Imposters Assembled
This blog post has been written by members of the Sustaining Social Work research project, about their reflections of coming together as practitioner co-researchers, exploring the experience of what it feels like to ‘do’ contextual safeguarding.
Bio:
The authors of this piece are both leaders (experienced?) in the field of contextual safeguarding. Lisa Colombi is a Service Manager based in Devon, where she leads on a specialist risk outside the home service alongside Devon Youth Justice Service. Denise Lewis is a Specialist Safeguarding Training Officer within Solihull Safeguarding Children Partnership, where she delivers contextual safeguarding training and advises on practice across the partnership.
In some ways it was like the start of a superhero movie – a scattered band of practice leaders (misfits?) across the breadth of the UK, working in very different settings but with the same thing in common – an unwavering belief in the possibilities of Contextual Safeguarding and what this new approach could achieve for children and young people’ safety. We were approached individually by an agent of change (the amazing Dr Rachael Owens) who had identified in us an innate understanding of Contextual Safeguarding, at a time when the term was widely misinterpreted. For some of us, there was an immediate uncertainty – this project we were being asked to join was about social workers experiences and the impact of ‘doing’ Contextual Safeguarding, and some of us weren’t social workers. Although experienced in the field in our roles, surely this meant we literally weren’t qualified to offer comment? We later discovered that the same uncertainty in our social work qualified peers was ever present and that feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’ was a theme that bonded us together within our practitioner co-researcher group, and reflected at us when we met colleagues from across the country. And so it was, our group was formed when the project received ethics approval, and we received our official invites on the 21st of November 2022; we embarked on a journey together that would become more important than we ever imagined.
One thing we as a group definitely had in common was a love of talking about Contextual Safeguarding, so in that first session that’s exactly what we did – though our trusty leader attempted to facilitate structured but open discussion, it came pouring out of us – our experiences of revelation at finding this thing that encapsulated all we wanted and hoped for children and young people – the possibilities it created, the hope it inspired. But also – the challenges, the pitfalls, the frustrations at a system not set up for change and dynamism, let alone creating real safety. Though the discussions sometimes felt centred on our shared experience of challenges, the time and space to reflect together was energising and came to feel vital to our ability to do this work. We realised that, whatever our professional background or experience, we had been built up by others as an ‘expert’ in Contextual Safeguarding, and though we fought passionately for the values and approaches it espoused, we often didn’t feel well equipped to be an ‘expert’ at anything. The realisation that we all felt the same way was powerful – each of us at points feeling intimidated by the others and their apparent ‘expertise’ and knowledge, when underneath we shared that same feeling that we came to articulate as Imposter Syndrome. We acknowledged the shared elements of our identities – female, white, and questioned together what this meant for the way we interacted with others and how we were sometimes treated in professional contexts where stakes were high, and emotions were raw.
As our little band of not-expert ‘experts’ continued to meet, sharing the good and bad, generating our own solutions, ideas or offering support and empathy for our colleagues when we were frustrated and often tired, we worked towards building a tangible output for this project – regional workshops where we facilitated discussions with social workers and youth work practitioners, diary entries of our own reflections, and ultimately a report that summarised the whole project.
The planning of the regional workshops was exciting; having the opportunity to develop exercises that enabled participants to be creative while sharing their thoughts, feelings and experiences was wonderful to be involved in; carefully planning a range of methods to gain the information we required. When they happened, the regional workshops were a revelation – the opportunity to bring a group of people together in person, who shared the same experiences and challenges across a large geographical region in different settings was a game changer. We found lots of people feeling like we did, expected to be experts but also criticised for not ‘doing the day job in a way that the day job is always done’.
We found people who dared to put young people first, who embraced work with groups instead of just individuals, who were sometimes supported by managers to do this, but sometimes fighting against the grain. Some had fostered multi-agency allegiances, and some were stuck in multi-agency battle- zones often feeling like the bridge between never meeting sectors.
The passion and emotion these practitioners felt was tangible; they valued being given the space to meet, to reflect and share their thoughts, feelings and experiences, while being provided with snacks and sandwiches; they articulated that this all felt like a rare treat.
