Continuing the theme of the final paragraph of my last Blog (on the nature of ‘knowledge’ with respect to Intensive Interaction), this being about those who have power over our public service provision understanding the outcomes of Intensive Interaction, I mentioned the role of government ministers (here in the UK).
So, since then I have done a little bit of research, and it turns out that over the last 5 years (i.e. the usual length of a parliamentary term here in the UK) we have had 7 different Secretaries of State for Education and no less than 8 Parliamentary Under-Secretaries for Children, Families and Well-Being (the person supposedly responsible for special care and special education) – so altogether 15 in 5 years!
Also looking at the field of Health and Social Care, i.e. who are responsible for the provisional of care and support for our most challenged and vulnerable fellow citizens (here in the UK), have had 6 Secretaries of State and 6 Ministers of State for Health and Secondary Care; altogether 12 in 5 years (although one person has held one of those roles once and the other one twice).
I’ll just let that all sink in for a moment … because if the person/people at the top, the defacto leaders of these vital public services, are spending less than a year (and sometimes only a few weeks/months) in charge of their respective departments, how can they possibly come to fully understand the complexity of their briefs and the breadth of their responsibilities? Well, obviously, no matter how well-meaning and hard-working they might possibly be, they can’t.
Now I am not generally cynical about most elected politicians – they have vital roles to play in the running of the country, with difficult and complex decisions to make, in often very demanding circumstances. I am sure that most of them go into politics to do their best to somehow help their constituents (most of them); that is after all how democracies are supposed to work. But this current carousel of ministers and secretaries of state cannot have helped anyone (except a few who have helped themselves careerwise i.e. to a higher ministerial office).
But, what to do? … well, we can’t do anything much about who is appointed a minister or secretary of state, but we can do something to help inform the current incumbents.
Starting on Monday 16th October is International Intensive Interaction Week 2023 – this is the week every year when we invite practitioners and advocates of Intensive Interaction to do something ‘a bit extra’ to help disseminate the approach and inform other people about it.
I am therefore going to suggest that during International Intensive Interaction Week everyone who can (in the UK and elsewhere across the world) contact the responsible ministers and secretaries of state (or their non-UK equivalents), asking them to set out the government’s plan to support the use of Intensive Interaction for all those people who would benefit (both children and adults).
Alternatively, you could write to your constituency Member of Parliament (or their non-UK equivalent) requesting that they ask a parliamentary question to the respective ministers about the vital role they see for Intensive Interaction in helping those with communication or social difficulties or differences, in various service contexts across the country.
If they don’t yet know about Intensive Interaction, then they need to … and we are the people to tell them! Here in the UK the current holders of those posts (at the time of writing) are:
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care – Steven Barclay
Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care – Will Quince
Secretary of State for Education – Gillian Keegan
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Children, Families and Well-Being – David Johnston
Letters should be addressed to their respective departmental headquarters, or via their constituency offices at the House of Commons. Also, here in the UK you can find your own constituency MP at: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
You could also mention that here in the UK Intensive Interaction is already directly recommended by the UK government ‘as a means of facilitating meaningful two-way communication’ in Valuing People Now: a new three year strategy for people with learning disabilities (DoH, 2009), and supported in its use in the ‘General guidance: Planning, teaching and assessing the curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties‘ (QCA, 2009) … but it has yet to be properly supported or universally implemented.
Please also think about writing to the Heads of Education/Health/Social Care Departments of local authorities, and their equivalents in Children and Family Services, and perhaps reference the “SEND and AP Improvement Plan” and the #SendInTheSpecialists coalition which is headed by Peter Just of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
These important and powerful people need to ‘acquire’ this knowledge, and ‘know’ how it works (which are different things according to Sfard)!
Collective action is required, so let’s all help them to help us.
Connecting with Intensive Interaction 