Recommendation that Butterfly used as training material for social workers

[stumbledin]

Good practice is based on listening to the child's needs and enabling them to express their wishes

www.communitycare.co.uk/2018/12/10/tv-shows-like-butterfly-can-teach-us-social-work-trans-children/

Only posting because the recommendation seems to be based on thinking the series was without flaws - not what one would want or expect from professionals

[Badstyley]

When I was a kid I thought smoking my own weight in pot and snorting my own weight in coke was a good idea, in fact I’m pretty sure I identified as a druggy. Probs a good job nobody in authority thought it was a good idea to indulge me. Not that it stopped me mind but I didn’t get free drugs and rolled up fivers.

Oh god, what is the point of having professionals at all if the kids are always right?

[OldCrone]

As is often the case with pieces like this, they get a bit confused about the terms sex and gender making self contradictory statements like this:

... many believe that gender can be fluid, but that sex (i.e. biology) is fixed and binary. The perception of a fixed concept of sex/gender is challenged by trans people who feel their biological and gender attributes do not correspond.

If gender can be fluid, then it is not a fixed concept, and there is no need for it to 'correspond' to a sex.

While most children are likely to experience their ‘gender identity’ as consistent with their male or female appearance, some children and young people will disrupt binary expectations by dressing and behaving in ways usually associated with the opposite gender. Our experiences as researchers suggest that this kind of play is ‘normal’ among children who will grow up to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or heterosexual.

OK, so gender non-conformity is 'normal' for all children. But wait...

However, a child growing up believing themselves to be gender variant is likely to experience considerable distress, disturbed behaviour, withdrawal and potentially mental ill-health, if their feelings about their body are not recognised or acknowledged by the adults around them.

What is gender variant? Is that just the gender nonconformity mentioned in the previous paragraph?

This is, crucially, different from explorations of sexual orientation, which refer to the person’s sexual attraction to someone of the same gender.

Same gender or same sex? They made a distinction earlier, and now they're conflating the two.

[R0wantrees]

important thread re toolkit for social care workers, foster carers etc & resources created by TRAs for children and young people in care:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3324578-Vunerabilities-of-Looked-After-Children-Social-Work-CP-restricted-by-affirmation-requirement-Trans-Youth-in-Care-Toolkit

[stumbledin]

For me this illustrates the worrying echo chamber coming out of universities where there have been 30 or more years of queer politics creating the trans narrative. This means that many now teaching or researching are in facts products of the queer backlash against the autonomy of women political analysis created by the women's liberation movement (ie part of the back lash against women).

And presumbably those responsible for commissioning or publishing articles on community care are also part of that process.

So for them they talk / think in this anti biological reality nu speak.

Its really worrying to think that those with the very difficult work of social care should be approaching it with this woman denying concept of the world.



(The extent to which the policy of deliberate misuse of language to prop up the trans arguement was pointed out by somebody as having permeated the UN where a press release relating to Human Rights Day talked about gender rights rather than women's rights.)

[Birdsfoottrefoil]

I think it could be a very useful training material to show how emotional manipulation by dodgy charities leads to abuse of children. How children can put themselves in harms way in order to get attention. That by accepting transideology you are enforcing regressive sex .
stereotypes. And so on.

[FWRLurker]

Gender nonconformity = totally normal part of growing up not worrying at all.

Gender variant = srs business, children severely distressed, need help / hormone blockers / new pronouns

What’s the difference!?!?!?!?!?

[R0wantrees]

Girls who have social care involvement and /or are Looked After Chidren are so vulnerable.

They will have a much higher liklehood of being sexually abused.
Children and young people in Care are isolated and so especially at risk of influence by online 'communities.

There is a recognised link between those children and young people 'questioning their gender identity' and having being abused.

This is a massive child protection and safeguarding issue.
Social wokers are the state's representatives of 'corporate parents'

There is a very serious failure in the Duty of Care owed to them.

[Starkstaring]

Another prime constituency for transgender-identifying children is being adopted - I thought it was a possible link to attachment difficulties and poor sense of self.

Now I am thinking maybe it is because they come into regular contact with social workers who are swallowing this stuff whole?

