What is Tribal ? and what does it have in store for residential child care ?

This was first posted on the goodenoughcaring website on March 31st, 2010

Yesterday, (30.3.10), the Department for Children, Schools and Families sent out a press release which announced the awarding of what it calls “ the delivery of the Support and Challenge for Children’s Homes” to a consultancy group called “Tribal”. In changing the focus of its funding for residential child care, the government has given Tribal financial backing and has withdrawn funding from the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care. At the same time the DCSF acknowledges that the National Centre has been doing a good job. We are left to wonder in whose interests this decision has been made.

The editorial group of goodenoughcaring.com has long experience of residential child care but none of its members has heard of Tribal or how it gained its reputation as a “talented multi-disciplinary team with a wealth of expertise and knowledge in residential care and previous success of delivery of similar programmes of work”.
The note attached to the press release provides little evidence in its description of Tribal’s personnel that the latter has wide experience of residential child care. Initiatives of this kind should be led by people who have in-depth experience and real insight of the discrete and sophisticated role of residential child care work.

Our fear is that as a consequence of this decision residential child care will be steered, despite all the efforts of recent years, by a managerialist ethos which, though it may occasionally meet some notional paper target, has never yet provided children with better quality care. If you wish to find out more about Tribal ask the Minister for Children, Schools and Families. The email address is : dcsf.ministers@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

** Press release address :
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/safeguardingandsocialcare/childrenincare/childrenincare/ (Posted March 31st, 2010)

Comments

Calum Strathie writes ,"There was something very soul-less about the language used [in the DCSF announcement, 30.3.10] which all runs counter to what NCERCC has been promoting for all these years - i.e. practice excellence and humanity. To withdraw their funding after praising them for their 'good work' makes the praise sound more than a little bit hollow, and I'm sure that NCERCC would be the first to agree that there is much work to be done in the residential sector. The press release talks a lot about 'evidence based practice' but I wonder what evidence DCSF have used to justify this decision? In any case I question the whole notion of 'evidence based practice' and I feel that far too much credence is given to this idea. Surely we should be talking about values based practice and evidence based policies. Evidence can 'inform' practice, but I doubt that it can change actual face to face practice - only good training and quality supervision can do that - unless, of course, the evidence is practice based. What now for NCERCC? Can it continue in some form?"

Richard Rollinson comments, "I am greatly concerned, less about Tribal, but more about NCERCC. The reality is that the project Tribal have won by tender bid is a mere shadow of the much deeper, broader and more integrated purpose and role/task of NCERCC in the residential sector. As the chairman of the group Momentum (which had a good number of people long committed to high quality residential care), that paved the way for the successful NCB bid to host NCERCC, I am determined that it does not disappear entirely or come to exist only in a highly restricted form. The fact is NCERCC is not simply a property of either DCSF or NCB to treat/marginalise as it wishes (though I don't think that NCB has such a crudely dismissive attitude). It belongs very much to the sector which has taken to it as a "home base" in so many respects".