Since it's founding in 1997, the CYC-Net discussion group has been asked thousands of questions. These questions often generate many replies from people in all spheres of the Child and Youth Care profession and contain personal experiences, viewpoints, as well as recommended resources.
Below are some of the threads of discussions on varying Child and Youth Care related topics.
Questions and Responses have been reproduced verbatim.
Listen to thisHello,
I'm interested in people's opinions on the culture that seems to have
developed of young people making allegations of physical abuse against
staff. This I must add is usually during a crisis which leads to
physical intervention.
In Scotland there was a major enquiry into allegations of abuse at a
residential school and secure unit called Kerelaw in which came
under scrutiny from the Care Commission and the Police. This
investigation eventually led to charges being brought against a
substantial number of staff. The eventual outcome of this was two
members of staff served custodial sentences, One of two years and the
other ten years (currently out on appeal)
Its not for me to comment on whether these people are guilty or innocent
but one thing I will suggest is that since the Kerelaw
scandal there seems to have been a massive over reaction from senior
managers. It has now got to the stage that should you have to
restrain a young person you fully expect to be suspended (precautionary
of course) until an investigation can be concluded.
It would seem that a direct result of this has been that young people
realise that all they have to do is make an allegation of assault and
the worker who has often been challenging behaviour which will result in
the worker being out of their lives for a while (at least)This tactic
quickly becomes a bit of a game where I have seen three or four
colleagues being on suspension at one time. These cases have then
has been investigated where the complaints been unfounded where the
worker has returned to work with their careers and reputations intact
(but their state of mind damaged)
The process of suspension in Scotland is a long one, (usually between
twelve to sixteen weeks) and I'm sure we can all imagine what this
process does to the often innocent workers and their families. I'm not
for one minute suggesting we should compromise the safety of the young
people we work with as I'm fully versed in the Children (Scotland) ACT
1995 where it clearly states that the child's safety is paramount.
What I would be interested to know is "Has anyone came across similar
issues where a culture of makingallegations has begun and how can we
prevent this? I would just like to make it clear here thatI'm not an
advocate of any sort of abusive practice but this culture needs to stop.
What I do know is that a similar problem happened within the English
prison system where inmates where making complaints of "heavy handedness
by officers". A similar problem was encountered by the Police service of
Northern Ireland. In both cases the solution was found by using hand
held Camcorders (Would this be a step too far?) This tactic reduced the
amount of allegations quite significantly. Again I'm not suggesting for
one minute that the youth care sector has any connection to Prisons or
the Police service of Northern Ireland, however they did have a similar
problem where staff were constantly being placed under suspension!
I would be interested in people's responses to this controversial part
of our work and whether there are similar problems in other parts of the
world?
With respect.
...
Hi,
Our staff has also raised concerns about allegations of abuse by
children, or even open threats made by children, e.g. "if you touch me,
I will lay a charge of abuse against you".
For me as manager it is therefore extremely important that physical
interventions must take place only in a team context so that the staff
involved can feel supported in their actions. This may be
difficult where staff shortages don't always make this possible, but I
believe it is the organisation's responsibility to place at the worker's
disposal all the resources needed for the safe execution of his duties,
and if this means additional staff, then so be it. When an
organisation cannot do this, it has to carry some of the responsibility
when "things go wrong".
Unfortunately most organisations hide behind their
policies and working procedures when something goes wrong and quickly
acts to distance themselves from the event, rather than adopting an
approach of looking both at the people and the systems involved in
creating the crisis or incident.
Where children or youth however make accusations of abuse against a
staff member that is clearly shown to be fraudulent or false, I also
believe that such an action should carry consequences appropriate to the
young person's age and level of understanding. It is the same as
making a false statement under oath (as far as I'm concerned).
Where we have found that children or youth have a tendency to make false
allegations, we also explain to them that they are damaging their own
integrity, and if in future they report something, they should expect
that the matter will be treated with suspision (that is not to say that
we will not ever investigate it properly). But, staff who are
competent and dedicated should FEEL the support of the organisation, it
cannot just be something written in a policy somewhere.
