National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC) ‘There is no one thing we can...

National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC)

‘There is no one thing we can now call Residential Child Care in the singular only Residential Child Care in the plural’.

There are as many different types of Residential Child Care as there are needs of young people.

2JS\NCERCC\Events\OHP.23June09.Dev.Des.Teachers for LAC

RCC - the population of Children In Care and their provision

• 60,000 in any one year overall and about 45,000 at any one time.

• 70% - foster placements. • 11-13% - residential child care • 1865 children’s homes. • 65% is private, 30% is LA and 5% is voluntary• Most children’s homes now have less than 5 children• Many now have registered small schools on site


NMS compliance and OfSTED inspection

Average % of NMS met by Children’s Homes

– satisfactory or better


2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

58% 68% 76% 80% 83% 92%

The young people

Combination of factors outside of the young person’s responsibility: abuse, neglect, disability, parental illness, family stress, low income, absent parent.

• Children of families with deep-rooted, complex or chronic needs with a long history of disability, difficulty or disruption, including abuse or neglect.

• Children with extensive, complex and enduring needs compounded by very difficult behaviour who require more specialised and intensive resources.

Over 90% = educational difficulties – more boys than girls.

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Children can see RCC as a positive choice (Children’s Rights Director)

• Providing stability and a stimulating environment• Widening cultural and educational horizons• Creating a framework for emotionally secure

relationships with adults - may benefit from having a number of carers

• Providing a setting for intensive therapeutic work• When a young person feels threatened by prospect of

living in a family or does not want to be part of substitute family as still very much part of their own family

• When the emotional load of caring for a very disturbed or chaotic young person is best distributed amongst a number of carers


RelationshipsJordan (2006) • relationships for Children in Care are more important

than for most people. • ‘emotional flourishing’ needs to be the focus not

technical packages for targeted results. • Attachment - rarely brought to an educational arena.

The emotions should not play an inferior role in our deliberations about education….Emotion and its associated roots permeate our experience and are not….interruptions of brief moments of madness that punctuate our otherwise cool and calm journey of rational objectivity. (O’Hanlon, 2000)


Home is where we start from

‘There is no such thing as a baby, only a baby and someone’ – Winnicott. Foundation for positive care & education = good authoritative parenting


8 Pillars of Parenting

is a good checklist (Cameron and Maginn 2007 and

2009 forthcoming)

• Primary care and protection - Sensitivity to a child’s basic needs shows the child that we care and that they are important. Education is paramount because in our complex world knowledge and skills are essential to survival.

• Secure attachments, making close relationships - Secure attachments act as a buffer against risk and operate as a protective mechanism.

• Positive self-perception - To allow the child to develop a positive self image. Positive and negative statements have a powerful impact on self-perception and esteem.

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8 Pillars of Parenting (contd)

• Emotional compliance - This ability underpins the successful development of relationships outside of the family and can moderate susceptibility to the propensity for later mental health problems.

• Self management skills - Self-image is the insulation, which prevents inappropriate behaviour when enticing or compelling outside factors try to intrude.

• Resilience - Resilient individuals are able to understand what has happened to them in life (insight), develop understanding of others (empathy) and experience a quality of life that is often denied to others who have suffered negative life experiences (achievement).


8 Pillars of Parenting (contd)

• A sense of belonging - Research and theory on relationships have highlighted the need to belong.

• Personal and social responsibilities - Essentially personal and social responsibility mean’s being able to coordinate one’s own perspective with the help of others and developing personal views of fairness and reciprocity.


Quality of care index

( Berridge – various) – for school assurance?

Link quality of care & satisfaction with schooling & general happiness.


