The Kindness Code

The Kindness Code - Episode 10 - with Jane Keenan

"Amplify us. Don't drown us out." That's the line a care-experienced adult posted on LinkedIn..and it stopped Jane Keenan in her tracks. 37 years in children's social care. Books, a directorship, a wealth of hard-won knowledge. And yet Jane is clear about where the most powerful shift in the sector is coming from right now: not from professionals like her. From the voices of care-experienced adults themselves. The easy mistake ..the ego mistake.. is to make it about us. Look at me, helping these poor kids. I know what they need. Well-meaning. Heart-led, even. And still drowning out the people who actually lived it. So Jane chose a different role: amplify, don't eclipse. Use the platform to lift those voices, then step back. "If the adults around the child can't see a bright future for them, how is the child meant to see it for themselves?" The headlines fixate on prison, addiction, homelessness. The truth is most care leavers don't end up there. So where are those stories? That's the work. Believe louder. Take up less space. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Kindness Code - Episode 9 - The 2am shift

The 2am shift: therapeutic parenting when you're exhausted, understaffed and on your own   It's 2am. A young person is in crisis. You've been on shift for nine hours. And someone in your training told you to stay regulated.   This episode gets honest about what therapeutic parenting really looks like at the sharp end of a night shift - why night time is uniquely triggering for looked after children, what the window of tolerance means when you're running on empty, and what organisations consistently get wrong about supporting the people doing this work.   Plus, three things any residential worker can do tonight.   Identity, culture & belonging: who am I when my story keeps changing? ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Kindness Code - Episode 8 - with Sam Gardner

"I didn't leave the care system. The care system left me."   Sam Gardner spent 21 years in care. He now delivers transformative talks and training for those supporting care-experienced children -and is one of the most powerful voices in the sector.   His message to anyone working with children in care comes down to one word:   Stay.   Stay when they push you away. Stay when they call you Mum and then never call anyone Mum again. Stay when the seeds you plant won't grow for ten years.   This episode broke me a little. I hope it lands with you too. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Kindness Code - Episode 7 - How to make a house a home

What makes a house feel like home for a child in care? In this episode, we explore how emotional safety, consistent relationships, and everyday moments of connection create a true sense of belonging. Because a home isn’t just where a child lives - it’s where they feel safe, seen, and accepted, even on the hard days. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Kindness Code - Episode 6 - with Andy Baker

You know when you buy a new car, and suddenly you see the same car everywhere? The cars haven’t magically multiplied. Your brain has just started noticing what you’ve told it to look for. This came up in this week’s episode of The Kindness Code Podcast with Andy Baker [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-baker-673a7744/], author of Targeting the Positive with Behaviours that Challenge - and honestly, it really stopped me. Because if a whole staff team keeps saying, “This young person is aggressive”… What are we training everyone to see? Aggression. Every time. And then even the smaller things, the things we might not have noticed before, start getting pulled into that same story. That is powerful. And it’s dangerous. The answer isn’t just “catch them being good.” That sounds lovely, but it’s far too vague. The real work is identifying the positive incompatible behaviour - the thing the young person can’t do at the same time as the behaviour we’re worried about. So if we’re worried about abusive language, the opposite might be respect. But “respect” on it’s own doesn’t mean much unless we define it properly. What does respect actually look like in this home, on this shift, with this child? It might be speaking kindly. Holding a door. Walking away rather than escalating. Helping someone who is struggling. That’s what we need to train our brains to notice. And as always in care, the work starts with the adults first. Able Training | Training made easy. [https://www.able-training.co.uk/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.