Services and Service Delivery Strategies of Kids Can Achieve - Essay Example

Reflective Essay: Services and Service Delivery Strategies of “Kids Can Achieve” Several months ago I began studying the “Kids Can Achieve” or the KCA and how the organization has been delivering social care services. There was only one difficulty I encountered and this happened during the initial stages of my work in the KCA: staff members of the KCA expressed reservations opening their facility to me who is neither a clientele nor a relative of a clientele of the KCA. However, after assuring them that I would follow all their instructions, I was allowed access to the KCA and its clientele. I was classified as a volunteer and one can also call the method as participant observation. I was allowed access to documents and was also allowed to converse with the clientele and their relatives provided their anonymity is strongly protected. According to the KCA website, the KCA services children “from within the range of diagnoses which include ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Aspergers, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia and general communication disorders.” The organisation’s official website also reports that the organisation was established in 2002 by “local parents, concerned professionals and members of the community in Harrow.” This information immediately strike me: social care professionals need not be alone in their jobs. Civic groups are acting on their own to address society’s social care needs. When a social care need has been defined: a social care professional can mobilise stakeholders or individuals and organisations concerned on the social care need, count on stakeholders’ goodwill, and organise something that can benefit a community or the target social group in a social care need. In my view, identifying and defining a social care can even be a social endeavour---something that can be done by stakeholders jointly with the health care professionals. I am sure there would be many examples of this. Unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity yet of conducting a study with that theme. Reflecting on the KCA history provided important lessons for me. One of the lessons that I learned from the KCA history pertains to the importance of tapping and relying on society’s stakeholders and the goodwill of individuals and organisations in addressing a social care need. The KCA official website reports that “the organisation has grown rapidly and has quickly become influential and respected amongst both statutory and voluntary agencies and most importantly the families they serve.” The KCA has been able to secure a facility and “funds were raised to equip and refurbish, formed a management committee, appointed a Directed, starting fund raising, developed partnership with local agencies” (KCA, 2009). The KCA focuses on ages 2-19. A quick look on the KCA website indicates the KCA’s reliance on a pool of volunteers for their work. It is easy to see in the KCA website that volunteers are being taken cared of through a psychic reward system consisting of awards and recognition for their services and contributions. I am a witness on the KCA’s enlistment of volunteers for its various activities and its active solicitation of donations to sustain its work. The objectives of the KCA “are to develop the self-esteem, social skills and education of our children and young people and prepare them for integration into mainstream activities and independent young adulthood as far as possible” (KCA, 2009). In addition, the KCA (2009) pointed out that the KCA “support the whole family in their recovery and reintegration---assessing each as individuals and offering services appropriate to their needs” (2009). On these my reflection points are as follows. First, social care work must be oriented towards building the autonomy and independence of the target clientele whenever possible. This point deserves to be highlighted in the social care profession. Our role as social care workers includes developing autonomy and independence of our target clientele. No less than the General Social Care Council (2010) pointed this out as point 3 in the 6-point Codes of practice for social care workers, “As a social worker, you must promote the independence of service users while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm.” Second, the social care work is a profession that promotes inclusion. For instance, Dickens (2012, p. 37) has pointed that promoting social care in the United Kingdom has also been defined as a work that promotes social inclusion in the last ten years. The Social Care Institute for Excellence has also emphasised the value of social inclusion is one important value that must be promoted not only among social workers but in the general society (Waine et al. 2005, p. 2 and 7). According to Waine et al. (2005, p. 9 and 21), social inclusion is not simply about not being excluded but it is all about building capacities and making clients take an active role in building their societies and take an active role in the social care of themselves. Pertaining to the work towards social inclusion, Waine et al. (2005, p. 23) emphasised that the social interest of the child is paramount. This view fits perfectly in the work of the KCA. In fact, it may be possible to rephrase the work of the KCA into that of making its target of clientele---children with ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Aspergers, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia and general communication disorders or situations---ultimately become part of that section of the citizenry that is actively participating in shaping and reshaping British society and the global society in general. Of course, social inclusion has also that dimension of what Waine et al. (2005, p. 25) pointed out as “promoting the need for empowerment and capacity building at individual and community level, thereby tolerating and celebrating differences” which I failed to see in the work of the KCA. Yet, although I personally did not notice this in the work of the KCA, I do not find fault on the KCA on this because, as is, the work of the KCA is difficult or very complicated enough. Finally or third, in social care work, it is important to work with ALL stakeholders and, in the situation of children and other sectors needing care, it is important to work with their families. To me, this is a very important point and the point is also applicable even if the person needing the social care is no longer a child. To be successful with our work as social workers, we must mobilize the community and stakeholders. The stakeholders can be interested groups outside the community which may include charity organisations or even philanthropists. Another important type of stakeholders consists of the families and relatives of the individuals needing social care. Families and relatives of persons needing social care constitutes an important bloc that social care professionals have to work with because they are the immediate bases or units of support of the persons needing social care. They are the ones with whom the persons needing social care lives with and they are the ones continually interacting with them. To multiply by so many times our capability to assist individuals needing social care, we have to teach the relatives and families of the individuals needing social care on how to take care of the persons needing social care and how they can contribute to make them autonomous and, hopefully, independent or at least semi-independent individuals. In the case of the KCA, I have noticed that the staff members of the institution are very conscious of this concern. I have noticed how through formal and informal means they have been working on this. Informally, the staff members of the KCA have coached relatives and families of the children needing social care on how they can lead their loved ones to autonomy, independence, or semi-independence. Formally, the KCA have used seminars and discussion groups to teach parents, families, and loved ones on how they can lead their children with special abilities towards independence and semi-independence. Meanwhile, with regard to the themes or issues that services users raise is that many of the services of the KCA are not free. Users also complain that sometimes meetings are rescheduled, cancelled or scheduled arbitrarily and without adequate consultation. Definitely, the services and system of operation of the KCA can be improved. Nevertheless, I believe that the KCA has been functioning within the highest standards of social care and is an organisation worth studying on the pragmatics, practice, and values of how social care professional or how a social care organisation should and can be. In my future practice of social care, I will adopt what the KCA has been doing: promoting inclusion, tapping stakeholders, and promoting clientele independence, semi-independence or autonomy. References Dickens, J., 2012. The definition of social work in the United Kingdom, 2000-2010. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, 34-43. General Social Care Council, 2010. Codes of practice for social care workers. London: General Social Care Council Goldings House. KCA, 2009. Supporting children with special needs. London: Kids Can Achieve. Available from: http://kidscanachieve.co.uk/ [Accessed 2 June 2012]. Waine, B., Tunstill, J., Meadows, P. , and Peel, M., 2005. Developing social care: Values and principles. 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