Dealing with violent confrontations in children's homes

Staff at children’s homes in Scotland are getting involved in violent confrontations with youngsters and then lying about what happened to "cover their backs", according to a leading academic.

Professor Mono Chakrabarti, of Strathclyde University’s social work department, said inadequate training meant some care-home workers did not know how to deal with violent situations properly. He claimed that there was a "tendency" for staff to provide inaccurate accounts of what happened when a child was physically restrained.

A study by Chakrabarti and a colleague at Strathclyde, Dr Gavin Heron, found that staff complained of a rising tide of violence in homes, where they were frightened and intimidated by teenagers high on drugs and alcohol. They said they were unable to help troubled children deal with their problems because of a lack of staff, and in some cases life in a residential home was making the youngsters’ problems worse.

Conditions in residential care were so bad that the report concluded there were "fundamental questions about the value of children’s homes".

The Scottish Executive said that laws introduced in 2001, when a national training centre for staff was set up, meant that care-home staff had to be taught restraint techniques. It said the increased amount of training had already made a "significant impact".

But the SNP’s deputy spokeswoman on children and education, Irene McGugan, who used to work in a children’s home, called for an urgent review and said she planned to raise the concerns highlighted in the report in the Scottish parliament.

Chakrabarti said: "Given the nature of the children being looked after - the young people who go there have a lot of issues and problems, psychologically and otherwise - inevitably they lash out. "Children’s homes do not have well-qualified staff. Sometimes staff don’t know how to handle it and they react physically."

The report said that from speaking to staff at homes, it became clear that the information on violent-incident forms, which staff must fill out following the use of physical restraint, "may bear little relevance to what actually happened".

Chakrabarti said: "Some people will inevitably try to cover their backs. It’s quite difficult to get a correct picture." He added that it was "difficult to quantify" to what extent inappropriate physical restraint was being used in children’s homes. "I would like to think not a huge amount, but once is too many," he said.

Chakrabarti and Heron carried out 109 interviews with members of staff in seven children’s homes in or near the central belt. One member of staff told them: "It’s really bad in here just now. I’ve got a bruise on my arm from holding a child’s legs during a restraint. Another member of staff held the child’s upper body, yet the child continued to spit on my face. I’ve not done the TCI [training] yet, but it doesn’t work well — well not from what I can see."

Care-home workers reported that the level of violence had increased significantly over the past few years, and said that in some cases life in a home was making some children’s problems worse, not better. One said: "When you are on your own, say downstairs, and you receive threats and intimidation, it’s really difficult.

"You’re dealing with 17-year-olds and sometimes their friends. You’ve got to pretend you’re not frightened, but they are sometimes on drugs. You have got to make sure you don’t get isolated."

Another said: "If they are lying in their beds until midday, with a hangover, and you are the only one upstairs when they get up, it can be difficult.  When you are on your own, that’s when the accusations start to fly. It’s when the kids target the staff."

Margaret McKay, chief executive of the charity Children 1st, said: "The sad fact is that the experience of children in children’s homes has been reported on a number of occasions. One certainly had hoped that the changes the Scottish Executive has made had begun to roll through."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said that the Scottish Executive had made a significant investment in the training of residential child-care workers. He said: "In 2001 the executive established the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care to ensure that residential child-care staff across Scotland have access to the skills and knowledge they require. This has already made a significant impact."

By Ian Johnston
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=196912003

home