Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care vol 4(1) February/March 2005

Contents

Editorial Irene Stevens

The General Health, Social Networks and Lifestyle Behaviours of Young People Looked After by Local Authorities in Scotland Howard Meltzer and Deborah Lader

The survey of the mental health of young people looked after by local authorities in Scotland was the second major national survey focusing on the development and well-being of young people to be carried out by ONS. The .rst survey, carried out in 1999, obtained information about the mental health of nearly 900 young people living in private households in Scotland. (Meltzer, Gatward, Goodman & Ford, 2000). Both surveys were commissioned by the Scottish Executive Education Department and the Scottish Executive Health Department. The primary purpose of the survey was to produce prevalence rates of three main categories of mental disorder (conduct disorder, hyperactivity and emotional disorders) by child and placement characteristics. The survey also covered service utilisation and the measurement of lifestyle behaviours. The results of the survey in Scotland were published in May 2004 (Meltzer, Lader, Corbin, Goodman & Ford, 2004a). The results of the surveys in England and in Wales were published in 2003 and 2004 respectively (Meltzer, Corbin, Gatward, Goodman and Ford, 2003; Meltzer, Lader, Corbin, Goodman & Ford, 2004b). More information on the aims of the survey, the de.nitions, questionnaires and assessments used, the sample design and response rates, as well as .ndings on the mental health of young people looked after by local authorities in Scotland, can be found in the previous issue of this journal (Meltzer & Lader, 2004). This paper will focus on .ndings from the survey about the general health, social networks and lifestyle behaviours of the young people.

‘Nae too bad’: Job Satisfaction and Staff Morale in Scottish Residential Child Care Andrew Kendrick, Ian Milligan and Ghizala Avan

In 2003, the National Children’s Bureau and the Social Education Trust published a report – Better Than You Think – on staff morale, quali.cations and retention in residential child care in England (Mainey, 2003a; Mainey, 2003b). It found that levels of morale and job satisfaction were not low despite the adverse environment in which residential care operates. Residential care in the modern world is intended to be mainly a temporary placement for some of the most demanding young people who need to be looked after and accommodated. The sector also continues to struggle with the aftermath of a number of high pro.le public inquiries of the abuse of children and young people in residential care (Kent, 1997; Marshall, Jamieson & Finlayson, 1999; Utting, 1997; Waterhouse, 2000). Residential child care in Scotland is under pressure to improve standards of care in a climate of negative media attention and public suspicion. It was in this context that the Social Education Trust funded a parallel study of job satisfaction and staff morale in Scotland (Milligan, Kendrick & Avan, 2004).

