Training for residential child care workers in Europe: comparing approaches in The Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom

Abstract

The professional education and training of residential child care staff has once again become a controversial issue in the United Kingdom. Significant investment has been made in research and the development of training programmes and materials without apparently resolving these issues. Examination of European approaches will widen thinking and practice in this area. This paper will examine training issues of workers looking after children living in residential child care. The potential of a ‘European model’ is considered in the context of the contribution of social pedagogy. Two examples, those of The Netherlands and Ireland, are chosen to illustrate different approaches which will be contrasted with contemporary approaches in the UK. The Netherlands represents an example of a more developed welfare state, having among the longest periods of professional education and the highest proportion of qualified staff working in residential child care in the European Union. In marked contrast, welfare services in the Republic of Ireland were traditionally provided by the Catholic Church. Recent developments in the professional education of child care workers in Ireland could provide learning consistent with the institutional and legal traditions of child care in the UK.