What The Ofsted Inspector Looks For

[Beau]

I now have a list of the terms my stepson and his brother and half-sister find the most offensive!!

 

Nona, I don't suppose you'd like to share them with us as I think it would be useful to know what they feel is offensive? As Steve says, sometimes we can inadvertently use terminology which can offend without being aware.

 

I have worked with parents who use wheelchairs and I have seen fantastic parenting. I have also sadly seen parents allowed to neglect their child because the "authorities" concerned were too scared of being accused of prejudice to intervene.

 

Alison, you raise an important issue here as positive discrimination can also be quite dangerous. It is a sad reflection on society if we feel we cannot raise real concerns for fear of being labelled prejudiced. If someone had genuine concerns, based on their own observations, then I would hope that they would report this to the relevant authorities. However, you need to be sure of your facts and certainly not base them on supposition and assumption!

[Upsy Daisy]

Beau, you are quite right. Any sort of discrimination is wrong when it is based on prejudice.

 

The involvement I had with these families was on a professional basis and I based my judgements on situations which I witnessed personally and justifications given to me personally by the other professionals involved.

 

I took the appropriate action to take the matter to a higher level. Unfortunately this process was very difficult long-winded and the child's welfare was compromised significantly. The fact that the intervention was delayed because of positive discrimination was eventually acknowledged but that didn't help the child.

 

We have a lot to learn as a society and hopefully we can help to educate each other by talking about our experiences and listening to each others' points of view.

 

I like to think that as providers we can help the next generation to support each other better.