New Year Quiz

We hope you've had a good Christmas, that you didn't over indulge, too much!

To help while away the hours before New Year, or after you get back to work, we've created a Quiz; best suited to people working with Children; for example:

Who were the authors of the Pindown Report, published in 1991?

How many readers recall the Pindown Inquiry?  It was established to review the punishment regime in Staffordshire Children's Homes, where Children were made to remain in 'pindown rooms', sometimes for weeks on end. In one instance, a Child was forced to stay in one of the rooms for a continuous period of 83 days.

What is the name of the official mascot of Barnardos?

Thomas Barnardo set up the Ragged School, in the East end of London, in 1867; following this, he set up his first home for boys in 1870. Later, he opened the Girls' Village Home, a collection of cottages around a green, which housed 1,500 girls. Today, Barnardos is working directly with more than 100,000 Children worldwide - it's strapline is 'Believe in Children'.

To view/download the full Quiz, click on this link New Year Quiz.

Also see 'How well do you know 'Care Planning' (our Xmas Quiz).

Happy New Year!!

My Twitting learning points

I've been Twitting for just overa month and have been through quite a steep learning curve, I’ve made a few good ‘on line’ friends, and dumped a few.

I’m starting to get it, fine tuning the people I want to follow and – having been quite sceptic – I’m starting to see that it has enormous value for us, our business, and for expanding and sharing good ideas and practice in social care and safeguarding; both of children and adults.

Everyone and his dog does top tips for Twitting, these aren’t tips at all, they are things I have learnt.

I come across on occasions as a bit of a know it all, more about this below, but I’m not – I am genuinely open to learning and receive advice with open arms; if anyone has any good ideas for my expanding venture into Twitterdom I’d love to hear from you.

I’m doing this just before going to the Pub, in a bit of a rush, so sorry for any spelling or grammatical mistakes and the list isn't in order of priority; it’s as it flows from my brain.

1.       It’s like the pub

@Sharpebyname (Dave), the guy who shared his thoughts about Twitter with our staff team in November, said it’s like being at the pub. My ears pricked up right away! He said imagine a really busy pub, lots of people you already know, lots more you may be on nodding terms with and others are completely unknown. Everyone’s engaged, some are talking complete rubbish or about football, others are deep in conversation about the economy.  You are able to join any conversation at any time, indeed, you can be having a multitude of conversations going on at the same time.  Yeh, it’s just like that except there’s no beer – mores the pity.  However, what I have learnt is that you have to be careful when you switch from a frivolous exchange with one group to a serious debate with another; the serious people might not like it if you join the debate half way through and say something like “that’s a load a bollocks”, when maybe you should have said, “hmmmm, that’s an interesting perspective, can you unwrap it a bit please”.

2.       Keep the swearing to post watershed

I swear, I know this can offend some people, it’s absolutely not my intention to do so but I’m not going to change – sorry.  When I first started Twitting, almost every other word was a swear word and I gravitated to following people who used the same language.  I thought, Dave said it was like being in the pub and when I’m in the pub (at work too to be honest) I do a lot of effing and jeffing and I think it’s important that people see me for what I am.  It didn’t work, whilst many people (serious and learned) do a spot of swearing, the majority do not. Someone said in their Top Ten hints for Twitter that there are no rules, I don’t agree, one of the rules is don’t swear.  Or, maybe, keep it til past 9 or 10 at night; even serious people relax a bit after that time.  Mind you, it’s morning somewhere in the world at all times on Twitter so I’m likely to restrict my swearing even more over the next stage of my induction.

3.       Don’t try to be someone

There’s plenty of research on this, on people creating on line personas that bear no resemblance to them. Some, as we all know, do this in evil and sinister ways, for example, to lure and groom children; less sinister are those who use on line dating agencies to meet people way out of their league. Years ago, in the late 80’s, I facilitated some training on the up and coming Children Act 1989; many of you will know that this was an incredibly complex and far reaching piece of legislation.  One of the training sessions was to a bunch of social work managers who knew the law much better than I, and I tried to give it out that I was an expert. Most were kind but one of the audience ripped me to pieces and I learnt a big lesson: ‘don’t try to fool people, it don’t work’! Better to be honest, show yourself warts and all, don’t try to enter debates that you know nothing about or, if you do, ask questions to expand your knowledge.  If there are people who clearly know better than you, give them a nod; just don’t big yourself up.

