Barriers to Access

In this blog, Kerry Watson –  Mediation and Whole Family Support Manager, explores how seemingly ‘small’ things can become barriers to people participating and receiving the support they need to thrive. With 20 years of experience, Kerry is passionate about service design that is considerate of the day-to-day impact participation can have.  

In our line of work we meet hundreds of young people and families. Lots of them will have similar experiences, but no family operates in the exact same way as another. It means we have to be open to asking questions, often reading between the lines so we can get to the heart of what might be preventing them from getting fully on board.  

Our role in any family is to listen. We often meet people when they already feel overwhelmed, have met with multiple other services, and are already tired of telling strangers the most intimate details of their lives whilst expecting very little in return. It’s our job to try and flip this around and make a meaningful impact.  

The big problems, in some ways, are often easier to resolve. We have mediators and family outreach workers that are trained to facilitate really tricky conversations. We can teach families how to talk through conflict without placing blame and anger on each other. But often, it’s the little things that can be the ‘make or break’ moments.  

I recall one family we worked with last year, that were trying to adjust to their child returning home from some time with their grandparent after a prolonged period of conflict. There was a lot of anxiety, and stress – how would they feel coming home? What about the other siblings?

How do you make sure no one feels left out?  

We set up some free visits to places like Edinburgh Zoo so they could spend some time together away from home, and family sessions at Edinburgh Leisure to play a sport, but  the young person soon stopped coming, and their parents started to get worried that this was a sign they were going to withdraw even further. It became tense – the parents wanted to know why but their child had no answers.  

One of our family outreach workers met with the young person for a coffee and cake at a local café. Somewhere away from the family home, so that they could feel free to talk openly. It soon came to light that they wanted to play tennis and be part of the family activities, but they didn’t have a rucksack to take to the leisure centre, and felt embarrassed about asking for one as they knew that money was tight.  

Another example is of a family desperate to keep in touch with their oldest child in a secure care centre but struggling to juggle the cost of the journey to the centre, childcare for their other children and dinner for the kids while they were out. They simply couldn’t afford it and were scared that it would seem like they just didn’t care.  

The cost of a rucksack is nominal. Covering train fares and offering vouchers to order pizza is also not a huge ask. But it’s these things that often cost more than a family can afford to give.

It can stop them from being able to take part in the rest of the service and benefit from the support. We are fortunate that we have been able to provide these families with these small items, and many more like it. Removing these barriers has meant that parents have been able to visit their children, siblings have played sports together and repaired relationships, families have come together without anxiety, fear, or feeling left out.  

The funding landscape is very competitive, more so now after the last few years of turbulence. It can be difficult to justify needing travel expenses, or money for dinners, or even rucksacks but in all of these cases it is these small things that have been the biggest hurdle to overcome.  

Our mediators and outreach workers are incredibly talented and skilled at what they do, but we need to be aware of all the other barriers that families face when trying to rebuild their relationships.

In the grand scheme of things, the cost of a rucksack is nothing compared to the cost of a young person losing connection to their family.