An interview with Hazel Glen

Hazel Glen is a Service Leader at one of CrossReach’s residential services for Children and Young People. The service which Hazel provides leadership and guidance for, Rockwood, was rated a ‘5’ or very good at their most recent care inspection. The inspector said that relationships really were an area of strength and that interactions between staff, children and young people were friendly, loving, and respectful, with lots of laughter. We asked Hazel about how love is felt and experienced at Rockwood.

How do we ensure care is a loving experience for our children and young people?

For me, how a young person experiences care can be mostly attributed to how adults around them support, care, and nurture them. I feel that the adults at Rockwood are genuinely here for the same purpose, of wanting to ensure that the children we care for grow up feeling loved, nurtured and respected. They collectively have the view that when they come to their work they don’t actually come into a place of work but into a family home. And not to sound cliched but walking into Rockwood, you do feel a sense of belonging and connection like you do with your immediate family. I think it’s also important that we respect how people choose to show and receive love. For some of our young people a high five and side cuddle would be too much whereas for others cuddles and kisses on the forehead are a part of our everyday interactions. I often think that we have been presented with a gift when supporting children and young people here at Rockwood as we can help children and young people view the world not through a lens of fear and panic but through a lens of care and love.

What do you think contributes to young people experiencing love?

It’s our entire ethos and values which in turn lends itself to our organisational culture where relationships and relationship development are central to everything we do. Unfortunately, there isn’t a step-by-step recipe in how to create the ultimate culture in residential childcare; but we do know what helps and that’s things like ensuring our practitioners are supported to attend to and reflect how their practice is working towards our overall ethos and values, ensuring that there are opportunities to learn and ensuring that we are truly listening and responding to the voice of children and young people even when this can be incongruent with our own belief system.

How do you think attitudes towards love have changed in residential childcare?

I’m so proud of the fact that not only as an organisation, but as a nation, Scotland is committed to ensuring that all children and young people grow up loved. It wasn’t in the not-so-distant past that it was felt that ‘If you had telt a wean that you loved them that you could be sacked’. That had a lot to do with the fact that our services were much bigger and operated at more of an institutional level. However, you don’t know what you don’t know and now in terms of knowledge and understanding we know that for relationships to develop and for young people to feel truly connected with the adults who are supporting them, that the physical environment needs to feel safe. For children and young people this is in much smaller spaces where adults can attune to their needs and desires. This transition and movement has been at times scary. In order for adults to be able to offer genuine and authentic care, nurture and love we need to be willing to be vulnerable and vulnerability for adults who have at times been told to shield themselves from the pain of supporting children and young people who have experienced complex trauma is terrifying. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, but a change that significant requires time and patience.

What changes do you think we need to make both at an organisational level and across the sector so that loving relationships are able to flourish for children and young people who experience care?

That’s tricky to be honest. I think CrossReach is already in the midst of a huge journey of change from when I first started working here and we can already see the impact of those changes. For example, the fact that we can openly show our affection and care towards the children and young people we support, well you can see it almost immediately with the smiles on their faces and their interactions with us. The fact that our practice model embraces P.L.A.C.E as an attitude of being and that all our interactions and relationships should be characterised by these components (Play, Love, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) is so helpful in ensuring that young people experience adults around them as loving. Personally, I want the children and young people we support to never have to ask themselves if they are good or worthy enough of love because they will be experiencing care and love in every interaction they have with us.

Here’s what one of our young people said about love

‘For me love is about being able to spend time with people in here and talking about stuff when I’m upset. I love the fact that the staff here are different and that helps me to cope. I have never fallen in love so I don’t know what that feels like, but I do know what self-love is as I love going to the gym and I love how this feels as it makes my day worthwhile. I of course love my family but that’s a different type of love’.