"Therapeutic Living With Other People's Children:
An oral history of residential therapeutic child care, c. 1930-c.1980"
HG-08-16728
Final Report to the Heritage Lottery Fund
Covering the period
January 2010 – October 2011
Executive Summary
Finally, we have reached a very successful conclusion to our project "Therapeutic Living With Other People's Children: An oral history of residential therapeutic child care, c. 1930-c.1980". We are proud of the outcome and we believe that those who have trusted and kept faith with the project, especially our main benefactor/funding partner HLF, will be positive also.
In submitting its original grant application, the Trust said:
"The project will strengthen the sense of identity, community and value among "community" members, developing new bonds of understanding and fellowship with members of the wider community. The heritage will be strengthened and preserved, and more fully integrated with the heritage of the mainstream. The national heritage will be strengthened."
We believe the project has achieved these aims, and the following goals:
- It has facilitated and demonstrated the Trust's ability as a small organisation to develop a significant project and to deliver it on time and within budget;
- It has ensured the preservation, access and circulation of many documents, memories and life histories which otherwise would have been lost;
- It has strengthened and improved the role of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre as a national and international resource dedicated to therapeutic environments and the life and work of people in this area of the national heritage, past, present and future;
- It has demonstrated a successful model for archive and oral history work with a complex and sensitive area of the heritage which can be adapted and applied by non-specialists to other sensitive areas of the heritage;
- It has facilitated organisational change and established a strong platform to progress and develop the Planned Environment Therapy Trust in new directions and in new ways, to the benefit of the wider public and advancing the work of therapeutic environments and communities at many levels.
In meeting these aims and achieving these goals the project has generated
- 282 audio and video recordings and 119 transcripts;
- 157 new additions to the archive and library collections, 5 new archive catalogues, 10 completely revised catalogues, and a new archive cataloguing database with 5,515 new entries cataloguing 22,356 items;
- 5,401 new digital files, preserving 2,897 images, 287 documents, 6 films, 218 audiocassettes, 9 reel to reel tapes, and capturing 72 objects;
- thousands of photographs documenting the project.
In sharing the heritage and keeping stakeholders informed the project has published
- 8 websites gathering almost 2 million hits in 77,040 visits, with 383 webpages presenting 130 documents, 5 digital stories, 428 photographs, 38 audio/video selections, 23 transcript selections, and 19 personal written accounts;
- 3 newsletters posted to a mailing list of 350 people, and sent electronically to another 200;
- A richly illustrated project brochure sent physically and electronically to all parts of the world;
- A multi-media DVD and online introduction and guide to the work and purpose of the project.
In further publicising the work of the project, members of the project team
- published an article on transcription in the Oral History Society Members' Newsletter;
- presented at the Child Care History Network 2010 Annual Conference
- presented papers at the 2011 project conference at the University of Birmingham;
- gave a presentation on the project to Directors of the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities;
- spoke about the project using the new multi-media presentation at The Council for Therapeutic Communities first annual conference;
- attended the Wennington Old Scholars AGMs in 2010 and 2011;
- took part in the Caldecott Community 100th anniversary celebrations in Canterbury Cathedral, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
while
- Project Management Group member Stephen Steinhaus spoke about the project at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust National Cohesion Conference in Manchester in October 2010;
and
- articles on the project appeared four times in the Gloucestershire Echo, once in the Wetherby News and the Hereford Journal, twice in the 'Current British News' section of the Oral History Society's Journal, four times in the Child Care History Network Newsletter, and once in the St. George's School (Rhode Island) e-news. Volunteers were quoted in BOP Consulting's "Assessment of the social impact of volunteering in HLF-funded projects: Yr 3, HLF, Final Report", and the project is cited in Anne Pirrie et al, "Caught in the net? Interdisciplinary perspectives on a longitudinal view of emotional and behavioural difficulties" in the journal Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in October 2011.
