From individual wellbeing to mutuality in everyday care: exploring relational practice and ‘mattering’ in child and youth care

While the concept of ‘relational care’ is increasingly appreciated across a range of helping professions, particularly within approaches such as Child and Youth Care (CYC) (Garfat et al., 2018; Smith, 2021), there is still considerable ambiguity around what relational practice truly entails. Is it simply about being kind and compassionate? About having good interpersonal skills? Or does it demand something deeper, more transformative, and more complex?
This article argues for a critical shift in how we understand care. It suggests moving away from individualised models focused on predetermined outcomes and independence toward relational interdependence—an approach characterised by emotional closeness, mutuality, and support.
It takes the concept of mattering (Rosenberg, 1985) as a central thread to explore relational practice not just as a technique, but as a deeply ethical and ontological stance. Although the idea of mattering is not new to CYC, having been championed by scholars such as Grant Charles (Charles and Alexander, 2014; Charles and Anderson-Nathe, 2019), this article positions it as a foundational lens through which we can understand the purpose and impact of everyday care work. It connects the notion of mattering to broader concerns about belonging, recognition, and the existential need to be seen—not as a problem to be solved, but as a person to be met and mutually impacted by.