4.       It’s a small and wonderful world

My favourite uncle has just died, his name was John; I went to his funeral yesterday.  He was 86, had always struck me as kind, gentle and good all round guy. When my cousin called me to say he had passed away, she said “it’s the end of an era”. I’m not going to bore you with my thoughts and feelings about Uncle John anymore, but we are living a very small world, the digital era, and we are adventurers in that world. We think this is amazing, being able to chat in real time on line with people on the other side of the world; and it is, I’ve had some great interactions, not all of them positive/there are plenty of differences of opinion. And I believe  we are only scratching the surface in relation to ‘our world’ of social care and safeguarding, I’m really excited about this and we have to find ways to get more colleagues to join in, share ideas and especially good practice.

5. Don’t be a used car salesman

Look, to be honest, we’re in business, we are ‘for profit’ we have to keep the bank manager happy etc. If I get a chance to sell you something, I will. But, as we do out in the normal non Twitting world, I/we try to be ethical about the way we do things. We’ll sing our best bits from the rooftops and we’ll celebrate and buy ourselves a drink if we win some new business; but we are in the caring business and we genuinely care about helping people do the right thing. To this end, we have learnt that for every one Twit (I know it’s a Tweet by the way) that says how wonderful we are, there has to be at least ten more which either are giving i.e. offering free template procedures or practice guidance; or are just plain fun e.g. having a dig at Little Mix or Piers Morgan (NB he deserves all he gets in my opinion!). Twitters don’t want to know if you are always trying to sell them something. By the way, everyone who’s following me with profiles like “I can help you increase your followers by 100 fold” or bearing their breasts and asking if I’d like to meet up, thanks for following but don’t expect me to follow you back!

6. It’s like being in a pub but don’t have a drink!

I think most people learn this one very quickly, come to the virtual Twitter pub but don’t have a drink!  I’ve already mentioned that you have to be careful, keep the swearing and offensive reposts to a minimum or at least until you get to know your followers real well. But the top tip if I have one is don’t Twit if you’ve had a drink. Very early on I learnt this lesson, I came in midway through an exchange between a celebrity and his hundreds of followers; he was being profound and everyone was hanging on his every word, I’d had a (few) drinks and, erm, I said something I should have kept to myself. Result, an avalanche of horrible Twits about me. Frankly, some of them were disproportional but fair cop gov, and my apologies to the celebrity and his followers!

7. Don’t stick to your comfort zone

My specialism, or special interest, I’m no expert, is childcare; in particular residential childcare – I believe residential workers are (or can be) the salt of the earth. More about this another time.  However, I’ve learnt in life that it’s good to be open to the interests and views of people across the whole social care and safeguarding world; adults and children too. I can’t say I know very much about adult social care or safeguarding – nothing that I can teach others – but there are tons of similarities across the sector boundaries, of values, of issues and problems; and we all have an opportunity to break down those barriers and learn from each other – and support each other. So I try to follow people who a) are in sectors that I have previously had no interest in and b) seem to be either passionate or knowledgeable about their world. This really in enlightening.

8. Follow newbies

At the start of my twitting venture I tended to follow people with thousands of followers, like most people, Stephen Fry was initially on my list, and Alan Sugar blah blah. But they’re not any more, sorry SF and LAS, I’m sure you’re devastated but I have discovered that there are loads of people out there, some with a tiny following, who have much more to say for themselves.  Also, in my previous non Twitting life, I tended to ignore inexperienced or non qualified social workers; I’m in business, they aren’t the decision makers. But I follow quite a few SW students, newly qualified  professionals and a growing number of people from the other side e.g. people who were in care.  This is really refreshing and I am learning so much from them.

9. Private v Public

When the Nov 30^th strike was on the horizon/taking place, there was quite a bit of angst and some bad feeling between colleagues in the private/for profit and public sector. I’m not going to replay the arguments, you know them as well or better than I.  I thought this was unfortunate and took our eye off the real issue, which is that we are all in this (or most of us) for the same reasons, we want to change things for vulnerable people. I’m convinced that there are lots of opportunities for us to share and work together, across the private/public divide, to achieve this. We have to stop with the generalisations and open our eyes to this possibility, and Twitter is a good place to start.