The project involved 168 volunteers, 35 of whom were students and young people
- in 12 Archive "Weekends";
- 8 Assessment, Training, and Advisory Events;
- one Open Day;
- an international, two-day conference, organised in partnership with the Institute for the History and Work of Therapeutic Environments and the History of Medicine Unit at the University of Birmingham, held in the CPD Conference Centre in the University's Medical School;
- visits by former children to a Catholic secondary school, and to a leading therapeutic community for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children;
- 7 Project Management Group meetings;
- 37 trainings (in Data Protection, archives and conservation, oral history, digital story making, transcript to script writing, website design and management);
- the Final Event;
- and multiple individual volunteer sessions between events throughout the project.
The original expectation was that there would be at most 106 volunteers. In attracting over 60 more, almost every project Activity and output target was exceeded, sometimes substantially.
- The majority of young people taking part were participants in one of two performance troupes generated by the project, the first at Alcester Grammar School in Warwickshire resulting in an A-Level production in April 2010 now on DVD, and the other, involving 27 students, a work-in-progress at Trinity Catholic School in Warwickshire, going on the road in March 2012.
- There have also been 16 researchers and 175 other visitors. Two researchers developed during the course of the project and continuing afterwards have been awarded an AHRC-funded M.A. studentship in Art History at the University of Birmingham, and an ESRC-funded Ph.D. Fellowship at the University of Nottingham.
- The youngest participant in an event was 21 months. The youngest volunteer was 15, the oldest was 96. Almost three quarters of participants who returned personal information forms were 60 years of age or older, while almost a fifth were between 25 and 60, with the remainder young people under the age of 18.
- During the course of the project the Trust thoroughly renewed, upgraded and unified its I.T. systems, with a network of high speed ethernet cables, high capacity routers, new and upgraded computers and peripheral equipment, and sophisticated high-capacity multi-back-up digital storage.
- Mirroring these developments, the organisation of the Trust has been renewed and upgraded, with a smooth transition of the chairmanship across generations from John Cross, who had been Chair and/or Executive Director for over 20 years, to Trustee Rosemary Lilley, and with Child Care Consultant and former Director of the Mulberry Bush School Richard Rollinson becoming the first paid Executive Director in the history of the Trust.
- To help maintain and extend the benefits of the project, the three-person project team has been given full-time contracts for six months beyond the end of the project in the first instance, to help develop the work and relationships pioneered in the project.
- Among the many positive outcomes are the relationships and partnerships which have been created or substantially deepened during the course of the project, which will continue to be developed. These include older partnerships with the History of Medicine Unit at the University of Birmingham, the Wennington Old Scholars Association, the Caldecott Association, the Child Care History Network, the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities, and the Mulberry Bush School. The project has also facilitated the creation of new relationships, including the Care Leavers Association, Birmingham Archives, Trinity Catholic School, and the new Centre for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS). In order to bring former children and staff in residential therapeutic care more closely into the work of the Trust, an email discussion group has been created, and dates have already been set aside for further events and Archive "Weekends".
- The nature and detail of the fuller report which follows indicates the Trust's commitment to continue to learn from the experience and initiatives, and to share what has been learned through this project.
Dr. Craig Fees, RMARA
Project Director
December 2011
CONCLUDING REMARK FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
In commending this report to the Trustees and Committee members of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and on behalf of the Trustees of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust and the entire P.E.T.T. team, I would like to thank the HLF for the enormous opportunity we have been given to demonstrate what a small voluntary organisation can accomplish given vision and the appropriate support and resources.
The changes within the Trust during the course of the project, and the greater participation by stakeholders and members of the general public in the life and work of the Trust, is something I spoke about at the Open Day at the beginning of the project, when Committee member Sam Hunt unveiled the permanently-mounted plaque celebrating HLF's support. Much that I had hoped for has now taken place, and we are in the exciting position of building on a foundation of successful experience and involvements which would have been almost inconceivable two years ago.
None of this would have been possible without the support of HLF and the stimulus created by its grant for what I hope you will agree has been an immensely valuable project, and I thank you.
Richard Rollinson
Executive Director
Planned Environment Therapy Trust