High support and high challenge
At the recent Tackling Child Exploitation Community of Practice I spoke about ‘High support and high challenge’. This is a write up of my part on the day, with some further reflections based on the lively conversation that ensued. The other part of the session focussed on this recent blog by Ben Byrne.
The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme (TCE for short) is a Department for Education funded national programme that aims to enable a more effective strategic approach to safeguarding children and young people in relation to extra-familial harm and exploitation. This specifically includes: child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation and trafficking and modern slavery. The programme is delivered by a consortium, led by Research in Practice, with the University of Bedfordshire and The Children’s Society. The team works to provide time-limited Bespoke Support Projects to local area partnerships, to accelerate or enhance the strategic response to exploitation; provide access to learning materials, evidence-informed tools and online resources and support sector knowledge exchange (via Communities of Practice).
The Community of Practice in March was for our Delivery Partners and colleagues involved in the Bespoke Support Projects — a group of amazing people who hold expertise in a wealth of different disciplines that make the work happen. They form teams, often with people they’ve not worked before to provide a coherent response and support to local areas that have applied for the support of the TCE programme. This can place them in an at times tricky position, hence the need to think about what high support and high challenge actually means in the real world.
Personal reflections
When I was asked to do the session I said to Ellie, why am I doing this? I don’t have a toolkit that I refer to. I don’t have a set of principles printed out next to me that I tick off when I’m undertaking tricky work. Ellie said “you are good at it”. I decided to accept this feedback and get on with it.
When supporting, and challenging, I go by my instincts, use my common sense. I utilise the experience I have from all parts of my life. The patience I find with my children and other half, the determination I have to improve and change services for young people to stop the revolving door of different people, similar issues being treated the same way and hitting the same blockers time after time. I gain confidence in my approach knowing that I’m not here to judge — trying really hard not to judge and ensuring I am clear on my role. If I have permission to provide high support and high challenge then I will take that and run with it. It’s a gift.
With the TCE programme we have been given that permission — local partnerships have asked the TCE programme to help them. They want to hear from us. They want the draw on the expertise and to be challenged, in order to develop. It’s essential to keep hold of this and use the permission we’ve been given.
I wrote a few words on what high support and high challenge means to me in the context of relationship building and relationship nurturing, which as essential part of this:
High support
• Acknowledging people are (on the whole) trying their best
• Creating the right conditions for them to progress and realise the potential of the collective work
High challenge
• Partnerships and people having shared ambition
• Prompting, supporting, leading, nudging them to see things differently and in time, work differently
Values
Bringing this session together I encouraged the group to share why they do this work:
“[to] see things change”
“[for] equity of outcomes for young people”
“[for] social justice”
“[to] make a real difference”
I also took a fresh look at the values that underpin the TCE programme:
- Hold children, young people and families at the centre
- Be evidence-informed
- Work collaboratively
- Focus on capacity building
- Act transparently and ethically
- Work to restorative principles
I reflected on how these values and what drives our work applies in the context of adopting an approach encompassing high support, high challenge. They do apply, or be in the backs of our minds when we are undertaking the work. If we demonstrate these values, then high support and high challenge should come quite naturally.
Pausing on the first one for a moment feels important, holding children, young people and families in mind. As a programme, comprising staff and delivery partners we want to motivate the individuals from the areas and organisations we work with to want to get the best out of their local partnership in order to tackle child exploitation.
More than personal reflections
A couple of years ago a coach supported a team I was part of, and he produced this image to help us visualise the concept of high support and high challenge.
Martin the coach talked about climates, which I find a bit odd, but I see this as the enabling environment, the context within which we are working.
Thinking about the support part:
• The extent to which there is a climate of psychological safety
• Where the cost of not speaking-up is higher than cost of speaking-up
And challenge:
• The extent to which there is a healthy environment of challenge
• This could be about the nature of the work, accountability for the results, expectations of performance, conditions for success
The trick is to find the right balance.
We know it’s hard when local areas aren’t engaging (there is an ‘apathetic climate’) and we know that power dynamics can play a real part in influencing the direction of travel (a ‘high stress climate’). But we’ve found that when we ask the individuals / group we are working with to pause, when we name the issue, when we say ‘its ok if you don’t know the answers’, then the work can progress. Challenge doesn’t need to be confrontational, it might be a bit awkward but how its approached and progressed is really important. Keeping the values in mind (collaboration, ethics and transparency for example) can help here. Working in this way creates the conditions and environment to make change happen.
