Closing Childrens Homes

This ebook reports on the unprecedented and radical step taken by Warwickshire Social Services Department when, in 1986, it closed the last of its children's homes. This book examines the background to these developments, the reasons for them and their consequences. The findings are set in the context of the crisis of confidence in residential child care that occurred in the early 1990's culminating in the Pindown Report on Staffordshire which revealed an alarming catalogue of inhuman and degrading treatment of children in residential care. This research, undertaken by NCB, reports findings that have major national and international significance. The future role of children's homes is in question and this study examines whether foster care, in particular, is more effective at meeting children's needs than residential care. Young people's own views are included and the work is presented very much in the context of the Children Act 1989.

This book explores the factors at the individual, institutional and systemic levels which contribute to children's home residents coming to the attention of the youth justice system, and the consequent implications for policy and practice. Perspectives are drawn from both young people and professionals in the care and youth justice systems.

In this report the Education Committee recommends that children in care should be found residential homes in their own areas and local authorities should ensure that they have enough suitable placements to make this possible. The Committee was concerned at the number of children being placed in homes far from their own communities and families, and the Government should look at the impact of introducing a 20 mile limit on placements to increase incentives on local authorities to develop more facilities. It is also a matter of great concern that children are being placed in homes located in unsuitable and dangerous areas. The Government must act if its latest reforms do not adequately address this problem. The report also calls for: better training and development of the workforce in children's homes to ensure that staff and managers have the skills and outlook to create a culture which promotes the safety and welfare of children living in them; a national protocol that allows children's homes to deal with incidents of challenging behaviour to avoid the over-criminalisation of children; children to be given a greater role in selecting residential care workers.

This book was originally published in 1998, when over 6,000 children lived in residential homes in England and Wales. The fact that some children's homes are better than others is well established, but why should this be so? Past answers have tended to be tautologous - rather on the lines of 'a good home is one where children do well; children do well because they are in a good home.' This study examines various aspects of children's homes and explores the connections between them in an attempt to break down the old circular argument. Structures are discernible in the relationship between different types of goals - societal, formal and belief; the variable balance between these goals determines staff cultures, which, in turn, shape the child cultures that develop. Such relationships are important because of their close association with outcomes - whether the children do well, whether the homes prosper. The model described in the book provides a conceptual framework and a set of causal relationships that should help professionals to plan and manage residential care better and so meet the needs of vulnerable children more effectively.

Nothing available that directly competes The extent of institutional abuse tends to be played down - it is still something of a taboo subject Material on abuse of adults in mental health settings has been a relatively neglected field

One of the most harmful, costly, and intractable legacies of the command economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is the reliance on residential institutions for the care of children, the elderly, and the people with disabilities. As a result, there are almost no community-based alternatives to care for large and growing numbers of vulnerable individuals. Other industrial nations have experienced similar periods of economic and social upheaval and also relied on residential institutions to care for vulnerable and marginalized groups. However, most of these nations have switched from residential care to community-based social services. The question for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is how they can make the same transition. 'Moving from Residential Institutions to Community-Based Social Services in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union' examines the use of residential institutions for vulnerable groups, past and present, and proposes strategies for the future. The study focuses on five countries, Albania, Armenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania, where the World Bank is helping develop community-based social services to reduce the reliance on residential institutions.

This volume, the fourth in a series of five intended to give an understanding of the principles of the Children Act 1989, examines the many aspects of residential care for children and the way in which they will be affected by the introduction of the Act.