What do we know of the lives of our children? It’s a vexing question for any parent, particularly in the age of social media, but it has a particular resonance for those of us, charged in law, with responsibility for the safety and well-being of all the children in our local communities. Do we really understand what it is like to be a child growing up in those communities and do we understand the day-to-day reality for those children whose safety and well-being is our greatest concern because of the acute challenges they face?

In her inaugural address as ADCS President, Rachael laid out the challenges facing us as leaders of children’s services. She rooted her analysis firmly within the lived experience of children facing both the structural threats of poverty and discrimination and those particular, and what appear to be ever more pervasive risks, from online harm and criminal exploitation.

I was given a wonderful insight into the lives of children in my community last week when invited to the launch of the film Xcluded, which has been written, produced and acted principally by young people from Haringey. The film focuses on a teenage girl as she struggles to navigate a volatile environment of healthy and unhealthy relationships, adult responsibilities of care giving and self-sufficiency, while all the while having to manage her behaviour and emotions in school and in her peer group. An outburst leads to detention and spirals towards her permanent exclusion, from where she is prey to grooming and criminal exploitation. These are scenarios we are familiar with in children’s services but what was so powerful was how these day-to-day, moment-to-moment, challenges were vividly brought to life in the production.

A key message from Xcluded was how events could be different if adults, we who are responsible for so many of the decisions which impact upon children, chose to behave differently. Had the school teacher, youth worker and social worker taken time to see beyond the presenting behaviour, to be curious and empathetic, this spiral, which ultimately ends in the film with a young person appearing to be seriously harmed, may have been prevented. Hearing of children being convicted of murder at the Old Bailey, and other courts in recent weeks, and then watching Xcluded brought home to me how well the film’s narrative captured the lives of children in so many of our communities. I think Xcluded will be an important tool for all of us as we work to build safer lives for our young people.

In my new position as Vice President of ADCS – thank you colleagues for putting faith in me to undertake this daunting, exhilarating and oh so important role -  I now have the pleasure of engaging at a national level with the issues which challenge us as a sector and challenge our children in their everyday lives. I will be sure to keep the young people from Haringey, who so powerfully contributed to Xcluded, at the forefront of my mind. Their experiences and their clarion call, asking us to understand before we condemn and be curious to the reality of young people’s everyday lives and everyday struggles, is one that will sustain me in my work for the children in our communities and, with you, in working for all our children.