Hallelujah!

Today I handed in my Portfolio. Come July I will be an officially qualified counsellor. OH-MY-GAH! That thought is simultaneously enthralling and frightening! Seems like I've been working for sooooooooooooo long for this, and it's finally within sight. YAY! Not entirely sure how it'll pan out in terms of usage...I'm thinkin' maybe a Masters, part time obviously, whilst I am still working for the Local Authority.

Had my first impassioned work-rant at a rather high up dude t'other day. What I find so utterly frustrating is the lip-service that is paid to Children's Rights. People are all so 'Yes yes we're all about the kids' when really what they mean is 'Yes yes we're all about the kids up to a point but at the end of the day we don't really give a stuff about the rights of young people in the Care system and we don't care about communicating openly and honestly with them when decisions are being made about them that will affect their lives. Yes we recognise that BY LAW they have a right to be involved in decisions about their lives, but actually it gets in the way of us doing our job as the professionals we are' It's such bullshit.

My entire role revolves around a need to be transparent and to be able to openly communicate with and on behalf of the young people I represent. If 'professionals' are going to begin censoring what they say to young people via me then the role is obsolete and actually we haven't progressed at all in terms of how we involve young people and encourage them to engage in their own lives. The statistics for 'Looked After children' SUCK - in terms of achievement, mental health, education, employment, drugs, alcohol, crime, teenage pregnancy. At almost every turn they are a vulnerable demographic. So, why aren't we doing more?

Sometimes things just get my goat.

(Paulo is that enough about my 'real life' for ya??!! :)