[VickyEadie]

Using an entirely fictional depiction of a child - written as TV scripts are within established TV scriptwriting frameworks designed not to provide realistic depictions but to offer a dramatic narrative - is not a good way to train those working with vulnerable children and families.

What next? Training teachers using 'Waterloo Road'?

[AspieAndProud]

Might as well learn race relations from Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will.

[CaptainKirksSpookyghost]

Might as well learn race relations from Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will.

Or RainMan to teach about autism.

[Threewheeler1]

Oh my god.
This is a complete nightmare. It's a badly written TV programme.
I'm not a social worker anymore but I can see where it's headed.
If there is one area that should be absolutely free from harmful ideology and based upon our established understanding of child development and need, it's safeguarding. If we're charged with the care of society's most vulnerable individuals, we should be critical of this movement, the pace at which untested theories of gender and mind have taken hold and usurped safe practice.
Multi-agency professionals should be picking apart the potential for lifelong harm posed by the unquestioning acceptance of a child's claim of gender dysphoria, not handing that child over to a whole other untested framework of 'support' because that's what puts them on the 'right side of history'. It's just abdicating their duties.
And as social workers, how can the state ask us to assess risk if they are actively turning their heads away from the risk posed by the trans lobby?
What about social workers who are fearful of the immediate and long term consequences for those children, will they be punished for their reluctance to chant the new mantra?
Might as well decide that you're going to complete an assessment with your eyes shut and fingers in your ears.
Apart from anything else, it would feel as though I was complicit in lying to, and increasing the risk of harm to a vulnerable young person, and I don't think I could do it.
Sorry, rant now finished.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

^I think it could be a very useful training material to show how emotional manipulation by dodgy charities leads to abuse of children. How children can put themselves in harms way in order to get attention. That by accepting transideology you are enforcing regressive sex .
stereotypes. And so on.^

This^

[R0wantrees]

Threewheeler1

Might you please have a look at the thread I've linked previously?

The toolkit for Social Workers is really concerning, the resources for children and young people even more so.

[Threewheeler1]

Thanks R0wan, I'll take a look now.
It makes the hairs on my neck stand up sometimes.
Feels like the rot has taken hold.

[R0wantrees]

It makes the hairs on my neck stand up sometimes.
Feels like the rot has taken hold.

Yes indeed but there is the potential to do a great deal more harm.

[Threewheeler1]

Just working my way through that guidance for professionals.
It's so troubling.
Starts with the assertion that you'll need to learn the new language and be accepting at all times. So basically telling me that there aren't the words within our existing safeguarding framework to describe the magical thinking I'll need to participate in.
Also, as a worker trained to ask questions, that I'll need to leave any questions about the validity and benefit of the magical thinking at the door.
When I read through the repetitive assertions that trans kids are at higher risk of suicide and therefore they need validation at all times, I feel as though I'm being asked to have a professional lobotomy.
These kids need trained and experienced adults, CAMHS and the framework set out in Working Together not Tara Hewitt and Twitter.
The parts about a total network of unquestioning support, with none of the trained professionals doing their actual safeguarding jobs, and instead dutifully handing that role to the self-proclaimed experts like Mermaids, is frightening.
The guidance is asking social care professionals to be complicit in untested practice.
And what I really can't understand is the pace at which this is being accepted and implemented. Things usually move slowly in social work policy change and evidence based practice is key.
It seems that any evidence which runs against the grain is being deliberately ignored and the lobby groups and trans charities have the power to strongarm changes to social work practice in a way I've never seen before.

[R0wantrees]

I think that some of the toolkit is based on the flawed Allsorts school toolkit with then significant additions for children and young people within the care system.

Claire Graham has critiqued the Allsorts resource with regards policies and legislation:

[R0wantrees]

Guardian article May 2018
'Schools pulled into row over helping transgender children
As more teens come out as trans, experts clash over how schools should help'

(extract)

Stephanie Davies-Arai, a parenting adviser, launched the Transgender Trend resource pack in February half-term, thinking it would barely get noticed. Instead, she says: “It just blew up”. The LGBT lobby group Stonewall accused Transgender Trend, the organisation Davies-Arai set up two-and-a-half years ago, of spreading “damaging myths, panic and confusion”, and advised local authorities not to use the pack. On Twitter, people piled in, with one describing the pack (which had been checked by lawyers) as a “modern edition of Mein Kampf”.

