Mapping out solutions for children in secure children’s homes for welfare - NYAS
For many children in Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs), Christmas Eve in 2021 was a solitary affair. Locked up alone in their rooms for 23 hours due to staff shortages exacerbated by COVID, this is just one example of how COVID-19 has impacted children living in these settings.
It was claimed by Ofsted’s Senior Officer for the Secure Estate that throughout COVID-19 “an almost normal routine for children” in SCHs was being kept in “stark contrast” to Young Offender Institutions. Yet this was not the reality witnessed by staff from NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service), who provide advocacy support to children in secure children’s homes on welfare placements.
This blog explores the crisis taking place in welfare placements, its knock-on impacts for youth justice, and why preventative work is vital for keeping children safe and out of these settings.
About secure children’s homes
Children in contact with the law who are sentenced or remanded to custody can be placed in SCHs on justice placements. Secure children’s homes for welfare refers to accommodation where children can be sent to live if a court finds they are at risk of harming others or themselves. Section 25 welfare orders are made under Children Act 1989 in England and section 119 orders made under the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act. [1], [2]
These sections allow local authorities to place children in SCHs if:
· they have a history of running away and are likely to run away from other accommodation or suffer significant harm, or;
· they are likely to injure themselves or other people if living in any other accommodation.
Many children in these homes will have been victims of crime or exploitation at some point. In all cases, SCHs for welfare should only be used as a last resort.
Some SCHs only accommodate children on welfare placements or justice placements, and several homes such as Clayfields House and Adel Beck accommodate children on both youth justice and welfare grounds. All children in SCHs, whether on welfare or justice grounds, share the same very high level of vulnerability.[3]
Life in a secure unit for welfare during COVID-19
For children in SCHs for welfare, day-to-day life can be fraught with boredom and frustration. COVID-19 exacerbated this, impacting on children’s mental health.
The comparisons before and after COVID-19 are striking. A NYAS research report into SCHs for welfare — based on data shared by the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit, funded by the Department for Education to collect data on the children in these settings — found that 44% of children in SCHs for welfare had a suspected mental health condition in 2020, compared to only 29% in 2019.[4] In addition, 35% of children had a diagnosed mental health condition in 2020, compared to 39% in 2019. These findings lead us to believe that during COVID-19, mental health diagnoses for those in secure children’s homes fell, while suspected mental health conditions increased because of the pandemic.
Many children in SCHs for welfare will have also struggled with being locked up and so far away from their support networks when COVID-19 lockdowns were in place. Like children in SCHs on justice placements, many vulnerable children in secure units did not see their family and friends for months.
In addition, NYAS found that children in secure accommodation were living an average 141 miles away from their original home. One in every three children travelled more than 200 miles from home to their secure welfare accommodation.
Knock-on impacts from the crisis in welfare placements
There are not enough SCHs to house children safely, with NYAS finding that less than one in two children who required a placement under welfare grounds were offered a placement in a SCH in 2020. This crisis has worsened because of COVID. Ofsted admitted in June 2020 that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children waiting for welfare or justice placements doubled.[5]
The lack of availability of secure care beds across England and Wales also affects welfare provision in Scotland. Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner has very serious concerns about Scotland’s commissioning model “whose financial viability is based on occupancy rates”.[6]
Providers of the secure units are forced to run at only 90 per cent capacity.[7] This results in children from England and Wales being sent hundreds of miles from their support networks to Scotland to keep these beds occupied as there are no places near their homes for them to be placed.
The future of secure care
Over the last 20 years, 16 secure children’s homes have closed across England.[8] With the dwindling number of secure units, it is time for a serious rethink of what the future of secure care should look like.
