Member News: St Christopher's - CEO Jonathan Whalley’s Blog – Our Philosophy of Care

This month our Directors of Operations from the Isle of Man (Anne Seed) and UK (Phil Townsend) have jointly taken over the CEO blog. Find out more about the St Christopher’s Philosophy of Care, and how it is embedded in all we do to ensure a brighter future for the young people we support.

Our journey to creating a new St Christopher’s Philosophy of Care started back in 2021.

Our Heads of Service Team reviewed Our Approach to Care document and felt it did not capture the best parts of the work that we do.

For practice to be effective it should be based on sound values and principles, which guide us to making the best decisions when caring for children and young people. It was time for a refresh.

We were in the middle of the pandemic and had been hearing a lot from people about a sense of disconnectedness. We thought that a St Christopher’s Philosophy of Care could help us.

Most importantly, we hoped that reconnecting with our purpose and focussing on children and young people we would be able to care for them better as individuals, by ensuring that our practice focusses on their strengths and personalities and being compassionate and understanding of their experiences in all that we do.

2022 saw staff and young people engaged in revisiting and re-visioning our Philosophy of Care. Leaders from across the organisation met with colleagues across services in open dialogue to discuss the central values and beliefs that join us in purpose to provide brighter futures for children and young people.

The process of devising the Philosophy of Care drew across five thematic areas; ‘What do we as an organisation believe about children and young people’, ‘What aspirations do we have for them?’, ‘What do we want them to experience?’, ‘What do we believe about society and anti-racist practice?’. Colleagues input was distilled into foundational statements that encompassed the sentiments expressed through their responses. Young people were engaged through participation activities to examine each of these foundations, whether it resonated with them, what it meant to them and how it would look and feel in lived experience day to day.  This was crucial as we wanted to be inclusive and representative of the many differing perspectives and experiences.

A Philosophy of Care is really how we connect our head, heart and hands in our day to day practice of caring for children and young people.

Our aim was to respond to feelings isolation and disconnection created by the Covid pandemic.  Through listening to our team about why they choose to do the work they do and what they hope and believe about children and young people.  We hoped to be able to re-connect with each other in a meaningful manner and together, re-orient to the purpose of what we do. The new Philosophy of Care takes us back to that core function and what we all believe in, our values and beliefs and the best outcomes for young people.

We are a child centred organisation and the Philosophy of Care is built upon this belief. It is the shared resolution that gets us all out of bed on a morning and come to work. No matter what role we play in the organisation we all come to work to achieve the best for children and young people and meet their diverse needs. Our philosophy encompasses all of the passion, drive, enthusiasm and commitment within the organisation and gives a very clear message about what we believe in. It is a compass for the culture of the organisation, a co-produced foundation expanding upon and giving greater direction to our main values and mission.

Source:
www.stchris.org.uk

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