10. Sorry but some people shouldn’t be doing it

When I started this post, my learning points, I thought maybe I’d get to 5 or 6 points; here I am at ten!  I’ve said above that I believe some residential childcare workers are the salt of the earth. I used to say they all were, but I always knew that was a load of tosh.  I had many (almost 30) very happy years working in children’s homes, making lots of friends and I either saw or played a part in some wonderful projects and individual pieces of work that transformed children’s lives.  But I met some horrible, even dangerous and abusive people; I did a placement with Frank Beck for example – that guy was real bad!!. Things have changed enormously over the years, recruitment, training and de-selection processes are hugely refined nowadays; but our business – the business we are all engaged in of trying to improve the lot for vulnerable adults and children – is still ruined and tainted by people who are just plain bad and many of them manage to get in under the radar, they’re  very difficult to spot, some are highly skilled at looking like they are doing the right things, but taking small opportunities to hurt people either physically or emotionally.  I do get a bit miffed when people try to give it out that everyone in the work is just trying to earn an honest crust doing the right thing by vulnerable people, this is wrong, and I won’t shy away from saying so.

Special thanks to my old mate @ListerNick and my new virtual mates @SimplySW, @mattpearson, @tashawhitstable, @MentalHealthCop, @UKSafeschool, @Sharpebyname, @jaxrafferty, @MargoJMilne, @shirleyayres, @jonbolton, @Ermintrude2, @Tweeter_Tori, @Theresauno, @StaceInspire, @WhoseShoes and @hopeandbelieve.

I'm off to the pub now, but if anyone has a comment or - better still - some advice to help me be a better Twit, I'm all ears!

How well do you know 'Care Planning' and other Regualtions that came into force in April?

In April, the ‘Care Planning’ and a host of other Regulations, Guidance and National Minimum Standards came into force. 

Are you up to date with all these changes?

• Do you know what a 'Staying Put' Policy is?
• What are the statutory timescales for production of a Care Plan for a Looked After Child?
• In the Children's Homes and Fostering National Minimum Standards, Children must be given access to the Children's Commissioner - right?

These and other questions (and answers) are included in our Christmas Quiz (see link below).

Have a go, test your understanding of the new Regulations; if you find it useful, print and circulate it to coleagues.

Have a great Christmas (New Year Quiz to follow!)

View/Download Christmas Quiz

Prone/Facedown - what are your views?

On the 3^rd December, we published a posting on this blog ‘Ban prone or facedown techniques’.

PLEASE NOTE: (at 21st Dec) there are 5 comments/feedback below.

This posting has generated quite a bit of debate, mostly on Twitter, with people taking positions on the matter. Some of the exponents are experienced trainers in the field of behaviour management and physical intervention, based here in the UK and elsewhere e.g. in Asia Pacific and the US.

Having debated the issues since the 3^rd December, I remain absolutely clear that prone/facedown is potentially dangerous, degrading and should be banned.

But I have an open mind, apart from the debates e.g. on Twitter, I have read documents and viewed websites from those who strongly advocate the use of such techniques – and I think that further debate is healthy.

Therefore, I am updating my arguments and understandings below, and I actively encourage colleagues to have their say – by adding comments in the ‘Post a Comment’ box below. Comments can take up to 24 hours to be posted, please either add your name, a link to your website or Twitter username.

Prone/Facedown is Restraint:

It’s important to confirm that Prone/Facedown is a form of Restraint; and Restraint is one of four categories of Physical Intervention. Many people misunderstand that any form of Physical Intervention is Restraint, but this is incorrect. Restraint is commonly understood to be the positive application of force with the intention of overpowering a child/adult. Practically, this means any measure or technique designed to completely restrict a child/adult's mobility or prevent a child from leaving.

There are clear ‘rules’ about where Restraint can be used, as set out in our posting PhysicalIntervention: when is it ok?  NB we haven’t just grabbed these ‘rules’ from the air, they form the basis for policies and procedures we produce for multitude local authorities and independent providers and are legally verified.

The Prone/Facedown debate:

There are 2 schools of thought or rather positions that people take about this. Some argue that Prone is different from facedown.