‘Saving’ the Child in Victorian Dundee Chrissie Urquhart

Similar to current disquiet, public anxiety and political debate fuelled concerns amongst the Victorians about juvenile ‘delinquency’ and child neglect. Contemporary observers argued that it was the drunkenness, ignorance, promiscuity, and irresponsibility of parents which were responsible for the ‘gangs’ of disorderly and offending children ‘swarming’ the streets of Victorian towns (Pearson, 1983; Platt, 1969; Shore, 1999). The children of the ‘culpable’ poor were believed to be at particular risk of drifting into criminality, as not only were they in.uenced by their unreliable and unworthy parents but they had also inherited all the susceptibilities and propensities of their forebears. What to do with these children became a prominent preoccupation of the era. A group of reformers, many of whom were evangelicals, argued that the salvation of these children could only be achieved through religious- based moral training. (These reformers are characterised by the term ‘child savers’). They had a resolute belief in the righteousness of their cause: not only to protect the child from the risk of criminality but also to protect society from the perceived growth in lawlessness. The rhetoric of the ‘child savers’ was the protection from depravity and corruption of a large group of vulnerable children, but the methods established within the institutions they founded, and the subsequent legislation, sought to correct the behaviour of the culpable poor through the retraining and reforming of their children. Mary Carpenter, described by one historian as ‘the supreme ideologist of [the] reformative principle’ (Pearson, 1983, p. 179), repeatedly argued that special training schools would only be successful if they were ‘enforced by magisterial authority’ (Carpenter, 1851, p. 259). She held the view that children who were ‘homeless and friendless’ would become thieves and beggars if they were not ‘compelled’ to attend; voluntary attendance was discounted due to the children’s addiction ‘to vagrant habits’ (Carpenter, 1851, p. 71). Victorian perceptions of the causes of crime allowed for little distinction between the persistent juvenile offender and the child in need of care and protection, which led to innocent children not found guilty of any crime but detained under an order of detention being viewed in the same manner as those who were found guilty of offending. These children, many of whom were neither ‘delinquent’ nor ‘destitute’, were subjected to many years of incarceration in order to undergo ‘special’ training, treatment which re.ected the wider political and social fears amongst elite groups regarding the lower classes. Many Victorians adopted an approach to the poor which assumed their guilt for the distressed circumstances they were in and the accusation that parents sought to abdicate responsibility for their children abounded. The children were viewed as ‘tainted’ because they had inherited the tendencies and weaknesses of their parents. The directors of the special training institutions in Dundee re.ected common beliefs that the children of the culpable poor were more likely to become respectable adults if they were removed from the in.uence of their parents. Accusations of lack of parental responsibility allowed the ‘child-savers’ to deny parental rights to those whom they regarded as unworthy. Fathers had recognised rights, and were regarded as masters of their household who should be free from any interference from outside agencies (Davidoff, Doolittle, Rink & Holden, 1999, p. 140). Only when it was judged that the moral welfare of their children was jeopardised were these rights discarded. Pauper families could also be denied the right to family life with children being removed from parents, and some Scottish parishes were sending children to work in English mills (Mitchison, 2000, p. 127). A Court ruling in 1853 had decreed that the Poor Law could not sever family relationships, but over the following years it would become increasingly acceptable to remove children from their pauper parents (Levitt, 1988, p. 30). Lynn Abrams suggests that during the nineteenth century and extending into the twentieth century there was a general belief among the directors of children’s homes that some children were better away from the in.uence of parents (Abrams, 1998, p. 90). The family unit had little value without the personal means to support and sustain it, and for the Dundee children detained on an order of detention the term ‘family’ was not used once they had been taken either to Dundee industrial schools or the Mars training ship. The family would be subsumed into the euphemism ‘friends’, which allowed the management of the institution to disregard the concerns and ‘rights’ of parents. In removing the concept of family from those deemed to be culpable or destitute, proponents of special training for the children of the lower classes destabilised the family unit hoping to create a workforce trained to industrial habits who would no longer be in.uenced by familial behaviour.

