Secure Unit Youngsters 'Miss Family Visits'

Some children and young people in secure care are being placed as far away as 200 miles from their families, damaging their chances of receiving coordinated support, according to a report published today by the Ofsted.

While young people generally receive good emotional support within secure establishments, the report Admission and discharge from secure accommodation highlights how the limited number and range of secure establishments undermines efforts to support them when they are admitted and discharged from a secure placement.

Ofsted said many young people are placed a long distance from home, depriving them of valuable family support and making it more difficult for agencies to plan and assist them as they prepare to return to life in the community.

Once admitted, young people usually benefit from close support from secure establishments, which work closely with the young people, their families and other agencies to assess and provide for their needs. Staff in secure establishments provide parents and carers with information and guidance and closely involve them in the assessment, planning, delivery and review of services. However, inspectors found that the quality of services was variable, with too many local authorities failing to meet their obligations to support and resettle young people.

John Goldup, Director, Social care, said: "Young people moving through the secure estate need support which is well co-ordinated, continuous and as close to home as possible if they are to successfully reintegrate into the community. While a wide range of factors may lead to offending behaviour, it is clear that young people’s chances of avoiding re-offending are damaged if they lose contact with their families, with professionals who are trying to work with them, and with the education and training opportunities they will need on discharge.

"Many of these young people are entitled to support from local authorities as young people who have been in care, and they are unlikely to get it if the local authority loses contact with them while they are detained. We hope that that the Youth Justice Board, local authorities and secure establishments learn from the examples featured in this report and consider the recommendations for improvement we have made."

Young people who were on remand or had been sentenced in the courts often did not know where they were being taken, while parents were not told until their children had arrived at the secure establishment. This caused not only considerable distress to those involved but also made it difficult for the secure establishment to plan effective support. The limited options for placement were evident in one case cited in the report where a young person was placed in a secure establishment over two hundred miles away from his parents. His mother was disabled, could only travel by public transport, and had to arrange childcare for the other children in the family. The boy received only one visit in four months from his parents.

(GK/BMcC)