Table 11. Overarching theme: Battles within and outside the system.
4.5.1 Sharon: ‘Frustration with the outside’
“[…] all you have to do is try. That’s frustrating when they don’t try (makes growling noise). I do grumble” (lines 341 – 342)
Sharon’s account revealed a strong sense of frustration directed primarily towards schools outside of the AP. Sharon held a perception that her input was ignored and undervalued,
Overarching theme: Battles, clashes and superiority
Superordinate Subordinate
Sharon Frustration with the
outside - Frustration with the outside Lily Clashes inside and outside - Battles with the home
environment
- Unsuitability of mainstream - The teacher as a difficult figure Devlin Managing the complexities
of the outside world - Managing the complexities of the outside world Ali Difficulties and superiority - Difficulty within the school
system
with external settings failing the CYP she once supported. She described the lack of unity with these outside schools, failing to work together towards a common goal:
“So, we’ll give you a list of strategies, you know and then they don’t use them. That is frustrating. It is, you know, you are setting this child up to fail because actually we have said to you this, this and this. And we know these are the triggers, this is what works and then you don’t use that” (lines 312 – 315)
Describing a lack of willingness to provide support, Sharon believed that the external world held a negative perception about the CYP and their past behaviours, unable to take up a position of forgiveness. There was a sense that Sharon perceived the staff within the AP to be the only individuals who support and accept the child, superior in their ability to understand:
“People have got to want to work with these children and sometimes actually you can clearly see you can’t be bothered. You don’t want to try because of the blips and issues they’ve had in the past. But that’s done. That’s finished. You need to let that go. You need to see them as they are now and give them that chance” (lines 328 – 332)
“And it’s almost as if they think, he’s a naughty child and we can’t be bothered. And they don’t support the child to try and make it work” (lines 310 – 312)
As a result, the AP was felt to be the only place in which the child was offered a second chance to “turn it around” (line 348). For Sharon, there was a belief that external schools position the setting as a place that will save/change the young people, generating pressure on the staff as a result of the responsibility placed upon them:
“They think we are a miracle cure, which we are not. You know, we do our best, but we are not a miracle cure” (lines 307 – 309)
4.5.2. Lily: ‘Clashes inside and outside’
Connecting with Sharon’s account, Lily also highlighted a frustration towards schools outside of the AP. Her descriptions of mainstream settings as “boring” with staff that “just sort of sit there” (line 82), signified both a negative standpoint, alongside a superior view of the AP and her role. For Lily, these schools were also perceived as unwilling and unable to offer the child support, with the AP tasked with finding more suitable arrangements:
“[…] he couldn’t go back to mainstream school. We had to find somewhere that was more suited for his needs” (lines 270 – 271)
“Even the school said he’s made such a difference, but the trouble is, we still can’t meet his needs, you are going to have to find a different provision for him” (lines 281 – 283)
An additional factor outside of the provision and strongly emanating throughout Lily’s account was the frustration she felt towards the child’s home environment. Lily experienced a conflict with parents/carers, in which there were different “sides” (line 180) and a lack of unity and togetherness. Like Sharon’s experience of external schools, Lily felt that the work of the AP was hindered by the home environment, struggling to break a cycle (line 183) of dysfunctional behaviour. For Lily, this difficulty often left her feeling deceived, disappointed and hurt by the children’s parents:
“And sometimes they say everything right but they don’t implement it. So, they know they’re doing something wrong because they can talk it, they say everything they need to do. They know what they need to do, but when it comes to being at home, they don’t do it. Yeah so that’s, that’s what hurts, they know. They know what’s best for their child but they don’t do it” (lines 188 - 191)
Unlike Sharon’s experience, Lily’s account also located a challenge within the AP system that impacted on her ability to support the children. Whilst Lily experienced the importance
of the staff team around her (as described in section 4.3.1), she felt times of conflict with the teachers that she worked alongside, disagreeing with their approach. Power played a role in this dynamic, with Lily describing a lack of autonomy and value from the teachers she worked alongside, feeling excluded from any decision-making processes:
“[…] but it would be like no I’m going to deal with this, I’m going to deal with this. You can do this. So, it was very much oh I don’t really know what I’m meant to do in this situation because sometimes I wouldn’t be a part of that, because the teacher would go out talk to them, bring them back in” (lines 317 – 321)
“Rather than just shoot you down straight away. No, that idea’s not going to work, we will just do this instead, so” (lines 325 – 326)
4.5.3. Devlin: ‘Managing the complexities of the outside world’
Drawing parallels with Lily, Devlin also experienced a battle with the outside world, located predominantly within the child’s home environment. Devlin felt that this negatively contributed to his experience supporting the CYP, attempting to combat and compensate for a lack of boundaries and structure that existed outside of the AP:
“It’s erm, it’s a…tough, tough job. In a way, you, we have to be on the ball because what they can’t do here, they can do at home” (lines 12 - 14). “Putting boundaries in place and keeping it structured…is erm…a challenge because they don’t have boundaries at home. There is nothing structured, there is no structure at home itself” (lines 35 - 37)
“Erm, boundaries in life. What they see outside, they can bring it in” (line 179)
For Devlin, this connected with a sense of powerlessness, indicative of his limited control and capacity to influence the child once they were outside of the AP environment:
“It’s a challenge because what they do at home, is out of our hands. So, but we will try our best, in school we do teach them the lifestyle at the same time” (lines 182 – 184)
Whilst Devlin does not comment on mainstream schools as explicitly as Lily and Sharon, he experienced an incongruity with their approaches and actions. For Devlin, the AP was viewed as a safe haven, with the “pressure” (line 175) in external settings difficult for the children to manage (line 175). Disagreement with the system of exclusion within these schools was also expressed, with a sense that Devlin felt they failed to give the young people a chance:
“[…] and even though they get kicked out, I feel like kicking out the kids is actually wrong at the same time because you aren’t giving them opportunities […]” (lines 20 - 21)
4.5.4 Ali: ‘Difficulties and superiority’
Drawing similarities with the other participants’ accounts, Ali also emphasised the challenges he faced with schools external to the AP. Comparisons were made with outside settings, with Ali holding a strong belief that his provision was superior, with better adaptations to meet the child’s needs:
“So yeah, in that aspect the time-table is better tailored for the children, which I don’t feel in mainstream. I feel like we just have to do it because that’s the way the system is. But, it’s not really beneficial” (lines 25 - 27)
“I mean, I definitely feel there is a more realistic approach of what kids can actually do, especially with their needs” (lines 27 – 28)
“Like we know what we are doing, we do have a better understanding of what the children need to achieve and how we are going to help them achieve that” (lines 97 - 98)
For Ali, this connected with his sense of authenticity when supporting the young people, taking pride in the lack of façade and substance of his work:
“They are actually genuinely doing work and we actually genuinely feel like we are meeting their needs” (lines 110 - 111)
“[…] so, at the end of the day we are not just trying to show Ofsted we are doing this, this and this” (lines 109 – 110)
Like Lily’s account, Ali also experienced clashes within the AP system, directing his frustration towards the setting’s approach and his lack of autonomy over decision-making processes (line 214). He expressed his perception that the school lacked fundamental rules and “discipline” (line 36), allowing the CYP to exploit the system and its staff. For Ali, this was linked to the AP’s therapeutic stance, believing this lacked a clear and explicit structure, resulting in uncertainty about the rules he was required to follow:
“And I feel like, or maybe it’s that our therapeutic approach hasn’t been said…clearly, hasn’t been stated clearly what you can and can’t do. What’s therapeutic and what isn’t?” (lines 34 – 35)