THE STRUGGLE:
There were, of course, other factors. Margaret Stirling, who became a Director in the 70's, wrote later:
"within the first flush of enthusiasm for generic social work and the appeal of 'radical' social work which dominated much professional thinking and training in the 1970's, residential care seemed increasingly marginalised. The Community felt this keenly at the time; difficulties in maintaining effective liaison with key people in a child's home area; ill-maintained contact with a child after placement; lack of consultation over planning for a child's needs and future needs. It needed a firm hand on the special needs of its children and a constant reaffirmation of its commitment to the value of each child for the Caldecott Community to hold its head high at this point. That, and a determined effort to improve the quality of its care, to justify its claim to still be a special place."
It didn't feel like a special place at the time, nor did we say that we were, though our psychotherapist, Clarence Wollen, was impressed enough to encourage us to call ourselves a Therapeutic Community. The seventies were essentially a time for the Community to consolidate. Without ever planning it we were rebuilding brick by brick in every department, looking for the way that worked best, taking risks, experimenting and rejecting.
It was a long, slow, struggle. One of the first steps, because the opportunity now arose, was to put together a revamped council, the governing body of the Community, with a good mixture of professional expertise: of legal, financial and business knowledge and of former members of the Community under the strong chairmanship of Lord Brabourne. An extremely able team began to emerge in the seventies which was to serve us so well in the next decade. When I have heard how other governing bodies performed their task, they seemed to be like 'other' soap powders in the advertisement. By contrast our Council collectively not only had considerable expertise, but had the time, commitment and knowledge to make the various sub-committees specialist 'think-tanks' which supported the Directors and made us feel part of a vast shared experience. It was also a highly exhilarating experience working with them. They were also fun, which is more than can be said of most meetings! If Leila Rendel was the original powerhouse of the Community, the council combined with the Directors now took on that mantle. Moreover, in the next decade they were able to translate thoughts into action, with considerable aplomb.