Atmospheres, spaces and job crafting: home visits in Alternative Provision

Abstract

Neglected in policy and the public consciousness, Alternative Provision is the expanding putty of the education sector, working within the gaps left by other agencies to re-engage children. Yet to engage children, Alternative Provision must first engage families and home visits are crucial to this process. Often triggered by absences or safeguarding concerns, homes visits are inherently risky both to the safety of practitioners but also to the fragile trust that is built with families. Rather than being purely objective practices, home visits are deeply embodied, sensuous experiences: from the apprehension and neighbour-scrutiny of the doorstep to inside homes that are sometimes sealed, sometimes permeable, practitioners engage in ‘way-finding’ through room and histories, spaces of affective atmospheres made and unmade, crafted and destroyed through the interaction of people, artefacts and light. And here, improvising, practitioners craft their jobs as equally as they craft engagement.