MSW2FT2BSc4 Evidencebased practice

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MSW2/FT2/BSc4 Evidence-based practice

• Secure accommodation
• Mark Smith
• 17th Oct 2006

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Presentation will cover

• History/background
• Legal framework
• Referral/admission
• The changing discourse on youth crime
• Working in secure accommodation
• Secure accommodation within the continuum of care
• Recent research

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History of secure accommodation

• Welfare roots
• Increasingly conceptualised within criminal
  justice
• Approved/List D schools
• Rossie and subsequent expansion
• No legal basis for placements
• Growing awareness of human rights
• Development of criteria

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The legal framework

• HASSASSAA 1983 (amending SW (Scot) Act 1968)
• Criteria
• he (sic) has a history of absconding and he is
  likely to abscond unless he is kept in secure
  accommodation and if he absconds, it is likely
  that his physical, mental or moral welfare will
  be at riskor
• he is likely to injure himself or other persons
  unless he is kept in secure accommodation.
• Best interests
• Permissive, requiring agreement of chief social
  work officer and head of establishment
• Hearing merely provides legal authority

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The Code of Practice 1985

• the use of secure accommodation for children is
  seen as an exceptional measure
• only those children who genuinely need secure
  accommodation are placed and kept there
• where it proves necessary to use this type of
  accommodation, the length of time during which
  any child stays in it is restricted to the
  minimum necessary to meet the childs particular
  needs and
• the use of secure accommodation is seen in the
  context of an appropriate child care framework
  which is fully consistent with the welfare
  principle contained in sections 20 and 43(1) of
  the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968

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Children (Scotland) Act 1995

• Leaves criteria largely unchanged (Section 70(10)
• CSA Guidance (vol 2) maintains best interests
  principle
• Focus on individual rights
• Introduces ideas of community interest
• Secure Remedy 1996 last resort and shortest
  possible time (3 monthly reviews)
• Locates secure within wider child care system

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Admission through the courts Criminal Procedure
Act 1995

• Remand section 51(1)
• Sentences
• Summary procedure section 44(1)
• Criteria need to be met, welfare principle
  applies
• Solemn procedure sections 205/208
• Determinate length of sentence

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The secure estate

• Rossie (Montrose)
• St Marys (Bishopbriggs)
• Kerelaw
• St. Katharines/Howdenhall (Edinburgh)
• The Elms (Dundee)
• St Philips (Plains)
• Good Shepherd (Bishopton)
• Kibble (Paisley)

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The changing discourse on youth crime

• From welfare to justice
• Neo-liberal/individual responsibility
• what works
• Advisory group on youth crime 1999
• 10 point action plan 2002
• Fast-track hearings
• Youth court pilot
• ASBOs for under 16s
• National standards for youth justice (issued Dec
  2002)
• Growth of youth justice teams/projects

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National standards and secure accommodation

• Objective 5 to target the use of secure
  accommodation appropriately and ensure it is
  effective in reducing offending behaviour
• All relevant background information, including
  the ASSET/YLS-CMI assessment, held on the young
  person should be passed by the young persons
  caseworker to the secure unit within two working
  days of admission.

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The expansion of secure accommodation

• Secure Remedy 1996
• Secure Accommodation Advisory Group 2002
• Press release 2002 announces increase in beds
  from 96 to 125
• Justified in terms of response topersistent
  young offenders
• Figures based on panel authorisations not acted on

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Trends in usage

• Demand fairly static since late 90s - reducing
  this year
• Longer stays (linked to programmes and risk
  aversion)
• Boys/girls 76 boys in 2006
• Admissions direct from home (33)
• International comparisons (4x that of France, 10x
  that of Spain, 100x that of Finland - Pitts,
  2005)
• Caveats re comparisons

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Secure accommodation in the continuum of care

• The Scottish research confirms other findings
  that the demand for security reflects the
  requirements of inadequate, open institutions and
  community services rather than the needs of
  difficult children.
• (Kendrick Fraser, 1992, p. 105)
• Poorly run childrens homes throw up more
  candidates for secure than well-run homes
• Fast track hearing research/persistent young
  offenders
• Availability is biggest determinant of usage
• Laws of supply and demand are inverted

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Exercise

• Read the vignettes used for the Secure
  accommodation research (SE, 2006)
• What issues would you be concerned about?
• Why?
• What criteria for secure accommodation are/might
  be met?
• How would you prioritise these cases?

