
