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Press release: Staff make a real difference to children and young people's experiences of life in residential care

Four reports published today give an insight into children and young people’s views and experiences of life in various residential settings.

A key finding in all four reports was the positive difference that good staff make to the quality of life of children and young people in their care.

The reports produced by the Children’s Rights Director for England, Dr Roger Morgan, include Life in secure care, Life in children’s homes, Life in residential special schools, and Life in residential further education.

The four reports asked children and young people a wide range of questions covering what they most and least liked about living in their setting, their advice on the nature of future settings, and their perceptions of safety and dangers.

Roger Morgan, Children’s Rights Director for England said:

'It is important to hear children and young people’s views on the issues affecting their life in residential care. Each of these reports gives us a crucial insight into their experiences.

'The four reports aim to give a useful national picture of what living in residential settings is like from the child or young person’s viewpoint. For those making decisions about young people’s lives, and for young people being placed for the first time, I hope the reports will give a fair picture of what life is like in different kinds of residential settings.'

As well as staff, relationships with other children and young people played a significant role in whether living in a residential setting was a good or bad experience.

Having your own bedroom was another factor commonly quoted as the best thing about living in a setting. For some children and young people, it was the first time they had their own room.

Getting involved in activities was often another ‘best thing’. Sport activities, using computers, and spending time with friends were frequently mentioned.

For many, the worst thing said about living in residential settings was missing their family and friends, the rules and restrictions, and other children and young people that they didn’t get on with.

In secure care, the most common negative mention was the loss of freedom and being locked up. Surprisingly, however, most young people said that secure unit was a safe place for them to be as it kept them out of trouble and helped them to sort themselves out. Some said they felt safe from other people who would try to harm them if they were outside – ‘no one can get you’, was one response. Many feared leaving security and losing its safety and support.

Roger Morgan, Children’s Rights Director for England, said:

'The young people told us they really valued the close support they received from staff and other young people in secure children’s homes. However when they leave, this network vanishes. This highlights the need for greater support for those leaving secure units to help them rebuild their lives.'

Children and young people were generally positive about the staff. Where children quoted negative things about staff, the most common were: favouritism, moodiness, being strict and supervising too closely or being shouted at by staff.

When children and young people were asked about advice for future settings, by far the most common suggestion for secure care was that units should have more space inside. The other issue raised was the dislike of living in a building where the windows couldn’t be opened for ventilation. Youngsters said this made some places smelly, and too hot on hot days: 'We should have windows we can open coz it’s choking', said one.

Interestingly young people in secure care often thought that new units should have just as many, and possibly more, cameras. The main reason for this was that having what happened recorded on camera would be the main way of proving your innocence if you were wrongly accused. This was very important if privileges depended on it.

Young people in secure care also thought that in future there should be separate units for ‘welfare’ people (placed in security for their own welfare by their local council) and ‘criminal’ people (placed in security through the Youth Justice Board after committing a serious offence) because their needs were different. ‘Should be two different units for the welfare and the criminals;’ ‘welfare are more needy, it shouldn’t be mixed because they are here for different reasons’; ‘if you are here on welfare, you haven’t done anything bad’, were among the comments expressed.

When it came to staying safe; in all residential settings, staff supervision and being able to talk things through with staff were the main things that kept children and young people safe.

For some settings, the most common danger mentioned was from other children or young people, particularly for those in secure care when ‘someone kicks off and goes for you’.

Being bullied was another danger that was reported. However, staff in all four settings were said to be effective in dealing with bullying and using different approaches to prevent bullying.

In children’s homes and residential special schools, fire was seen as a danger. Some of the reasons why they thought fire was a danger were because there were locks on the windows and doors, bars on the window and the building was old. For residential special schools, where some of the children have disabilities, they were particularly worried about fire because they know they cannot so easily get to safety without help.

In all settings except for further education, children spoke of their experience of physical restraint. All three reports revealed that restraints were usually being used correctly, abiding by the National Minimum Standards. There was, worryingly, a small percentage of cases where restraint was being used inappropriately, such as a punishment.

Once again staff played a key role in children and young people’s education. In children’s homes, staff helped the children with their home work, making sure that they were at school, attended parent’s evenings, and liaised with the school about the children’s progress.

For children and young people in secure units and children’s homes, staff helped them to prepare for their life after they leave their settings by teaching them practical skills they would need when living on their own and also to be independent. For secure units, staff supervision for trips outside their unit helped them get used to the world outside so that they were less likely to have problems when they left security.

Notes For Editors

1. The four reports, Life in secure care, Life in children’s homes, Life in residential special schools and Life in residential further education are published on the Ofsted website and the Office of the Children’s Rights Director website www.rights4me.org.

2. Children and young people and their settings were chosen at random for all four reports. Questions were asked of their views through: visiting the setting and holding discussion groups, talking one-to-one, and asking people to complete a secure web survey. In asking the questions, no suggestions were made, with children and young people answering in their own words. All four reports recorded children and young people’s views as set out just as they have said them.

3. In England there are 18 secure units. For the Life in secure care report, nine units were visited, chosen at random, and young people in each unit were directly spoken to ask them for their experience of living in security.

Secure units are children’s homes that have been specially approved by the Government to ‘restrict liberty’.

4. The Life in children’s homes report gathered 117 views from children and young people, from 55 different children’s homes. The web survey received 87 responses, from 47 different children’s homes, and 30 children were met directly in visits to eight more children’s homes, including two homes for children with disabilities.

5. Life in residential special schools received survey responses from 338 students, from an estimated 40 different residential special schools. The youngest was nine, the oldest was 18. The middle age of all those who took part in the survey was 14. Out of the 325 who told us, 85% were boys and 15% girls.

6. Life in residential further education received responses from 149 students from 14 different residential further education colleges. All were aged under 18, as that was the age group we surveyed; 48% were aged 16 and 52% were 17; 51% were male and 49% were female.

7. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects registered childcare and children's social care, including adoption and fostering agencies, residential schools, family centres and homes for children. It also inspects all state maintained schools, non-association independent schools, pupil referral units, further education, initial teacher education, and publicly funded adult skills and employment-based training, the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (Cafcass), and the overall level of services for children in local authority areas.

8. The Children’s Rights Director for England has a personal statutory duty to ascertain the views of children living away from home or receiving social care services. He is now based in Ofsted.

9. The Ofsted national press office can be reached on 020 7421 6617. Alternatively, please email pressenquiries@ofsted.gov.uk

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