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Stages of placement in secure accommodation

• Pre-admission
• Admission
• Stay in care
• Through care
• After care

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Maintaining a sense of purpose

• Assessment - needs to deal with behaviour and
  difficulties that led to placement in secure
  accommodation
• Care plan - Nat Stds call for action plan after
  10 days
• Programme
• Reassessment/Monitoring

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Working in secure accommodation
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The potential of secure accommodation

• The power of relationships
• relationship factors (the strength of the
  alliance that develops between the youth and the
  worker, built upon perceived empathy, acceptance,
  warmth, trust and self-expression and defined by
  the youth as a helpful connection) and the
  ability of workers to work positively with the
  clients ways of understanding themselves and
  others, account for 70 of behaviour change
  (Clark, 2001). Two other factors, hope and
  expectancy that change will occur, account for
  15 of behaviour change (and also depend on a
  positive relationship between worker and youth)
  while intervention model and technique account
  for only 15. Fundamental to any prevention or
  intervention that has a chance of success, is a
  strong positive relationship.
• (Nicholson Artz, 2003, p. 41-42)
• From what works to who works

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Moving on

• wash-out effect
• National standards
• Every young person will have an aftercare plan
  covering a period of at least 3 months following
  the day of departure from secure accommodation.
• New units secure/open campuses
• Working with families

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Exercise

• Pick one of the vignettes.
• Identify some key care planning objectives

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Recent research

• In Scotland - Role and Relationship with
  alternative services
• No direct alternative (difficulty finding sample)
• Complimentary rather than alternative
• Successful in keeping safe, health, but
  wash-out
• Even so, half maintain improvements over 2/3
  years
• Local, small scale and relationally based
  provision better
• Relationships
• England The use by local authorities of secure
  childrens homes
• Declining use of secure as welfare resources
• Alternatives can be more expensive

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Conceptualising secure accommodation

• Any group care centre has in various ways to
  incorporate aspects of treatment, teaching,
  nurturance and control according to the specific
  needs of the children referred there. Yet
  experience has shown that the ethos of most group
  care centres is heavily dominated by the single
  yet simplistic purpose that underpins the
  resource system sponsoring a centre. This often
  results in the overall developmental needs of
  children being overwhelmed by a single purpose,
  which although important is an incomplete
  response at best.
• Fulcher and Ainsworth 1985

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Further reading

• A full account of policy and practice issues
  relating to secure accommodation including
  extensive further reading can be found in Smith,
  M (ed) 2005 Secure in the Knowledge available on
  the SIRCC website www.sircc.strath.ac.uk/publicati
  ons/publicationsdownloads.html.
• Harris, R. Timms, N. (1993). Secure
  accommodation in child care between hospital and
  prison or thereabouts. London Routledge.

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Further reading (continued)

• Goldson, B. (2002). Vulnerable inside children
  in secure and penal settings. London The
  Children's Society.
• Goldson (2002) New Labour, Social Justice and
  Children Political Calculation and the
  Deserving-Undeserving Schism British Journal of
  Social Work 32 683-695
• ONeill, Teresa. (2001). Children in secure
  accommodation a gendered exploration of locked
  institutional care for children in trouble.
  London Jessica Kingsley
• McNeill, F and Batchelor S (2004) Persistent
  Offending by Young People Developing Practice
  Issues in Community and Criminal Justice
  Monograph 3 London National Association of
  Probation Officers
• McNeill, F Batchelor, S. Burnett, R. Knox, J 21
  st Century Social Work Reducing Re-offending
  Key Practice Skills http//www.scotland.gov.uk/Pub
  lications/2005/04/21132007/20080

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Further Reading (Cont)

• Milligan, I. and Smith M. (2006) From welfare to
  correction A review of changing discourses of
  secure accommodation Educational and Child
  Psychology 23 (2) 75-87 (on webCT)
• Pitts J (2005) The Dismal state of the Secure
  Estate in Crimmens D and Milligan I. Facing
  Forward Russell House Publishing
• Scottish Executive (2006) Secure Accommodation in
  Scotland its role and relationship with
  alternative services www.scotland.gov.uk/Publica
  tions/2006/09/01153312/0
• Scottish Executive statistics www.scotland.gov.uk/
  Publications/2006/08/31160332/1
• Smith, M. and Milligan, I. (2005) The expansion
  of secure care places in Scotland in the best
  interests of the child? Youth Justice 4(3) 178
  191