Care and control• Addressing children’s needs, child oriented• Warm and caring, responsive• Quality of physical environment• Praise and responsibility, positive expectations• Opportunities for success, improvement of self image• Clear boundaries, behavioural management• Opportunities for inclusion

Stability and continuity• Placement changes• Pressure to move prematurely, opportunity to remain • Changes in caregivers, predictability in daily care


Safety• Child protection• Management of risk • Peer violence• Allegations

Inter-professional working• Support for identifiable problems, liaison• Help with behavioural, emotional and social problems• Coherent approach across settings – one plan for one

child


Family links• Encourage contact• Consider young people’s views - family-in-mind• Support from parents/ carers• Transport

Close relationship with at least one adult• Champion, advocate, standing up for Children in Care• Support and time, formal and informal• Reliability• Effectiveness of social work/educational psychology role• Encouragement of key adults from past


Ethnicity and culture• Culture, language and religion• Context or location• Consideration matching, mix, role models• Daily care

Friendships• Encouragement of pro-social friendships

Planning and aftercare• High quality assessment and planning• Desired placements, choice, matching• Young person’s involvement, listen to young person


Emotional security precedes educational engagement, advancement, achievement and attainment

Resilience – linking parenting and schooling

Children who grow up in disadvantaged families who show resilience are more likely to have:

• Experienced a stable and supportive family• Parents who read to them• Parents who showed an interest in their education• Parents who wanted them to continue with their

education• Parents who were interested in career planning• Parents who took their children on joint activities• A father and mother helping with household chores


Attachment theory and the school child – linking emotions, behaviour and learning – part one

Carers of each Child in Care need to be able to assess and provide for the attachment needs of the child.

Teachers should be equipped to meet the learning style of each attachment profile.


Attachment Profile Learning Loss

Ambivalent Suspended learning/later loss of skills

Avoidant No basic skills

Disorganised/disoriented Resistant to learning

Readiness for school

• A child will not be able to begin to make the transition into school until 2 major tasks have begun.

1. There must be clear evidence that an attachment to a primary carer is present.

2. The following must also be in evidence:– The ability to live alongside peers– Generally will respond to adult boundaries– Can manage small transitions


Readiness scale for reintegrating children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties into mainstream classrooms (Rebecca Doyle, Norfolk CC - BJSE vol 28, No3 (September 2001)

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20

Self control and management of behaviourCan accept discipline without argument or sulking 1 2 3 4

Can arrive in classroom and settle down quietly and appropriately

1 2 3 4

Does not leave the room without permission 1 2 3 4

Can accept changes to plans or disappointments with an even temper

1 2 3 4

Shows some self-discipline when others try to encourage deviation

1 2 3 4

Is aware of normal sound levels and can be reminded of them and respond appropriately

1 2 3 4

Does not seek confrontation during unrestricted times e.g. break 1 2 3 4

Can maintain appropriate levels of behaviour when the classroom routine is disrupted

1 2 3 4

Incremental programme for re-integrating children into full-time school (Gallagher, Brannan, Jones and Westwood 2003)


Stage Objective Levels of support

Expectations

At home Care staff set and supervise. Re-familiarising with routine and the discipline of school life and academic input. Formal mornings. Afternoons informal

Highest Lower

Tuition or support

Small group. Increased routines and educational challenge. Children have More peer socialising

Higher Increasing

Part time school

Re-introduce child to academic and social aspects of school life with increased routines and discipline. Opportunity to socialise with larger numbers of children.

Decreased High

Full time school

Full rigours of school life, routines, discipline, and educational demands. Fullest opportunity to establish relationship with peers.

Lower Higher

Personal Communication Passports


Questions for your school

Achievement• What counts as achievement – academic, social,

emotional, creative, physical?• Are some more highly valued than others?• How is it assessed and recorded?• What is the link between achievement and ability,

aptitude, attainment, performance, standards, progress?


Questions for your school (contd)Inclusion• Is the inclusion of some more highly valued?• What counts as inclusion?• What is the relationship of inclusion and exclusion,

integration, participation, identification of needs and abilities?

• How is inclusion influenced by the needs of individuals, classrooms, practitioners, institutional, families, communities, national (social, cultural and political)

• What might be the effects of raising achievement on the view of inclusion?

• What changes can you make to raise achievement of all young people whilst safeguarding the inclusion of others who are more vulnerable?


