Kitbags developed to help social workers talk to children

More than 50 social workers at seven local authorities across the country are testing out the use of a specially-created ‘kitbag’ of resources.

The Talking and Listening to Children (TLC) Kitbag campaign was launched by University of Sussex professor of social work, Gillian Ruch, earlier this year in response to research highlighting the shortage of materials provided for staff to engage with children.

The kitbags were designed by Scotland-based educational charity International Futures Forum and contain finger puppets, human qualities cards, a Talking Stick, calming oil, and a one-minute timer for presence exercises.

Currently social work practitioners in Bexley, Bradford, Coventry, Oxford, Rotherham and Telford are using the Kitbag in their practice while staff at Brighton and Hove City Council will join them later in the autumn.

Professor Ruch hopes that more local authorities will sign up to work with the campaign so that many more children can benefit from it. 

Professor Ruch with the specially-developed kitbag

The TLC research project found that less than 20 per cent of social workers used resources when communicating with children. A social media poll carried out by Professor Ruch revealed that 70 per cent of participating social workers received no resources from their employer to work with children.

‘Kitbag is an invaluable communication tool which encourages openness and helps social workers to quickly build confidence, trust and resilience in children and their families,’ she said.

‘The initial responses to the campaign from the local authorities we have been working with have been extremely positive and endorsed our decision to launch Kitbag. Having such a resource can really make a significant difference to making the all-important connections with children and we would love to see the positive impact of the campaign spread more widely around the country.’  

Participating authorities were briefed on best practice with the kitbag in workshops delivered earlier this year and the campaign team will be returning to the councils in the New Year to monitor progress.

John Herbert, a family keyworker from the London Borough of Bexley, said, ‘I used the kitbag with Joey, a seven-year-old boy, and his family. They chose to use the Animal Cards and Joey picked the understanding card to help him tell his mum he wants her to try to understand him more. This led the family to start to have a conversation with one another about their feelings and what they need from each other. The family found the session really helpful and Joey’s wish was for everyone to have a Kitbag.’

Becky Buchanan, a social worker in a Children in Need team at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, said Kitbag proved a great resource with an eight-year-old girl she was working with, including the mindfulness tools of calming oil, presence cards and timer.

She added, ‘We also went through the cards and she wanted to pick some for her and then I could pick some. Her mum has been really ill from drinking, but things are getting better. The little girl picked out some cards which showed this, such as energy and courage, and then some such as trust and hope that helped her share that mum has had a slip-up with drink again.

‘I was then able to share this with mum in the Child in Need meeting. It was really powerful to share the good things and the ongoing worries and to help mum understand that her daughter was sharing this, rather than being directly asked about her drinking.’    

The first allocation of Kitbags to local authorities have been funded by an award from the University of Sussex’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Accelerator Fund.

The campaign has also received the support and backing of The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) as part of their own 80:20 campaign, which aims to rebalance social workers’ time spent on administration tasks to enable them to have more time to spend on direct relationship-based work with children and their families.?

The Talking and Listening to Children (TLC) project is a four nation UK research project funded by the ESRC that explores how social workers communicate with children in their everyday practice and how social workers and children involved in these encounters experience and understand them.

The research is a collaboration between the University of Sussex, Queen’s Belfast University, the University of Edinburgh and Cardiff University. It aims to generate new knowledge that will enhance the quality of social work education, practice and policy and improve children’s experiences of policy and practice outcomes.

• For more information about the Kitbags contact g.ruch@sussex.ac.uk