Objectives for 2011-2012
The ICSE established the following objectives at its last General Meeting in March 2011. Some are major long-term aims; others are more immediate. The ICSE wanted to:
* Challenge the short and long-term damage caused by cuts in services;
* Promote good management, leadership, training and support for childcare staff;
* Promote good professional practice developments, including social pedagogy and restorative practice;
* Focus on extrafamilial / residential care;
* Focus on managers of services;
* Enhance the status of the childcare profession;
* Promote registration of childcare managers of services;
* Recruit members so that elected Board can be established.
Action Plan 2011-2012
Its plan consisted of about a dozen specific pieces of action, many of which it has carried out.
* The ICSE has developed strong links with the Social Care Association so that those who join obtain dual membership, with all the benefits open to other SCA members. Vic Citarella, the Clair of the ICSE, has also participated in SCA’s meetings.
* Members have been recruited, but not yet in the numbers we would like.
* An email list of members and supporters has been drawn up.
* The ICSE website has been redesigned and maintained.
* Monthly articles on Professional Insights have been provided by ICSE Board members in Children Webmag.
* Articles on child care have appeared in the SCA’s magazine, Social Caring.
* Active links have been maintained with a number of other professional organisations.
* The ICSE has acted as a focus for the campaign to re-establish NCERCC or its equivalent, including a meeting with Tim Loughton, Minister for Children, plans for a wider inter-organisational meeting and the promise of a speech by Tim Loughton at a conference.
* Plans to elect a new Board in March 2012 are due to be activated soon.
Is this Enough?
No. The ICSE needs to be a much larger and more active organisation, but just as oak trees grow from acorns, we have to start from modest beginnings. The current Board has done what it could over the last eight months. It now needs re-inforcing with people prepared to take the Institute forward. As cuts bite, the need for a professional lead is greater than ever.