I have also made the arrangement with my staff that where a child or
young person has threatened to accuse them of abuse, they report the
incident immediately to a senior staff member, and that they actually
immediately accompany that child to a senior staff member to make such a
report. Our response to the child is then "if you feel you need to
report something, let me accompany you to someone so that you can report
it without delay". We feel this helps because it diffuses the
threat, because the staff member has shown that they will not respond to
a threat at all, and that they are not afraid for the child to report
anything, because they have nothing to hide.
I also find that children tend to make threats when they don't
understand the child protection policy, and so this needs to be a topic
of open and ongoing discussion. The more it is discussed and
debated with them, the more the "we" aspect is emphasised – it is us
against abuse, not staff against children. So staff take the
position of aligning themselves WITH the children against abuse.
This gains more commitment to the issue from staff, as well as the
children.
We have also found that after we implemented a child protection policy
staff were very hesitant to restrain where necessary, or interact
physically with children because of the fear of allegations of abuse.
We had to emphasise the importance of physical touch (appropriate) and
physical intervention when necessary. We also had to re-evaluate
our own systems and way of working – we should create safety not only
for children, but staff as well.
Well, these are just some of our experiences on the topic...
Werner van der Westhuizen,
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
...
Hi,
I believe that you highlight clearly the
inevitable collision between an ill thought out 'children's rights'
agenda and a 'policing' approach to marginalised youth in most aspects
of their daily lives. The history of structural oppression in our
society towards working class communities has created a culture of us
and them which is transmitted through the generations. Within these
communities those in positions of power and authority (police, social
work, teachers) are largely viewed with suspicion and sometimes
hostility. The reasons are complex but at the heart of it I believe we
are looking at the oppressive imposition of values from an elite onto
groups who know they have been excluded from opportunity and stigmatised
into the bargain. When these young people are faced by the often harsh
and subjective decisions of those who police their lives they are left
with few options regarding receiving a fair hearing. They aren't as
articulate, educated or possessing of the social capital those in power
have to open doors of opportunity. As a result they are left to either
internalise their sense of hopelessness and harm themselves or kick out
and harm others. However the messy interface between rights and control
offers a wee chink for them to exploit in terms of addressing the power
imbalance, that of making an allegation.
This is a political act analogous to the restrictive work practices and
sabotage deployed by those on the assembly lines of old. It is a an
expression of resilience and offers some hope that the child has not
been fully crushed by the system. The increase in surveillance will do
nothing but widen the gap. I believe the solution revolves around
emancipatory values that identify the struggle as one shared by staff
and residents.
Collective decision making and group accountability that involves
listening and acting on the grievances of both parties.
Look at models of mediation and conflict resolution many of which have
been used to great effect in therapeutic communities down the years and
actively ignored by the technocrats in the social services who create
systems of regulation that aim to erase any expression of humanity in
the work that we undertake.
Peace
Jeremy Millar
Scotland
...
Hi,
This is not an uncommon problem. In fact, here in the States it is
more common to report sexual abuse. A few thoughts.
The biggest problem we face in our work is that not all of our
colleagues are "innocent", and it is very difficult to distinguish
between accurate attempts to get help for abusive staff behavior and
manipulative behavior by clients who enjoy seeing staff being jacked
around like they (clients) feel they have been.
Two major thoughts (or I would be here all day).
1. The good news about "allegations" is that it makes staff very careful
and thoughtful about doing physical interventions, which I think is
good. If they are worried about themselves, they will be tempted
to avoid such interventions whenever possible and become more creative
in employing non-coercive strategies. If physical intervention is
always an option, it becomes too easy to resort to it even when other
interventions would be effective. For that reason, I like staff to
become very hesitant about intervening physically. When they do,
it will be because they have really tried many other ways to keep youth
safe and will be willing to risk their own comfort because they believe
there was no other way the youth could have been prevented from harming
themselves or someone else.
2. Allegations, when not true, are a manipulative device often
employed by young people who feel otherwise powerless and resort to this
destructive use of power. It is important to examine the
therapeutic environment to be sure staff are not putting clients in
situations where they frequently feel powerless – which is how they came
to need us in the first place – and are giving them many "empowering"
experiences so they don't need to resort to unhealthy ways to exert
power.
Of course, we could go on and on (as I am known to do.....), but I'll
stop for now.
Lorraine Fox
...
I study psychology and I am really enjoying the courses. I came across
this site and I find it very interesting.