We had so much rich information from the workshops conducted across the UK; what would we do with it all? Well, in our meeting following the workshops Rachael really had a task on her hands; she must have felt like a shepherd but without a whistle and a trusty sheep dog to help heard us in as we ran off in different directions sharing what we had heard and learnt form the workshop in our respective regions, but expertly she rounded us up and kept us focused and delivered research analysis training. Here we explored a range of different methods we could use to analyse all the information we had gained; we explored the merits of several, identified the ones we preferred and combined a couple to provide us with a method we thought would work for us. Rachael also confirmed the exciting news that we would have the opportunity to actually meet each other in person to undertake the analysis work!
Emails came flurrying through, arranging travel, arranging accommodation, where we would meet, and then it happened, the day arrived, and we made our way from all over the UK to meet in person in London. Sitting waiting to meet the others we were filled with apprehension, would we recognise the actual people having only ever seen each other's face/head on Teams? But no need to worry, we all identified each other quickly and regardless of the different obstacles we’d encountered on our journeys we soon settled in to continue our online discussions in person - what a magical opportunity we felt so privileged to have.
The next day we came together in a small office with boxes of information, and we started to apply the methodology we’d agreed to analyse the data. We started with flip chart paper on the wall and outlined the methodology, agreed the coding process, and the sections of the workshops we would focus on. Then for a large amount of time we worked silently reading and highlighting the data, colour coding as we’d agreed. One of our members unfortunately couldn’t travel to London, so we set specific times to come back together to discuss, so that they could join us on Teams. This required a great deal of concentration and was a very humbling experience; reading the strives and struggles of people aiming to achieve the best outcomes they could for young people, while being challenged by systems and constraints, but ever determined that young people’s needs must come first. We discussed our findings before heading out for a walk in the wonderful sunshine and grabbing a sandwich for lunch. We then returned to the task, but this time using a more creative method of turning the data into poetry. The day felt so meaningful, although exhausting.
We carried on communicating online after the event and behind the scenes Rachael and colleagues continued the coding we had started with other activities from the workshops. We then started to plan how we would present the findings, with specific focus on a presentation at the Contextual Safeguarding conference in London. To say our imaginations ran wild would be an understatement, as we set of on a journey along the yellow brick road, Rachael needed her herding skills again to refocus us; after all, we were planning a 30-minute research presentation, not a west end musical! (Although some of us took every advantage of being in London to see plenty of these!)
Finally, it was here, the flurry of emails and room bookings had happened again and here we were making our journeys to meet up again in London to present our findings at the conference. We’d rehearsed online, but planned a final run through that evening before delivery the next day; if only we could all find each other, in what hotel? Alas, problems overcome, and again with one member joining on teams, we conducted the run through and the timing worked thank goodness. We then went out for a delightful evening of food and good company and fascinating conversation with other members of the Contextual Safeguarding team and two colleagues from an amazing organisation called Railway Children UK and Tanzania who were also attending sleepouts at London railway stations while being in the capital.
The day of the conference arrived, we were up bright and early to make our way to the venue and to check out where we needed to be, this was the first time we had all managed to be in person together since the project started; and some people were far taller than they looked on screen 😊! The conference started, and what fantastic engaging speakers, how would we live up to this standard? Before we knew it, we we’re there sitting at the front of the room, the introduction happening and then we were on! To be honest, what was happening within the room remains a mystery, our focus was on listening intently to each other and contributing with agreed dialogue at the required points, there could have been frowns, looks of confusion or anything happening within the audience, we wouldn’t have known at that moment in time! But then it was over and we did look up, and people didn’t look confused, there were nods, and understanding expressions and then overwhelming applause; wow we actually did that!
What was also so important was the discussions after – one colleague approached us to share her gratitude for the messages we’d shared; after numerous challenges and setbacks within her local authority after a promising start in Contextual Safeguarding, she had considered not attending the event, such was her disillusion. Hearing us speak about the shared experience from colleagues across the country, she felt less alone and more emboldened to hold on to hope and keep going. And that felt like the ultimate achievement of this project – propping each other up to keep going, keep believing, keep advocating and pushing for change in a system that so badly needs it to keep young people safe.
Rachael had bought the key points into a paper that has been published, we’d successfully delivered the presentation, so the time came to officially bring the project to an end. We all agreed we didn’t want to, such was the value we had found in each other and the time we spent together. So, here we are collaborating to write a blog, and there are still email exchanges happening, it feels like we are bonded; always to be Imposters Assembled.