Reflection 2: Providing care: challenges for practitioners and service-providers

This reflective piece is based on our (re)considerations of care in the lives of young people, and the challenges (and indeed the many positive messages) that authors in this collection of chapters on childhood, youth and care have signalled for practitioners and service providers (for brevity referred to collectively as care [also read caring] stakeholders. The chapters that you will have read in this collection have highlighted the multiple, varied and oftentimes inspiring ways that practitioners work with, care for, or care about, children and young people. Our review of these chapters has highlighted a series of evidence-based messages for us. These occur throughout the book and guide our reflection here. We signal some questions for future reflective practice and to close we set a challenge for practitioners, service providers, and indeed any individual who works with young people and wishes to enhance their caring approach to working with children and young people.