I think when there is an allegation, we should always take it very
seriously. Not all may be true, but that's why it's very important to
investigate every angle.
I used to be a child who lived in a group home, many years back. From my
own experience, I have seen a lot of different types of abuse in the
system.
We would like to believe that the children are very
protected, and that is not always the case. In fact there are a lot of
predators who have these children in their care, and it's very sad. I
remember some staff in the
highest positions, would abuse children. I have witnessed sexually and
mentally. I think when it comes to allegations it is very important to
analyze everything thoroughly no matter how hostile the child may be, or
how innocent the staff member may be. You may be surprised with the
actual truths. I have noticed that it is very rare that a child makes an
allegation about a staff member because there is always the fear of
being in lock up or being treated badly by other staff members. In fact
I think the other children would even single out that child. I have seen
staff with very weak characters getting picked on. Kids would pick on
weak staff member just for fun to amuse each other.
Anyhow as we know, anything is possible but it's very important never to close the door on anybody.
Natacha Bougie
...
You never mentioned if the suspension was with or without pay? If the
company is paying too much $ for suspensions believe you me there will
be something done about it. I would like to know if you are working
alone or in pairs, or maybe groups.
My observation: If the false suspensions are happening often and you are
out "with pay" for 12-16 weeks then maybe you should enjoy the vacation?
Power cannot be taken away; you must give it away. If you try to control
someone you will always lose. If a staff and a client (resident) are
disagreeing the staff will always win. It is up to the staff to make the
travel easy. Staff have the power ... use it wisely.
Donna Wilson
...
The issue raised regarding agency responses to
allegations of abuse is, I believe, a critical one for residential care.
I agree with most of the responses to his post to date but would add to
these from my own familiarity with the particular context referred to.
To keep it more general to start with, I think it is helpful to try and
avoid the assumption that false allegations are necessarily malicious – they might be but at other times they can reflect a cry for help, a
misunderstanding or misinterpretation of a situation, a kid's attempt to
justify their own part in a situation they subsequently regret or they
may just reflect the inevitable messiness and ambiguity of conflict
situations in residential child care. Most such situations require
dialogue and wise counsel to bring about resolution at an interpersonal
level rather than a heavy-handed organisational response. Suspension as
a first-line organisational response is a cop-out – there's a pressing
need to nail the myth that suspension is neutral – it is an experience
from which many workers never recover and which has an impact far beyond
those directly caught up in it – it creates and spreads fear within an
organisation.
And when children feel that staff are fearful and
are not then the strong adults that they need them to be they themselves
become unsure – paradoxically they feel less rather than more safe as a
result of actions carried through under banners of child safety or child
protection. In such situations they are more likely to get into conflict
as they seek reassurance that staff are sufficiently strong to 'hold'
their anxieties.
And if staff do not feel sufficiently confident or empowered to do so
the result is likely to be more confusion, more restraint situations and
more allegations – thus a culture of allegations emerges, false, true or
very often likely somewhere in between.
Moving on to the specific Scottish context. It is about time that
someone pointed out the dysfunctional consequences of inquiries. The
conceit that these are commissioned to improve the lot of kids in care
by those who have no understanding of residential child care, from those
who have no understanding of residential child care (but somehow become
'experts' nevertheless) is insulting to those who have spent their lives
at the messy end of child care trying to do just that. Well-done to OP
for exposing what really happens on the back of inquiries – and it's
little to do with making life better or safer for kids.
I wish I could offer more positive support to the OP and others in like situations but I struggle to. You are faced with a whole child care establishment that is, institutionally, in the thrall of child protection and children's rights ideologues and a trade union that is similarly so and which fails to properly stand up for its members. The only hope, ultimately, is for some sort of collective action on the part of residential workers.
Until things change I am reluctant to suggest to
anyone that they might want to pursue a career in residential care – it
is just too dangerous. The kind of climate the OP describes represents the
unintended (although for anyone with any knowledge of residential child
care, entirely predictable) consequences of abuse inquiries.
Mark Smith
...
Hi
I could not agree more with what Mark has stated here. It is important
that staff understand the role they play as role-models. This however is
linked strongly with the culture that prevails at an organisation. If
staff are able to deal effectively with any form of allegations, but
also play the role of teacher, that will contribute towards children
feeling safe, then making allegations will cease.
Alfred Harris