I’d like to hear more about this i.e. when is Prone – I think everyone agrees this means that ‘Prone’ means that the person is laying on their front  - other than facedown? I believe the argument is that if the person’s face is to the side i.e. laying on their front with their face looking right or left, this isn’t ‘facedown’.

I’m not sure about you, but if I were being held by two or three people in a Prone position/on my front, I think they’d have some difficulty arguing I wasn’t facedown too.

What is interesting is that there are people who strong argue that Facedown and Prone are the same thing e.g. a US website The Truth about Prone Restraint states “Prone restraint simply means that the subject of the restraint is in a face down position. It is not the name of a particular restraint technique as there are many ways to restrain someone face down.”  That’s pretty clear, prone = facedown.

Frankly, I believe this is a matter of semantics, for me, Prone can only means facedown – and I think the debate should not centre around the difference between the two. Prone (even if we agree it isn’t ‘facedown’) is potentially dangerous and is degrading.

The Arguments for using Prone:

As stated above, let’s set aside the debate about whether prone and facedown are the same thing.

The arguments for using Prone seem to be that, in some circumstances, it’s the only alternative other than using ‘mechanical’ restraints e.g. handcuffs.

If this is the case, why do some training providers teach techniques that do not include Prone - to Children's Homes staff working with the same highly challenging young people?

Some argue that staff are sometimes confronted by extremely dangerous and violent young people who simply cannot be Restrained or contained without resorting to the Prone technique, e.g. stating that they either don’t have enough staff to use other, less risky, techniques; or that staff are adequately trained.

To this, I say either train your staff more comprehensively, increase your resources (e.g. get more staff on duty) or review the criteria you use for admission i.e. are you admitting young people who ought to be placed elsewhere e.g. in Secure Accommodation. Please don’t say “We have to use Prone because we don’t have enough staff/resources”, this is nowhere near being an argument for Prone.

Why is Prone risky?

Even those who argue for its use agree that there are risks associated with it.

In effect, when placing a child/young person on their front – even if their head is to the side – there are risks of positional asphyxia, a form of asphyxia which occurs when someone's position prevents them from breathing adequately; some die suddenly and without apparent reason.

Research has suggested that restraining a person in a Prone position is likely to cause greater restriction of breathing than restraining a person face up.

It is particularly risky where contributory factors exist e.g. obesity, prior cardiac or respiratory problems, and the use of illicit drugs.

 “In the heat of battle”:

By the time you get to using any form of physical intervention, even low level intervention, upon a young person, everyone involved is stressed, some are frightened (staff and young people alike) and – as we know – perceptions reduce, people use force more force than intended etc.

What is required in such situations is people who are grounded, with a strong sense of values, highly trained and having worked with other like minded people on multiple occasions, with a clear understanding of the risks, with all necessary information about the young person at their fingertips. Maybe, just ‘maybe’ in these situations a textbook Prone Restraint can work safely and effectively.

But this is not the way that children’s homes operate, it’s more likely that staff will have had a day’s training, possibly no refresher training in the 12 months since, hardly any opportunity to use the technique outside the classroom and limited opportunity to use it consistently/with the same colleagues, available information about the young person is scant or nonexistent and – frankly – the decision to ‘jump in’, quite literally, will be made with next to no planning.

Recently, I interviewed a training instructor who advocates the use of Prone, I asked him “Is it possible that staff might use the Prone technique inappropriately e.g. without full information being available about a child’s asthmatic condition, where another lower level technique would be more appropriate or because they just fall back on the Prone technique because that feels like it’s the safest option – get the child under control”.

The answer, reluctantly, was “Yes”, the trainer admitted that “in the heat of battle”, the margin for error is enormous.

I should note that the trainer wasn't advocating the use of such language or philosophy ( i.e. 'in the heat of battle'), his comments were that this is how some staff behave or feel when confronted with highly challenging siutaions.  The fact is that confrontation results in 'fight or flight' behaviours and it takes very well trained and grounded people to manage it without it turning into a fight or battle. In such situations, things go wrong.

Thankfully, there have been no child deaths in the UK as a result of Prone techniques being used, this is one of the loudest arguments used by people who argue to retain it.