Davies-Arai says she took an interest in the subject because as a child she had felt herself to be a boy, and she didn’t think it was a good idea to label children like her as transgender because she believes that in some cases, these feelings resolve naturally by the end of adolescence.

While the Allsorts advice states that “trans pupils or students should have access to the changing room that corresponds to their gender identity” and that in PE lessons, students “should be enabled to participate in the activity which corresponds to their gender identity if this is what they request”, Davies-Arai argues that shared changing rooms present difficulties for some girls. Few teenage girls will be willing to admit that they feel uncomfortable sharing a changing room with a biologically male student, she says.

She points out that the technical guidance on the Equality Act for schools suggests offering students “private changing facilities, such as the staff changing room or another suitable space” – the approach taken at Miles’s school.

Susie Green, CEO of the charity Mermaids, disagrees, saying the debate about single-sex toilets seems “engineered to whip up fear” and is equivalent to “arguing people of colour shouldn’t be allowed to use the same toilets as white people in case they make them dirty”. (continues)

Davies-Arai says her broader concern is that by affirming students’ gender identity, schools may be nudging them down a route that can lead to cross-sex hormones and life-changing surgery without enough time to reflect. Teachers, she says, “are essentially being forced to collude in an experimental approach towards children with gender dysphoria”. She adds: “You can support children and accept them, without affirming their belief that their body is ‘wrong’.”

Adele Robinson (not her real name), a head of year at a secondary school, shares Davies-Arai’s worries. The school has had 12 children, all girls, come out as transgender in the past 18 months. The majority, she says, have autism, and some have experienced sexual abuse.

When they come out, she says, they have brought in information sourced from Tumblr blogs and YouTube videos. Although her team does its best to “support every child in a loving, kind and compassionate way”, she feels that staff are too frightened to challenge what she sees as harmful practices: “We have chest binders worn in school, which is horrible. If a child was cutting, they would be straight in with a counsellor. Yet damaging developing breast tissue goes unquestioned. It’s a gross failure in terms of child protection.”

Green disagrees, and argues for a biological underpinning to transgender identity: “If a child or young person consistently, insistently and persistently states their feelings, to ignore, punish or repress their gender identity would effectively be reparative therapy.” (continues)
//www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding


Butterfly was heavily influenced by Mermaids & specifically Susie Green (CEO)

[R0wantrees]

Mermaids approach and influence discussed and critiqued on this thread following Victoria Derbyshire episode which endorsed the charity unquestionly:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3294478-Victoria-Derbyshire-show-today-transgender-children-buying-time-by-delaying-puberty

[R0wantrees]

Lisa Muggeridge (Social Worker) analysis of Butterfly:

[Threewheeler1]

What worries me is who takes the lead, in reality, on a case, once the trans movement have been let in. It's so unclear. Multiaganecy working but with the trans charity dictating terms and actions it seems.
And the lack of information sharing as all information is pertinent. Just further isolates the child who may be receiving more positive attention than they ever have before once gender dysphoria is in the mix.
I wonder where the adult will be that the child can turn to if they change their mind.
The pressure and continuous affirmation will set that child on a path of no return, with all the adults and professional heavily invested in one means of resolution.
I dislike the assumption in the guidance that all of the child's issues are a result of their gender dysphoria. It seems like a reductive assessment of complex needs.

On another note Rowan, you really are an amazing resource.
I have massive admiration for your information finding powers, it's like a public service

[R0wantrees]

Threewheeler1 thanks. This aspect with regards the most vulnerable children and young people really concerns me.

There has been focus on the guidance for schools but I'm yet to find anything of substance that focusses on LAC.

(I have working knowledge of this area)

[BouncingOn]

I'm with you there ROwan. My safeguarding practice won't be taking any lessons from this bullshit. Well, maybe some, but probably not the lessons they intended.

[R0wantrees]

What specifically concerns me is that the so-called 'experts' eg Tara Hewitt, Christine Burns, Stephen Whittle demonstrate no awareness of safeguarding practice, only the 'rights' they have secured for people who are trans.
The motivations are clearly at critical times in conflict.

The resources and guidance are not rooted in Safeguarding or seem to be informed by awareness of the specific needs of vulnerable LAC.