Good Enough Care? Looking After Sexually Abused Young People in Residential Settings Autumn Roesch-Marsh

Sexual abuse in childhood is a traumatic and damaging experience that can have a range of effects for young people as they grow and develop. These can include increased risk of mental health dif.culties such as depression and anxiety, psychological symptoms such as low self-esteem and guilt, and problem behaviours such as substance misuse (Avery, Massat & Lundy, 2000; Cotgrove & Kolvin, 1994; Haggerty, Sherwood, Garmezy & Rutter, 1996; Mental Health Foundation, 1999; Richardson & Joughin, 2000). A range of research has assessed the impact of sexual abuse and interventions which have been used to help protect against or alleviate resulting symptoms (Finkelhor & Berliner, 1995; Monck et al., 1996; Stevenson, 1999). Central to many of these studies has been the .nding that involving the non-abusing parents of sexually abused children in any treatment approach greatly improves outcomes (Deblinger & He.in 1996; Finkelhor & Berliner, 1995; Karp, Butler & Bergstrom, 1998). While many sexually abused young people remain in the care of their families, a signi.cant number will be placed in substitute care settings. In such settings, opportunities for treatment may be in.uenced by a greater range of factors and will likely involve a wider range of professionals with less input from family members (Farmer & Pollock, 1998). Research has suggested that not only are the opportunities for treatment and support of sexually abused young people restricted in residential child care settings, but that residential settings themselves can often be a context for sexually abused young people becoming re-victimised and further traumatised (Brogi & Bagley, 1998; Farmer & Pollock, 1998; Green & Masson, 2002; Lindsay, 1999). In comparing sexually abused and sexually abusing young people to others in substitute care, Farmer and Pollock state that ‘sexually abused and abusing children are more disadvantaged than others in state care’ (Farmer & Pollock, 1998, p. 129). This claim may seem bold indeed, given the diverse mix of young people in most residential settings (Berridge & Brodie, 1998; Kendrick, Milligan & Furnivall, 2004). A close examination of policy reports relating to residential childcare shows, however, that there has been an awareness of the plight of sexually abused young people in substitute care for some time. The Skinner Report (1992), the Utting Report (1997) and the Edinburgh Enquiry (Marshall, Jamieson & Finlayson, 1999) all recommend that the safety and needs of sexually abused young people in residential care should be recognised and prioritised by residential services, and that sexually abused young people should not be placed alongside sexually abusing young people. More recently the Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP), a Child and Adolescent Mental Health needs assessment, identi.ed a real gap in provision for sexually abused young people who are looked after in residential settings. The report identi.es that residential and health services must take a closer look at joint provision for this group (Public Health Institute of Scotland, 2003). Health services have begun to respond to these recommendations by introducing dedicated health projects for looked after children (Kendrick et al., 2004; Residential Care Health Project, 2004; van Beinum, Martin & Bonnett, 2002). As a residential social worker, I found that the available research seemed to con.rm many of the challenges and dif.culties my colleagues and I encountered in working with sexually abused young people. These include: risks of re-victimisation; dif.culty accessing specialist services; and dif.culty managing some of the distressed behaviours exhibited by this vulnerable group of young people (Brogi & Bagley, 1998; Fanshawe, 1999; Farmer & Pollock 1998; Lindsay, 1999; Mistral & Evans, 2002). The following research, undertaken as part of a Social Work Masters dissertation project, had the aims of determining practitioners’ perspectives on caring for sexually abused young people in residential settings and highlighting practice recommendations.

