PANDEMIC AND OOHC IMPACTS
As some of you will know, in New Zealand our lock-down has been ‘fast and hard’. So far we’ve only had a handful of deaths and have likely plateaued in terms of new cases. It is looking as if we might move from alert level 4 to level 3 next week. While there have been differences across the Australian states in the level of restrictions imposed, they too have had relatively few deaths. However, the impact of the pandemic on many other countries has been much greater. Even within individual countries, as organisations and individuals our experiences may have been quite different.
While our future experiences may also be different, my take is that residential care, fostering and transitioning from care services are going to move through a four-stage process over the months or so to come. While I developed the following thinking specifically about foster carer (and residential worker) retention and recruitment, it can be applied more widely. The four stages as I see them are as follows:
Full lock-down: This is where most of us currently are. Foster carers (both kin and non-kin), residential workers and leaving care workers going to extraordinary lengths to keep children and young people safe and feeling secure, in extremely challenging circumstances. While the new found intensity of placements has been difficult for some, others have found more powerful connection and engagement. An important focus here has been on trying to support and retain existing foster carers, residential workers and leaving care staff. Hopefully with high level of agency support, teamwork and leadership, the experience leaves all feeling valued rather than devalued, having been part of something much bigger than themselves at a time of national and international crisis.
Partial lock-down: Some easing of restrictions but with that comes less certainly and potentially more tensions with and between: children, young people and their families; colleagues; and agencies and schools. Carers and workers are tired, and now that the peak of the crisis has passed some will inevitably leave. As teachers return to school and courts begin to start-up again, there’s likely to be an increase in child protection referrals and in turn demand for placements. New foster carer recruitment activity should be a no-nonsense national, state, territory, or area call to action for people to become part of the essential services workforce. Organisations will look to their existing and future newly approved foster carers to provide some respite care to existing placements, or with enhanced support take on new placements. To attract new workers, organisations could consider augmenting conventional recruitment methods by also targeting specific collapsed or collapsing industries. And are their opportunities to make more placements with family members and friends? Organisations are likely to experiment with new forms of online induction and more structured and 24/7 support.
Economic recession: Economists and governments are telling us that the recession is going to be bad – and much worse than the 2007/08 global financial crisis (GFC). While Australia and New Zealand were largely protected from the worst effects of the GFC, from the US, Canada and the UK, there is clear evidence of what we can all expect with many foster care families then losing jobs and homes. While there may be an increase in applications from beneficiaries to become foster carers, some agencies will respond with (more) enhanced or salaried foster carer roles. Worker recruitment is likely to be easier with more people going to university and gaining professional qualifications, and social work roles offering more security than many others. Indeed, with a perceived lack of alternative employment, some workers may stay in particular roles for longer than will be good for them, or for children and young people. Demand for new placements will likely continue to rise.
New Normal: While no doubt some things will return to how they were before, others will forever be changed. What will we have we learnt from our COVID-19 experiences about the children, young people and their families that you work with, our organisations, and ourselves? How important and relevant were our values, or have our values changed? Were responses measured and proportionate to the threat? Did some children and young people, foster carers, and workers fare better through this than others, and if so how and why? How resilient are we for any future pandemic? What do we need to hold on to from the past, and what should we discard and replace? Amongst all of the challenges there will have been many moments of ‘magic’, and how can we ‘capture’ and further develop, implement and improve what did work well? And finally, what does the COVID-19 experience tell us about the role of foster care, residential care, and transitioning from care, for the decade, and future challenges, to come.