Listen to thisGreetings from West of Scotland! After three years of sunshine and sand working in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates, we've exchanged our surroundings for a more variable climate of rain (with occasional sunshine) and the rich greenery of Scotland!
Picture postcard beauty of the West of Scotland on a sunny day
An opportunity was offered to get immersed in the challenges of industry-based education and training for Scottish personnel employed in the Child and Youth Care field. As a university faculty member for the past thirty years, there were always claims that coursework was good preparation for professional practice in the Child and Youth Care field. What university dares to acknowledge that their programmes don’t adequately prepare graduates for work in the community? I find it liberating – even if temporarily – to be located squarely in the Child and Youth Care “industry”, grappling with challenges associated with preparing new staff for real-world experiences of working with troubled or troublesome teenagers.
The Kibble Education & Care Centre building – a Safe Care Unit
On returning to work full-time in Scotland after twenty years elsewhere, I have been struck by a variety of impressions. On arriving at Kibble Education & Care Centre in Paisley where I now work, one is first struck by a history dating back to 1859 and a campus that is being transformed with the building of a new Safe Care Unit or what others refer to as a secure unit. Big changes are happening in Scotland with regard to troubled and troublesome teenagers “those whom the police, politicians and the media want to place in secure locations where they will not be a threat to their communities. At the same time, older secure units are being carefully reassessed – with some closed following government sponsored inspections – while elsewhere new facilities are being built and administered as separate youth justice services dominated by criminology and legalistic perspectives.
St Phillip’s New Secure Unit near Airdrie
During my first month back working in Scotland there has been a lot to learn about how residential Child and Youth Care is viewed by professionals and communities. The new secure units being built and opened are finding that a lot of refurbishment work is being required in order to make these facilities actually secure. At least two new units have been vandalised by young people living outside the centres, breaking supposedly unbreakable windows and painting graffiti to express their views about these units being located near where they live. Every week the national media has drawn attention to news items in about children and young people in care, and what happens to them after leaving care. The Scottish people have learned that it costs more than 4000 Pounds Sterling (try US$ 7500) per week to maintain a young person in a Scottish Secure Unit. Research continues to report that young people leaving care are more disadvantaged than other young people; with poorer educational attainment, a greater likelihood of social and emotional difficulties, and a greater chance of spending future time in prison or mental hospitals. In some respects, it feels as though I’ve never been away.
Edinburgh Castle in Scotland's Capital and Centre of Government
But, while driving home from Dundee on the road through Auchtermuchty, I couldn’t help thinking about how there have also been some real positive changes, such as police checks for anyone entering the field, national care standards, and requirements for competency-based training to obtain registration. There are also requirements for continuing professional education on an annual basis just to maintain one’s registration for working in this field.
Does any of this sound different from that which happens in your part of the world?
Incidentally, how do you say Auchtermuchty?
