Introduction

This chapter describes initiatives at a range of levels in order that we can promote conversations and open up possibilities. There is always a risk in presenting examples, but it is important when the critique of the existing child protection project has been so strongly argued, that we can recognise the many ways in which families and professionals are testing out new ways of working.

Looking forward, looking back: ‘tidal hope’

When looking to develop practices within a social model, we need to look forward and consider alternative possibilities, but also not lose sight of what we know from previous studies about what children and families who are struggling find helpful. These stress the importance of practices of ordinary help that are rooted in working within specific communities and neighbourhoods. In Re-imagining Child Protection we noted the work of Jack and Gill (2010) and the histories of patch-based approaches and Sure Start (Featherstone et al, 2014). We have also seen the emergence of new models and frameworks for practice that are seeking to respond to contemporary harms, often digital. Locality and community take on a very different hue in these digital discussions, but cross-cutting themes of inequality and representation remain.

In exploring these examples we must recognise the realities for many deprived communities. Ann Power documents in her book City Survivors the strategies families must employ to survive in areas of urban decay (Power, 2007). More recently Darren McGarvey sets out the everyday realities for those enduring poverty (McGarvey, 2017). What is common across these apparently dissimilar accounts is the erosion of capacity within localities and communities to engage with well-intentioned services. In 2006 the national evaluation of the Children's Fund pointed to the same themes: deprived communities simply did not have the resources to work with services aiming to offer support (Edwards et al, 2006). The evaluation team made the recommendation that, if support initiatives are to be successful, resources and time must be expanded on pre-building community capacity. Over a decade on, this message seems to hold even more true after a decade of austerity and the Great Recession. In a recent study of everyday life in a highly deprived community (Mason, forthcoming) a community leader described the community as living with ‘tidal hope’.