Scottish Anti-Poverty Policy and Looked After Young People Peter Kelly

Since 1997 there has been increased policy attention on poverty and its impact in our society. At both the UK and Scottish levels a wide range of initiatives and programmes have been introduced aimed at tackling poverty and reducing social exclusion. In this article we will look at the impact of some of these policies on poverty, and the implications of what is widely seen as a more progressive policy context for looked after young people.

'A Different Way to Look at Things': The Development of Consultancy in a Residential Service for Children and Young People Andrew Kendrick

The support of consultancy and the tasks associated with consultation are considered to play a vital role in the development of good practice in residential care and in safeguarding children and young people. Back in the 1970s, Berry (1975) recommended that all residential workers should have opportunities for support and consultation and ‘every residential unit requires a special senior supporter who devotes himself (sic) to the staff without being directly responsible for the children... a consultant, counsellor, supervisor or therapist (but not an inspector)’ (Berry, 1975, p. 134). More recently, however, Warner (1992) highlighted that too often staff in children’s homes are left to cope with abused, disturbed and violent young people without access to the specialist psychiatric and psychological services that are needed (Warner, 1992, p. 144). He stressed the need for support from specialists in other agencies such as child psychiatrists and educational psychologists and for staff care schemes such as stress counselling (Warner, 1992, pp. 154-155). Over half the heads of units in the survey of residential establishments in Scotland felt they needed additional support such as a specialist adviser, consultant or psychologist, and ‘often such a specialist was required to provide a service both to residents and/or staff, such as an independent counsellor’ (Harvey, 1992, pp. 27-28). For Whitwell (1998), the role of the consultant is to help residential care staff and managers avoid the commonly negative dynamics of the sector, ‘whether at the level of individual work with a child, group of children, staff team, inter-group dynamics and organisational dynamic’ (Whitwell, 1998, p. 209). Hicks, Archer and Whitaker (1998) argue that consultancy is an essential element in developing a culture of learning within the workplace: Supervision and consultation are essential because no programme of courses or of learning modules can anticipate or prepare people for the range of unique situations which face staff when actually in post. Ongoing learning, based on current experience, is needed. (Hicks et al., 1998, p. 370) Scottish Journal of Residential Child CareVolume 4 No 1 February/March 200568Staff teams also need opportunities to re.ect on their work together in order to understand their own team cultures and to change their cultures where necessary (Hicks et al., 1998, p. 371). Watson and West (2001) describe the process of consultancy for residential care staff in a Scottish local authority in the context of the restructuring of residential care. Their initial consultative aim was ‘to support staff to consider the change process associated with the authority’s Residential Action Plan.’ (Watson & West, 2001, p. 100). The Support Force for Children’s Residential Care (1995) set out three levels of action in creating a ‘healthy climate in residential child care’ in relation to external support: • Employers should initiate liaison with other agencies to enhance the care services in residential homes. • Local managers should develop effective vehicles of consultation to empower staff to improve the services they provide. • Employees should be positive towards the development of consultation, involvement and staff care in enhancing individual contributions to service provision. (Support Force for Children’s Residential Care, 1995) Skinner (1992) highlighted the important role that external consultants can play in supporting the development of this type of ethos within the sector. Moreover, Skinner’s recommendation for a centre for consultancy and development was taken forward with the establishment of the Centre for Residential Child Care. The provision of consultancy continues to be a core element of the Centre’s successor, the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC). SIRCC also now offers longer term consultancy since ‘there are a number of reasons that agencies may require consultancy that stretches beyond a single day…[ranging] from helping staff to work with a particular young person in dif.culties to providing support with agency change or development’ (SIRCC Advice and Consultancy Services Brochure). Kara and Muir (2003) comment that ‘there is no such thing as a typical consultant’, and many are ‘specialists’ in one main area of work, such as mental health, children and families or criminal justice. Others are ‘generalist-specialists’ who focus on a particular kind of work that covers several areas. Kara and Muir assert that ‘using a skilled outsider is really helpful in team building and can help even the best teams to be more effective and improve both performance and morale’ (Kara & Muir, 2003, p. 15). They emphasise one of the key bene.ts of commissioning consultancy ‘is their ability to bring a fresh perspective based on an external point of view’ (Kara & Muir, 2003, p. 26). They list some of the other key ‘tasks’ of consultation to include: group facilitation; team- and partnership-building; conflict resolution; policy development; and staff training and supervision issues. Briggs (2001) highlights the need for attention to ‘the vulnerability of workers and their supervision and training needs.’ He suggests that ‘only through the provision of containing structures can the staff in these settings begin to work with the kind of issues their adolescent clients are facing’ (Briggs, 2001, p. 105). Briggs declares this style of ‘group processing’, also highlighted by Whitwell (1998) and pioneered by Menzies Lyth (1988), is critical for teams who work with children where the impact is ‘extremely powerful’ (Briggs, 2001, p. 104), and ‘… in painful and stressful work staff need to be given space to think about the anxieties stirred up by the work and the effects of these anxieties on them’ (Mawson, 1994, cited by Briggs, 2001, p. 104).

Childhoods: Experiencing an International Conference Irene Stevens and Laura Steckley

The University of Oslo in Norway hosted an international conference from 29th June – 3rd July this year. The title of the conference was Childhoods: Children and Youth in Emerging and Transforming Societies. The conference was organised by the University of Oslo, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), the Norwegian Centre for Child Research and Childwatch International Research Network. The conference itself took place at the Blindern campus of the university during four gloriously warm, summer days. Irene Stevens, Laura Steckley and Andy Kendrick represented the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC) and between them presented four papers at the conference. Irene presented a paper on child protection and risk in care which looked at how health and safety policies in units can restrict activities for young people, and the need to develop appropriate risk assessment processes. Laura and Andy presented a paper on the experiences of children and young people and residential workers of physical restraint. Andy also presented papers on social exclusion and social inclusion in residential child care and on residential work with sexually aggressive young men. The purpose of the conference was to view modern childhood, children and young people from a global perspective and provide an opportunity to learn from research across a range of disciplines and from a large number of countries and regions. The international focus is particularly crucial in the current climate, where local and global issues are intertwined. The conference was attended by around 1,000 participants from over 50 countries. Conference participants could attend sessions in 28 thematic streams covering a wide range of issues affecting children and young people. Some streams focused on particularly troubling topics: Children and trafficking; Child labour; Children and violence; Consequences of AIDS, Children, youth, poverty and marginalisation. Other streams focused on more general topics of children’s engagement with society: Welfare – money, time and space; Culture, communication and textuality; Children and art; Religion and spirituality of children; Children’s perspective on citizenship and nation building. Another set of themes addressed policy and research: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – Implementation of the principles of the convention; CRC in developmental practice; Changing perspectives in child and childhood research; Bridging the gap between research, policy and practice.