Attachment theory and the school child – linking emotions, behaviour and learning – part two - how these groups can be helped

Ambivalent• Able with a level of intellectual capacity• Sudden loss in attainment in life• Anxious about carers, wary of strangers, upset by

separations. • Frequently need to be ‘unwrapped’ from an activity or

person. • Angry when separated so as to get grown up closer• Rejects ending or sharing• This loss of learning is temporary paralysis


Ambivalent (contd)• Overcoming it needs helped to reduce anxiety,

understand their ambivalent feelings, and rediscovery learning skills.

• It is crucial to involve carers and for two people to work together in classroom


Avoidant• Unable to acquire skills. As they cannot internalise

anything they are thus not ‘free’ to learn in school.• Any adult has not held them in mind. They cannot hold

on to learning• Few concepts, unable to attach any meaning to anything,

things are not clear to them and reality is illusive.• They had given up getting any response from an

attachment figure, to avoid disappointment, by the age of 18 months


Avoidant (contd)• Little upset on separation as adults became irrelevant.

On reunion they avoid or reject. • Little or fleeting interest in their peers.• They expect anger or at least pain in relationships• Afraid of the world and keep it on the outside of their

skin. • They crave closeness. • They will respond to boundaries and identify with a firm

figure (their restlessness is frequently a defence).


Resistant to learning• Puzzling group who has seemingly no learning disability.• Have the capacity to learn yet resist and frequently direct

themselves away from learning.• Prevent themselves and others from learning, acting as

a clown, bully or just ‘oddly.’ • Do conform to a code of behaviour and will alienate

adults and peers alike. • Chaotic. They take control of their chaos by a rigidity of

thinking. Can seem obsessive


Resistant to learning (contd)• No memory of an adult being emotionally available for

them. They will avoid teachers and peers.• Unresolved trauma in past that involved withdrawal of

love or abuse.• To help this child you will need to have empathetic

responses and to be able to mirror back to them their inner emotions. Non-verbally/verbally.

• It is especially important to note the onset of times of greater difficulty and to interrupt or interpret how they might be feeling.


Attachment needs - How a child might behave and why - Understanding Why

Why is … Maybe

Katie constantly turning around in class?

Danger often comes from behind

Jodie often ignoring the teacher’s instructions?

Jodie is so alert to everything around her that she cannot hear the teacher’s instructions.

Jamal always exploding during maths or spelling?

Jamal finds it difficult to be wrong or make mistakes, and it is always obvious when answers in maths or spelling are wrong.

Wesley refusing to be helped with new work?

Wesley wants certainty in his life and never wants to feel helpless again, so he finds it very hard to accept any help.


http://partner.ncb.org.uk/ncercc/ncercc%20practice%20documents/ncercc_understandingwhy_nov06.pdf

Attachment needs - How a child might behave and why (contd) - Understanding Why


Why is …. Maybe …

Harrison often taking other pupils’ belongings?

Stealing is often linked to early loss, especially of caregivers, and this can lead to a more general misunderstanding of the difference between ‘mine’ and ‘yours’. Harrison had little of his own in his early life.

Sarah constantly asking the teacher trivial questions about her work?

Sarah has very low self-esteem and needs to feel an adult is close to her constantly. She may feel she cannot bear to get it ‘wrong’ or the teacher may ‘disappear’ like others in her life, for which she blames herself.


Attachment needs - How a child might behave and why (contd) - Understanding Why

Why is Maybe

Adam being sulky and refusing to speak with the teacher or others in authority about difficulties?

Adam has no words to describe how he feels, so looking sulky is a communication.

Merline frequently telling lies? Telling lies is often linked to early loss, especially of caregivers, and leaves children with difficulties distinguishing between fact and fantasy. Merline’s early life has no boundaries and she has difficulty describing her feelings. She is also desperate to be linked and will say what she thinks will please



No more the scatter of interested parties Questions for Children’s Services (from Quality Matters in Children’s Services – messages from research Stein 2009) and amended by NCERCC)

Strategic• How does your placement commissioning strategy take

into account factors which the evidence suggests are likely to lead to better educational, social and emotional outcomes?

• What measures, in addition to National indicators, do you use to monitor improvement in educational outcomes?