Think about how we want to show up. Is it as a: collaborator; convenor; influencer; networker; a partner or something else? I would love it if we could see ourselves as leaders and agents for change!
Considering the three key points:
The past: brought through what we know, who we know, what we have achieved and what we have experienced. I’m not expecting anyone to turn up with their CV or over share their previous achievements. We are talking about being confident and comfortable with all that we’ve learnt and experienced in the past.
Here and now: how we turn up — how we relate to others and importantly being really present in the moment. The presence in the moment to be focussed on the TCE Programme and tackling child exploitation and extra familial harm.
Looking forward: where we want to move to. Not just the actions agreed in a workshop or the practical steps to alter ways of working in a local area. This is how we, with wider teams can shift the agenda, shift mind-sets — creating emotional shifts — encouraging people to think and act in different ways.
Within the TCE Programme we are focussed on collaboration to tackle child exploitation. But as with any issue in the children’s social care sector we need to be respectfully curious — spot the dynamics in a partnership, notice the champions — who has the energy? Lean there. Seek the quiet or silent voices. See who might need some extra time to come round to different ways of thinking — reach out. Be mindful of and challenge bias — consider conscious and unconscious bias and the influence this can have. Hold the space to explore emerging issues. Talk about these biases, encourage open and sometimes hard conversations. Real value can be added when we purposively enable a focus in each project we work on to consider race, equity, disproportionality.
Consider also how adopting this focus might help those we work with to shift their thinking, so they see themselves as local leaders and agents for change. As the ones with the expertise in their local context. There is a mandate in the work to be curious. Our role as leaders and facilitators is to create the spaces for conversations like these and focus on these issues to feel possible and be possible.
Collaborating through conversation
I was trying to think about a neat list of winning ingredients to exemplify high support, high challenge — but Ben has done a great job of pulling principles together. He also points out that the act of doing the work, working as a partnership to approach a shared challenge is as important and as powerful as the work itself.
One of the golden threads running through the key components in the blog is the art of collaborating through conversation. All the core ingredients — like exchanging knowledge and facilitating effectively require a collaborative approach. They need to be underpinned by a dialogue that is positive in its frame. When things are tough, bringing it back to ‘what is life like for a young person here’ is usually a powerful way to get engagement and the attention of those in the room. There is such power in the conversation and a growing recognition that the conversation can be the change. When we are looking to make systemic improvement, encouraging and supporting the conversation and its content to be different, have a different focus — can represent the change we are wanting to make. The conversation prompts the change — not an action plan. We should never underestimate the importance of small changes.
Ben notes we are in unfamiliar territory. It’s important to acknowledge that and acknowledge that this work is hard. It’s difficult to remember personal effectiveness in role, when facilitating as an ‘expert’, whilst consciously not being right or have all the solutions. Holding the trust and permission to try out new ways of working with different partnerships, whilst not always getting it right. Collaborating in the open, in real time.
This is a photo of South Beach, Aberystwyth.
Looking at this you might think — how lovely. There is a blue sky, the waves are crashing against the pebbly beach. The sun is about to come out. A wonderful day, imagine walking on this beach, looking to the horizon and dreaming.
You could also look at it and think what a nightmare. The pebbles are rock hard, there is no sand. Those waves look too big, too fierce, it’s dangerous and the water looks freezing. There are clouds on the horizon and it’s going to rain.
There are different ways we can look at our TCE work, and on different days we can feel different ways about it. It can be intimidating, working to lead a group of senior leaders. Knowing the right questions to ask. It can also be empowering when work progresses well. We’ve had feedback from those we’ve worked with, that they have valued the contribution greatly — carving out the time to work together has been one of the greatest benefits. Having just 30 minutes, 60 minutes to focus 100% on child exploitation is a gift in a busy schedule. There is real value in the slow reflective spaces we’ve created. Working to normalise taking time out, creating space for learning and processing in a context of there being a constant pressure ‘to do’.
The difficult feelings don’t go away, but I encourage my colleagues to be sure of themselves and their role, the goal of the work, the outcomes we are trying to achieve, the values we hold ourselves to. And importantly the changes we want to make, ultimately for young people.
