What’s in a word?
The power of language
I’m writing this blog right now because I want to change the language that’s used about young people within the services that are there to help them.
How we choose to frame a young person and their lives can shape how they are perceived by others or the support they receive.
I’m looking for other people who are interested in this issue to get involved in a zine I want to produce where we gather and share the views of professionals and young people on this issue and hopefully find some opportunities to improve things.
(If zines aren’t you’re thing but you’re interested in this topic, Ryan from Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) and I are organising a meet-up to discuss language and how we can create change on 25 April in London. Get in touch if you’d like to come along!)
The power of zines
This is already set to be too long for a blog, and a quick Google will let you into the rad world of the zine, so I will just say that I love zines.
Zines are self-published booklets that allow the creator(s) to express things however they like.
They are a democratic, DIY, creative way of people sharing ideas. I’d love to work on a zine that shared the insights of adults and young people on issues in the same publication.
Why language?
Language is incredibly powerful — it’s how humans have got to where we are today — but it can shape things in ways that reflect our assumptions and our prejudices which can be hugely damaging too.
Last year, I was reading a Guardian article about a serious case review of a young woman who was murdered by her stepbrother. The review found that despite being in contact with 17 professionals, she was murdered by a family member. Her name was Becky Watts.
The report makes for sobering reading. Something that stuck out for me was that it found that not enough time had been spent looking at the risks Becky’s wider family. And, in part, this was due to how Becky was described and framed by those services:
‘In the initial report, Becky was described as “controlling” and “lacking aspirations”. She was not seen alone and the dynamics of the wider family were not explored. The report says Becky was treated as the problem and there was little understanding of the needs of a 13-year-old who felt isolated and fearful. From this point on the focus was on Becky being problematic and having problems without a consideration of what was the cause and what, therefore, might be the solution.”
My investigations so far…
The language we use about young people we work with and how this can shape the support they receive — is something I have been grappling with for a few years now. It’s something I have seen arise time and again when speaking to colleagues at The Children’s Society and in my voluntary work directly with young people.
I worked on a project with Snook to explore this further and have some great consultation tools as a result (you can see an example below — get in touch if you would like a set). We also developed principles with young people for what positive language should look like.
Since then, I’ve spoken to lots of practitioners and young people in that time and it continues to be something that anyone I speak to agrees is an issue.
These are the things that come up repeatedly:
- Jargon
- Assumptions and stereotypes
- Victim Blaming
- A culture of disbelief
These things can damage rapport with a young person, make a young person question their past or the validity of their views. It can leave a young person feeling unheard or worse, that there’s ‘no point’ in telling someone something. And this is how ultimately a little thing like language can cause young people to become disengaged with a service, or withhold important information from the very services designed to keep them safe.
Creating systems change
This is where Systems Changers comes in. These are huge problems, and invariably people aren’t talking about young people in these ways, or excluding young people from their own experiences on purpose or because they don’t like children. The space and time to think about this as a ‘systems’ issue — about the referral forms, the databases and case recording systems, the language and terminology required by policy makers and funders, the size of caseloads and pressures on front-line professionals, the ever-evolving nature of language — has proved immeasurably useful in thinking constructively about what can happen next.
Local authorities and Children in Care Councils across the country have various projects or initiatives looking at how they communicate with young people. But I’m keen to explore how we can link together to press for change, and I know that lots of other organisations and individuals are interested too. Frontline have written about this, Safer London produced a powerful video on victim blaming, TACT have developed a thesaurus based on feedback from Children in Care Councils across the country and the language they prefer or dont like, Cardboard Citizens’ Citz Storytellers are running a youth-led campaign called No Box No Label, and most recently I have speaking with SCIE, about how we can move this work forward.
The key thing I’m learning is that there isn’t just one initiative or solution. And I definitely don’t have the answers. The sector is large, confusing and full of change, so you can never stop talking about this. Language is constantly evolving and, so this needs to be something that is constantly being reviewed to ensure it doesn’t become static or specific to a particular group.
Here are some key things that I think need to be addressed:
There needs to be an organisational commitment to getting language and communication right. It should be something that is talked about on professional development and training courses — the power that language has, key terms to use or not use, communication skills and styles and how to challenge language when necessary. Funding is tight, and people are time poor but if there are ways to create videos, or slot short segments about this into everything it might start to evoke a collective understanding and hopefully some change.
Language needs to be a constant part of the conversation. All organisations working with or for young people need to have this as something that is always a part of the conversation with young people. It’s vital for intelligence gathering and ensuring we’re having the best possible conversations. Do the ways we talk about issues make sense? Do they feel heard?
The language used in policy and funding needs to reflect practice, not shape it. I heard from practitioners that sometimes they felt they had to use certain jargon or terminology, because that was how to get funding or get the referral they needed. Likewise I heard how often practitioners being referred into saw a huge disconnect between what was on a form and the young person they met.
The tools we use need to facilitate the way we want to talk about young people, not work against us. Referral forms, and databases need to gather the information that’s needed, which might not be the information that’s always been there.
Next steps
*Ryan, a colleague from SCIE and I are organising a meetup on 25 April in London to discuss this and hopefully hear from others out there who have interest or expertise in this area. If you would be interested in coming along and exploring this issue and thinking about how it relates to your area of work then please get in touch
*I’m keen to set up a zine that shares the voices and insights of young people and adults working in the children’s sector in the same publication. I want to do the first issue on this topic so if you have something to say on this (or have ideas for future topics), then I would love to hear from you too.
About me:
I’m the Local Campaigns Manager at The Children’s Society where I have built the local campaigning function over the past three years, working on a range of campaigns including an award-winning campaign to secure council tax exemption for care leavers. I’ve been on the Systems Changers programme since September which has been brain-scrambling and brilliant. I’m a Director of Lips choir, a feminist, trans-inclusive women’s pop choir in London which I co-founded in 2009 and still love singing in it to this day. I also volunteer for Girls Rock London, play bass in my band Judi Hench, and walk about the place as much as possible.
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