Uploaded July 2010

Demos publishes its pamphlet, "In loco parentis"   (Celia Hannon, Louise Bazalgette, Claudia Wood). References to Social Pedagogy in Essex, Hackney and recommendations relating to Social Pedagogy and CWDC training standards can be found on pages 27, 197 and 197. 

Uploaded June2010

 The Regional Youth Work Unit in the North East publishes this report  "A Study on the Understanding of Social Pedagogy and its Potential Implications for Youth Work Practice and Training". 

Developments on the DCSF/DfE Social Pedagogy Pilots in residential care in England - TCRU

In June 2007, the then Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published "Care Matters: Time for Change". The white paper included a proposal for piloting projects to examine the effectiveness of Social Pedagogy in residential child care, stating that the pilots were to focus on adapting social pedagogical approaches, as practiced in residential child care settings in continental Europe. 

The last government pledged to strengthen minimum standards for training and development of staff in children's homes, in response to proposals by MPs to improve the care system. The then DCSF announced a pilot project to explore the potential of social pedagogy in residential childrens homes in England. For further reading please refer to Children, Schools and Families Committee Fourth Special Report of Session 2008–09, Ordered by The House of Commons, to be printed 24 June 2009, paragraph 27 on Social Pedagogy pilots.

In early 2009 the CWDC held nine regional events under the banner, “Creating a World Class Social Care Workforce.” The report of Jan/Feb 2009 says, “The CWDC will undertake further research to consider the role of graduates within social care and whether there is a need for additional generic or specialist graduate roles.” See full report for details, including comments about the role of Social Pedagogy. 

See our page dedicated to updates on the DCSF/DfE pilot project . 

TCRU

The work of the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) accounts for a lot of the body of research and evaluation around Social Pedagogy in the UK.

The Briefing paper on Pedagogy (2009) provides an excellent overview. See also Implementing the social pedagogic approach for workforce training and education in England .

Also interesting is the comparative study, "Working with Children in Care: European Perspectives" (2006). It compares European policy and approaches from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands to the public care system in England. Drawing on research from all six countries, the authors analyze how different policies and practice can affect young people in residential homes. A particular focus is on the unique approach offered by social pedagogy.

A presentation given by Dr Claire Cameron provided an overview of this research at the NCERCC national conference in 2007. The presentation is available here . This work shows that country of origin and care entry characteristics do not account for statistically significant variations in outcome indicators, but rather staff characteristics accounted for this. Over 90% of staff working in the residential settings in the TCRU study in Denmark and Germany held a degree level qualification, (majority in Social Pedagogy), whereas in England this figure is under 30%. Where 48% of those interviewed in England in the study report difficulties in retaining staff, just 8% report the same difficulties in Germany and 0% in Denmark.

In 2009 the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) undertook two studies for the DCSF - one on work with children at the so-called 'edges' of care, and on one mainstream parenting support.  Both are cross-European studies. 

The parenting support study is a review of Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The edges of care study is a comparison (with interviews) of Denmark, Germany, France and England. 

Both highlight the role of Social Pedagogues in parenting and family support, and the 'edges of care' study in particular is very interesting in terms of the ways in which Social Pedagogues work alongside other professionals including social workers.  See links below:
 
"Working at the 'edges' of care?  European Models of Support for Young People and Families"

"International Perspectives on Parenting Support"

NCERCC and SET

The project Introducing Social Pedagogy Into Residential Child Care in England was commissioned by the Social Education Trust (SET) and managed by the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC) in 2007.

See the Together Trust presentation on their participation in the project.  It aimed to develop knowledge of the theories behind social pedagogic approaches, build the confidence of residential child care workers and discover possible ways of translating social pedagogic approaches into meaningful practices in English residential child care settings.

Read the Evaluation of this project written by Eilen Bengtsson Clare Chamberlain, David Crimmens and Jonathan Stanley.