Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:09 pm
Time: 9:09 pm
Results for secure care
1 results foundAuthor: Gough, Alison Title: Secure Care in Scotland: Young People's Voices Summary: Secure care in Scotland is the most containing and intense form of alternative care available, because young people lose their liberty and have many other freedoms restricted when they are detained in secure care. The law, rules and regulations around secure care are clear that because of this, young people can only be secured in certain situations and for as short a time as necessary to keep them, or others, safe. Secure care is a type of care for a very small number of children and young people, whose difficulties and situations are so extreme that the adults responsible for making decisions about them believe that at a point in time their behaviours and situations pose a very high risk of serious harm to themselves and/or others. Children and young people can be placed in secure care through the Children's Hearings System (the CHS) or the Courts. At present more than 85% of young people who are in secure care in Scotland are there through the CHS, rather than because they have been remanded or sentenced by the Courts. Less than 1% of all children who are looked after in formal care settings are secured each year and the number of children secured by Scottish local authorities has been on an overall downward trend for several years (Scottish Government, 2017). Children and young people who are secured are almost always children who have experienced many adverse and difficult experiences which may include physical, emotional and sexual abuse; neglect, bullying, exploitation and loss and bereavement. Many have had difficulties at school and may have additional support needs, for example with speech and language. They are also almost always young people who are already in care or are involved with the CHS (Gough, 2016; Moodie and Gough 2017). There are five secure care centres in Scotland. The centres consist of between one and five locked children's houses; each having five or six individual ensuite bedrooms and each with its own communal living, dining and relaxation spaces. These individual secure children's houses are connected to a school or education base, and recreational spaces, which are in the same building or complex linked by secure corridors. These spaces, for example the classrooms and sports facilities, are also secured. There are very high levels of staff supervision of, and support to, children and young people. Usually there are a maximum of four or five young people in each class or learning group. The secure care centres also employ a range of people including psychologists and therapists, to offer individual and group support and help to young people whilst they are in secure care. The average stay in a secure care centre is around four months but some young people will stay in secure care much longer, for example if they have been sentenced. Although some children in secure care may have committed serious offences, secure care centres are not young offender institutions (YOI). They are registered and inspected by the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland as residential children's homes and residential school care settings. The 76 young people who took part described the advice and information they would want to give to other young people and a range of things that they felt needed to change. Their core messages were that loving, stable relationships were the key to helping young people move forward. They said that young people needed support to overcome trauma, instead of being labelled 'the bad kid'. They told the researchers that after they left secure care, it was important that young people had an appropriate care placement and good 'moving on' support provided by people who cared and who they trusted. They also emphasised the importance of continuing care and having the option of being able to return to care. The report made 17 recommendations. There are striking echoes of many of these in the messages from the young people who spoke to the secure care national project, many of whom will have been pre-school age at the time of that research. Details: Glasgow: Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice, 2017. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2017 at: http://www.cycj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Secure-Care-Young-Peoples-Voices.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.cycj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Secure-Care-Young-Peoples-Voices.pdf Shelf Number: 148145 Keywords: Juvenile OffendersResidential CareSecure CareYouthful Offenders |