I found it difficult in the past to clearly understand Levels of Resistance. At times, I felt I was grasping it and then it would slip again in terms of my understanding.
I have done some work recently in two different local authorities which has involved at least three agencies or more; mainly social care, education, health and the police. In both local authorities, based on the experiences I had, they provided perfect examples of Levels of Resistance when observing the attitudes among all professionals towards a model of effectively integrated multi-agency working. It seemed like many of the professionals involved were keen to work hard and do their best for children and families they worked with, and yet many were working in isolation and reluctant to engage with all the surrounding agencies and unable to see the value in this proven approach.
It really helped me to think of Levels of Resistance and how the concept absolutely came to life for me in this example. Sadly and not surprisingly both local authorities have children's social care systems which have been deemed 'inadequate' and 'failing'. Which, to finish off the example, reminded me how important it is once resistance has been detected to persist in trying to identify ways to get round the resistance and hopefully bring about positive change.
