Abstract
Arguably, the population of over 65,000 looked-after children and young people in England who have been rejected, neglected, and abused by their parents or carers, constitutes one of the most vulnerable in our society today. For too many of these children personal, social, and academic outcomes are dismal, and far too many leave the public care system to become homeless, jobless, and friendless or incarcerated. A number of local and central government initiatives have attempted to improve outcomes for this group, but with limited success.
It is against this backdrop that the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Child Care was developed to empower residential carers and foster parents to understand and meet the often complex needs of children in their care by responding to their parenting needs and supporting them through developmental trauma.
However, the Emotional Warmth model not only seeks to address the problems experienced by these children and young people but also draws on positive psychology to teach their carers to identify their subtle signature (character) strengths and to find creative ways of helping children to utilize these strengths more effectively in their everyday lives.
In this chapter, the main components of the Emotional Warmth model are described and the key role of the psychologist consultant is outlined. This approach therefore represents a more holistic type of applied psychology since it not only enables carers to manage the problems of vulnerable young people but also builds on the potential they have to lead more fulfilling lives.
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Notes
- 1.
Department for Education (2011a), Statistical First Release. This information can be accessed at: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001026/index.shtml.
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Maginn, C., Cameron, R.J.S. (2013). The Emotional Warmth Approach to Professional Childcare: Positive Psychology and Highly Vulnerable Children in Our Society. In: Proctor, C., Linley, P. (eds) Research, Applications, and Interventions for Children and Adolescents. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6398-2_10
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