We must start by looking closely at what alternative accommodation consists of when children can’t access SCHs for welfare, and whether it is appropriate to meet the best interests of children and young people. NYAS agree with ‘What Works for Children’s Social Care’ recommendation that local authorities should report to Ofsted when children who apply for referrals cannot be placed and record what alternative accommodation is provided for them.[9]
NYAS is also calling for more outcomes data for children in the secure estate. Where children go after leaving the secure estate will help us identify what support is most appropriate for them to receive. Local authorities must also to be able to see what happens to children they have referred to SCHs to inform their future decisions.
Finally, as many children in the secure estate will have been victims of crime and exploitation, it is grossly unjust that when a child is exploited, they are moved away from their home and deprived of their liberties, whereas their perpetrators often continue to roam free. More multiagency work is needed to target perpetrators and disrupt networks.
Conclusion
The final report in England’s review of children’s social care was published in May 2022. Although radical reform for SCHs is necessary, recommendations for SCHs fell short of the promise of the “better planning, coordination and investment for this group” promised by the review.[10]
In the “Case for Change”, the review hinted towards the prospect of significant reform, saying that “instead of simply doing more of the same, we need to consider the needs of these children and ask whether any home that currently exists is able to meet their needs while still providing a loving environment”.[11] Although the review did recommend that all Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres be closed in the coming years, these are to be replaced by a network of small secure children’s homes to ensure there is sufficient capacity, with 20 Regional Care Cooperatives also to be established across England, which would create new secure care within their regions.[12]
Every child, whether in SCHs on welfare or justice placements, or whether in the rest of the secure estate, deserves better and to have their fundamental rights realised. If we do not think outside the box now, then the future of secure care will continue to see the most vulnerable children deprived of their liberties in unsuitable alternative accommodation.
[1] Children Act (1989) ‘Section 25’, Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/section/25.
[2] Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, ‘Section 119’, Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2014/4/section/119#:~:text=119Use%20of%20accommodation%20for%20restricting%20liberty&text=(b)that%20if%20the%20child,or%20herself%20or%20other%20persons.
[3] Department for Education (2021) ‘Secure children’s homes: placing welfare and justice children together’, Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/983619/Secure_children_s_homes_placement_review_report.pdf
[4] NYAS (2021) ‘Secure children’s homes for welfare: 141 miles from home’, Available at: https://www.nyas.net/wp-content/uploads/Secure-Childrens-Homes-for-Welfare-NYAS-report-E.pdf.
[5] Ofsted (2020) ‘Secure children’s homes – helping the most vulnerable’, Available at: https://socialcareinspection.blog.gov.uk/2020/06/09/secure-childrens-homes-helping-the-most-vulnerable-children/.
[6] CYPCS (2021) ‘Statutory Duties in Secure Accommodation’, Available at: https://www.cypcs.org.uk/wpcypcs/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Secure-Investigation.pdf.
[7] The Scotsman ‘Urgent solutions needed to solve Scotland’s secure care crisis MSPs told’, Available at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/urgent-solutions-needed-solve-scotlands-secure-care-crisis-msps-told-1408086.
[8] Ofsted (2020) ‘Secure children’s homes – helping the most vulnerable’, Available at: https://socialcareinspection.blog.gov.uk/2020/06/09/secure-childrens-homes-helping-the-most-vulnerable-children/.
[9] What Works for Children’s Social Care (2020) ‘Unlocking the Facts: Young People Referred to Secure Children’s Homes’, Available at: https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/unlocking-the-facts-young-people-referred-to-secure-childrens-homes/.
[10] Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (2021) ‘Case for Change’, Available at: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/case-for-change.pdf.
[11] Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (2021) ‘Case for Change’, Available at: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/case-for-change.pdf.
[12] Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (2021) ‘Recommendation Annexes: Additional detail on review recommendations’, Available at: https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Recommendation-annexes.pdf.
This blog accompanies a series of policy briefings produced by the AYJ as part of the UKRI-funded Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Justice project, delivered in partnership between the AYJ and the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
AYJ would like to thank Jennifer Downie and Ben Twomey of NYAS for their valuable contribution. Find out more about NYAS:
Website: www.nyas.net
Twitter: @NYASServices