• Integrated service framework at service and setting level – is there recognition of having unmet needs in various parts of their lives and need multiagency approach in the life of the child


No more the scatter of interested parties Questions for Children’s Services (from Quality Matters in Children’s Services – messages from research Stein 2009 and amended by NCERCC)

Strategic (contd)• How does your workforce development strategy support

all involved in the life of children to promote common approaches in supporting education? Carers being expected and equipped to provide sufficient support and encouragement for learning and development – LSAs alongside carers?

• How do your Corporate Parents champion educational outcomes?



Operational • In what ways do your organisational structures and

processes promote of impede placement stability and continuity of all those involved in the life of a child?

• Whilst plans, procedures and joint protocols will not themselves bring about the required changes in practice there are 7 enablers of interagency collaboration



Operational (contd)

enablers of interagency collaboration:

– understanding and respect for roles and responsibilities of other services

– good communication– regular contact and meetings– common priorities and trust– joint training– knowing what services are available and who to contact– clear guidelines and procedures for working together – low staff turnover



Operational (contd)• Do you know your assessments are as rigorous as

necessary to include adequate assessment for intervention of highest needs? Do they connect welfare to education?

• How do you know PEP are used to create effective personalised planning that ensures educational engagement?

• How do you ensure professionals across all services work together?

• On admission then regular meetings of DT, SENCO, VH, DT, teacher, social worker and carer to establish communication and preparatory planning, roles and responsibilities, understandings and explanations and plansJS\NCERCC\Events\OHP.23June09.Dev.Des.Teachers

for LAC38

No more the scatter of interested parties Questions for Children’s Services (from Quality Matters in Children’s Services – messages from research Stein 2009 and amended by NCERCC)Practice

• Could you use the Quality of Care as a tool across care and education?

• How do you assess the needs of young people?• How do you support carers and teachers?• How do you combine educational and emotional support

for children?• Do you support the development of case work and direct

work with young people


How you can help me? The words of young people

• Understand that I have strengths and sometimes you focus too much on what I can’t do rather than what I can do.

• Talk to each other – my parents, carers, social worker and other staff at school – to help you understand me better and find out what I do well and what I find difficult.

• Make a plan with me to help me through the day or difficult times – it could be about what I like and what I need to avoid, or times of the day like getting up, meal times and bedtimes, or how to help me when I am upset or angry.


How you can help me? The words of young people (contd)• Tell me when I am managing my behavior well - need to

know when I have improved. Telling me ‘well done’ because I didn’t yell at someone when they annoyed me or I asked before borrowing someone’s pen does help me.

• Help me to recognize my feelings. It helps if you name it and tell me how I am looking and may be feeling. ‘You’re looking happy, smiling and relaxed.’ ‘You’re looking puzzled and screwing your eyes up, is something worrying you?’ If I can talk about it I will, but respect my feelings if I can’t.


How you can help me? The words of young people (contd)• Tell me in advance about any changes, such as new

teachers or going on visits – I need a little bit of time to get used to new things and people and it helps to be reminded about what happens next, such as lunch is in 10 minutes. I feel safer if I know what to expect.

• I may find it hard to remember to have the right equipment on the right days, such as PE kit, so making sure my parents or carers know will help me.

• Sometimes I need to be on my own to calm down – can we agree on a safe place for me to go and a quick way for me to tell you I am going? I will only use this when I really need to.


How you can help me? The words of young people (contd)

• Sometimes I do feel angry and I don’t know why – please let me know that’s OK so long as I don’t hurt myself or others.

• I might find it hard to look at you directly but it doesn’t mean I am not listening to you – don’t ask me to look at you if I find it difficult.

• My behavior is telling you how I am feeling. It is important that you stick to the plans that we have made for helping me through these difficult times.

And most importantly:• I do appreciate you being there for me and trying to

understand me even on the days when things are difficult.



Contact details

National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC)

National Children’s Bureau

8 Wakley Street

London EC1V 7QE

E-mail: jstanley@ ncb.org.uk

www.ncb.org.uk/ncercc

Tel: 020 7843 1168 Fax: 020 7278 8340


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National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC) ‘There is no one thing we can...

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