Who owns Residential Child Care?

This NCERCC enquiry is pertinent to the current government policy projects

• Regional care co-operatives
• Workforce development review

Who has the authority to take decisions regarding Residential Child Care?

In all that has been argued over the recent years about the sector this is a question that does not appear to have been asked, yet it is a foundation to all discussion and decisions.

It can be seen that those involved in discussions and decision have behaved assuming they had some degree of ownership and thereby an authority to determine the task, define the purpose, and all else that follows.

There has not been any degree of reflection as to the membership of the discussions and decisions.

Have the right people been involved? Are the decisions sound and legitimate?

Who is responsible? Who is accountable?

If one takes a property perspective it is providers who decide. Yet Residential Child Care is not a building. It is the building that is owned. A building in itself is not a relational space only what goes on in it, the practice.

Residential Child Care is a practice.

This being the case, who has (if anyone has) ownership?

This enquiry explores the practice, property and ethics of Residential Child Care.

The conclusion is that the core task in seeking to answer the enquiry “Who owns Residential Child Care?” is to be addressing two totally different categories:

• the business, the ownership of material, and
• the busyness, the involvement in the emotional world off a child.

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