ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how practitioners engage with the people they support, drawing upon the author’s research experiences. It focuses on practice with children and young people, it speaks to all readers in terms of reflection upon how our attitudes shape the way we behave, encouraging different ways of thinking. The chapter considers three examples of the everyday: paperwork, attitudes and practices. It also considers how an array of everyday (socially situated) responses disable and enable, with particular reference to people who are frequently identified by educational or impairment labels. The reduction to individualisation, rather than a focus on social structures, is also firmly embedded in practitioners’ ways of recording, assessing and planning for all children in diverse formal and informal roles. Institutions seem unable to respond with the everyday flexibility that is expected beyond their boundaries, reflecting not only the availability of resources but also their underlying goals.
