Nurture Groups Can Help

Children in care struggle to talk about emotional needs [Lauren Higgs Monday, 13 February 2012 (Children and Young People Now)]
‘Looked-after children feel unable to talk to school staff about their emotional needs because of the stigma attached to being in care, a report by the youth mental health charity YoungMinds has warned.’

The finding that children and young people in care find it hard to talk about their feelings with teachers in school is disappointing, as considerable resources have gone into improving understanding of mental health issues in schools. Whilst acknowledging the particular concerns expressed by looked after children, it is difficult for all young people to talk about these things ‘in the cold’ as it were. Such conversations need a safe context in which issues may be explored. Nurture groups, in both primary and secondary schools, provide a secure setting in which trusting relationships are built and sustained through regular daily contact between children, young people and adult staff members. Nurture groups ensure the creation of the necessary safe space in which children and young people are able to talk about things that are personal or difficult, in the knowledge that because the adults know them, they will be able to listen and hear what is actually being said.

Only Connect

In recent days there have been a number of important stories in the press on serious matters affecting the youth justice system in the UK. So, what connects the reports on the increasing use of restraint in secure accommodation, the enquiries into the four recent deaths in custody and reduced use by the YJB of local authority secure children’s homes? Let’s hope the proposed review of the youth justice system by the parliamentary select committee gets MPs making the connections in their deliberations!

Surely the connection is that they all represent different aspects of the consequences of not having a coherent model of thinking about children and young people’s behaviour in terms of their emotional and social development and finding ways of translating these ideas into interventions?

Until there is a shift of focus away from notions about ‘punishing offences’ towards approaches that seek to engage young people in positive relationships in which their behaviour is challenged but their personal worth is acknowledged and opportunities are provided for their potential to be developed to the full, we shall continue to see the youth justice agenda dominated by the sort of issues set out above.

Call For Further and Deeper Reforms to the Youth Justice System

From Children and Young People Now (16 January 20122)

“The Centre for Social Justice, set up by Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan-Smith, warns that the youth justice system is operating as a backstop, "sweeping up the problem cases that other services have failed, or been unable, to address".

Maggie Atkinson, children’s commissioner for England, said evidence shows that the majority of children in the criminal justice system are from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds, with many experiencing neglect, abuse domestic violence, poor parenting and poor educational opportunities.

"We need to repair the damage that has been done to these children, and support them through intervention and other measures, such as family therapy, to help them turn around their lives."

Many of the reforms proposed by the CSJ are wholly sensible as is their call for a deep reform of the youth justice system. The comments from the children’s commissioner are also timely and point us to a fundamental issue: how do we think about ‘young offenders’? As young criminals in need of punishment or as children and young people with a wide range of social, educational and emotional problems whose behaviour is a communication about their internal world and whose family backgrounds are likely to feature any number of disadvantages? Many of these children and young people will also have experienced poor early nurturing and attachment difficulties which is why ideas from nurture and attachment theory provide more hopeful models for intervention and more effective outcomes in challenging delinquent behaviour.

A Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year

It's been an interesting year on a personal level: a fascinating visit to secure units in Spain, courtesy of Diagrama; involvement in the 'My Story' publication by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies; continuing involvement with the Fostering Foundation; and exciting work with three other organisations, the Caspari Foundation, The School and Family Works and the Pupil Parent Partnership.

With all the economic uncertainty 2012 will bring its own challenges, but as ever we must remain 'optimistic but realistic' - Here's to a restful Christmas and a peaceful new year.

CARE AND CUSTODY

Drawing on interviews with looked-after children, a study by the National Children’s Bureau and the Prison Reform Trust reported that children say very simple things make a difference.
Care – A Stepping Stone to Custody? The Views of Children in Care on the Links Between Care, Offending and Custody found that children feeling that at least one adult cares what happens to them, having a stable home placement and having a say in the decisions that affect their lives are all important.

The disproportionate numbers of children in care who end up in custody has long been a shameful statistic (how can it be, in a civilsed society, that a young person in care is more likely to go to custody than university?!) Of course the state can't be a parent; being a parent implies a nurturing, human relationship that extends over a life time and requires people who are prepared to give of themselves in ways beyond the means of a corporate entity. What the state can provide are the structures and resources that acknowledge the human scale of the task and create the sytems that support and sustain (not constrain and restrict) those who are engaging in the task of looking after our most vulnerable children and young people.

I have just just sat on two Fostering Foundation fostering panels in London and Devon, where we heard of some fantastic work done by foster carers in providing stable and loving homes for some very troubled children. The care and commitment of the foster carers were evident in the way the children were responding in their placements and the progress they were making in all areas of their lives. It was a marvellous way of reinforcing the messgaes of the NCB report.

The Youth Justice Board Annual Convention

Having been at the YJB Convention last week, why don't I feel inspired? Perhaps it was the talk about cuts and the constant bemoaning of the current changes taking place in the organisation of youth justice services? Perhaps it was the rather flat atmosphere pervading the event, despite the announcement that this wasn't going to be the last such convention!! (presumably this should make me happy?) NO, I think it was more the lack of real substance to the presentations and workshops (with one or two exceptions; Nick Hardwick, Roger Graef, the plenary session on gangs and the workshop on resettlement amongst these). In particular the disconnection of much of the content of the convention to the real lives and experiences of the young people at the  heart of the system was strikingly apparent - although to be fair this was partially addressed in the innovative and powerful 'open space' forum, through the contributions of young people themselves. 

The questions remain, however; why does the language of youth justice seem so remote from other discourse about children and young people? Why is there so little reflection in this area about the importance of children's development and how the nature of their early attachment relationships impacts upon later behaviour in adolescence?

The mantra may be 'young people first, young offenders second', but this has to be reality in the context of policy and practice and in reflecting what work in the youth justice system is about! Thinking around attachment and nurture cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to issues surrounding youth offending; they are critical to a more developed understanding of the nature of the problems and of the most effective solutions.

Thematic Report on Secure Accommodation

In Children and Young People Now:
The number of children and young people being held in custody in young offender institutions (YOIs) continued to fall during 2010-11 from 1,977 to 1,822. This has led to 710 places being decommissioned and five YOIs closing, including a unit for young women.

However, a thematic report, Children and Young People in Custody 2010-11: An Analysis of the Experiences of 15- to 18-year-olds in Prison, found that while conditions for some had improved, for the majority the experience had deteriorated.

It is regrettable, although not entirely unexpected, that a reduction in the numbers of young people in custody results in a reduction of the resources available to help and support their rehabilitation. The lower numbers also brings into sharper focus the vulnerability of this group of children and young people and the response from the Youth Justice Board are proposals that will inevitably lead to more closure of local authority secure children's homes, the specialist resources that are best able to provide the necessary care these youngsters need!

Maintaining a geographical spread of custodial options is clearly essential, but so too is the advancement of regimes and programmes that address the real needs of these children and young people in terms of their social, educational and emotional development.

The conclusion in the report that relationships between young people and adults in YOIs are deteriorating is perhaps the worst news of all; it is the quality of these relationships in the context of the daily routines of residential life that is the most powerful determinant of the outcomes of the custodial experience.

This thematic report \(not by any means the first to make these kinds of points!) must serve as a wake-up call to all those involved in the planning and delivery of the secure estate, and who are therefore responsible for looking after some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our society.