(Rehearsed reading)
“What if we put love into the care system?” asks one of the actors in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Holding/Holding On.
Holding/Holding On shines a light on the unheard voices of care experienced individuals and sector professionals and interrogates the way the sector and media talk about Scotland’s care system. The project is a creative enquiry inspired by conversations with those in the social care sector
Six cast members sit on a sparse stage, clutching at scripts that detail shocking stories of neglect, poverty, and prejudice. The actors represent care leavers, social workers, and panel members who fed into the Care Review. As a kid in care, you don’t see the red tape and restrictions. What you see is a personal attack as any chance of happiness fades away. One actor suggests that the care system is more of a child protection system, largely devoid of love and compassion. Another laments the trauma that the current set-up perpetuates. Constant cuts to funding and resources leads to devastating errors that affect children for the rest of their lives. Systemic failures see social workers making errors of judgment that put children at risk. This may be a Scottish production, but it is relevant to social care across the world.
Holding/Holding On also uncovers the struggles that sector professionals face. A transcript from “Helen”, a former Local Authority Chief Social Worker, tells of council bigwigs spouting “value for money” while she tries to explain that children are not commodities. Social workers, to damaged and frustrated care-experienced young people, can seem like the devil incarnate. Their enormous caseloads and lack of financial support means they can’t wave a magic wand to make life better, manageable, worth living.
The production highlights that for both caregivers and care receivers, there is a shocking lack of support. We hear from social workers who feel powerless in a broken system. One care leaver tells how a social worker mistakenly thought his home was dangerous and abusive. Being on social services’ radar ultimately tore the family apart. Another young person reflects on how their seemingly perfect life allowed abuse to go undetected. Without proper resource, there will continue to be devastating mistakes where intervention comes too hastily or too late, fracturing families forever.
Holding/Holding On explores the language surrounding care-experienced young people. So often we are labelled as “naughty kids”, “tearaways”, “nightmares”. The project brilliantly highlights the need for training on trauma and attachment to not only be implemented but regularly reviewed. Holding/Holding On makes one thing abundantly clear: when it comes to the care system, we cannot cut corners.
One of the starkest moments in Holding/Holding On is when the cast come to the realisation that Scotland doesn’t really have a care system. The Independent Care Review made it clear that “care” is not a priority in Scottish social services. On the whole, children are handled, dealt with, anything but cared for. The report stated that the country’s social care issues are “impossible to solve because there is no single solution to the problem”. As Holding/Holding On points out, there are many solutions.
The project urges its audience to begin thinking of vulnerable, care-experienced kids as their own. The attitude of “it takes a village to raise a child” has never been more necessary.
Holding/Holding On is an eye-opening and refreshing production that asks, “what if?” What if we spent more time and money tackling poverty instead of putting “poor people’s kids” in care? What if social workers had manageable caseloads? What if health, housing, education, addiction services, social work and social security could work together to keep families together?”.
It is a tough, but necessary,
Holding/Holding On, a National Theatre of Scotland production, is a work in progress project. It is available to stream until Friday 4 November.
Words by Tayler Finnegan
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