Fair enough, but let’s not wait or take the risk – and we don’t have to - there are suitable less risky alternatives out there in the market place.

So I say, lets ban it but I am still open to hearing from those who argue there is a place for it; to this end, have you got a comment or feedback about this posting? If so please add a comment below: please either add your name, a link to your website or Twitter username.  You can also Contact Us

The government response to the Munro Review- Two steps forward, one big step back.

This post is provided by our Lead Consultant, Nick Lister; more about him at the end.

On 13 December 2011, Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families gave an update to Parliament on progress being made across the range of commitments in the Government response to the Munro Review, published in July.

The details of the response can be seen in full at the Department of Education website which shows a full list and links to the full answer to parliament. 

There appear to be some steps forward and inevitably some steps back. 

If you (like us) were expecting early amendments to Working Together 2010 before Christmas, you will notice that the trial Authorities who are looking at different assessment models and timescales will carry on their work towards ‘timely professional judgements’ until March 31^st 2012.

Therefore it appears that there will be no interim changes to the underpinning legislation until Working Together is rewritten next year in its slimmed down version. However, there are lots of Authorities beavering away developing practice and new ways of working. 

A similar approach is being taken towards Serious Case Reviews (SCR’s). Coventry and Lancashire have been given dispensation from chapter 8 of Working Together 2010 to use the SCIE model of systems based case reviews for a case that meets the criteria and at the same time this model is being developed in new guises to be more flexible in its approach.

However, Ofsted are not going to be released from their obligation to evaluate SCR’s and whilst their recent Letter to LSCB chairs and Children’s Services Directors indicates that they are aiming to evaluate learning more than process, there appears to be little understanding of the systems approach which underpins the model promoted by Professor Munro. It is interesting to see that the involvement and impact of families in the process is to be one of their ‘learning domains’.

The biggest disappointment in the update was that government has decided to step back from creating a statutory duty to ensure that an 'early help offer' is provided. They believe that there is sufficient existing legislation for this to be achieved. It is too much to expect a government to say that something so evidently good simply can't be afforded but this is more likely to be at the heart of their decision.

These are tough but interesting times in the world of protecting children and importantly Professor Munro’s philosophy is beginning to take shape as highlighted by the Social Work Reform Board, The College of Social Work and the new, integrated, child centred inspection regimes.

Was this blog useful, do you have any comments or suggestions or would you like to contribute to this blog? If so please add a comment or Contact Us - insert your comments/suggestions in box provided.

Nick Lister is a Lead Consultant at Tri.x - Nick has been working with Tri.x as a 'Lead Author' - during that time, he has developed a great working relationship with many of customers in Children's Social Care, Safeguarding, Children's Homes and Fostering Agencies.

As a freelance/consultant, he established an Advocacy Service for young people and has chaired and provided reports in Serious Case Reviews. Nick is an accredited Reviewer for the Social Care Institute for Excellence, Learning Together model of case reviews.

Before becoming a freelance consultant, he was the Registered Manager for an Independent Providers Fostering Agency. Prior to this, he fulfilled a variety of roles in the Public Sector e.g. as Manager of a Children's Disability Service and Youth Offending/Courts Services Manager.

Supporting Teenage Parents

The following is an extract from our Practice Guide ‘Supporting Teenage Parents’ – to view full guide see link below. 

It should be read in conjunction with our blog/guide ‘Preventing Teenage Pregnancy’. 

Teenagers who become parents are known to experience greater educational, health, social and economic difficulties than young people who are not parents.  

Whilst they can be competent parents, all the evidence shows that children born to teenagers are much more likely to experience a range of negative outcomes in later life. 

These outcomes have been demonstrated to be more adverse still in the case of Looked After Children who become parents because this group are more likely than others to be unemployed, have more mental health problems, be expected to be independent, and to have little social or economic support.  

One in four care leavers will be teenage parents by the age of 20. Care leavers are more likely to continue with the pregnancy than most other groups. 

We must therefore make sure that young people who do become pregnant, and decide to go ahead with their pregnancy, receive the support they need to achieve the best possible outcomes for themselves and their children, and avoid any unplanned subsequent pregnancies whilst still teenagers.  

There will be many challenges to engaging this group as they can at times be wary of professional’s interaction whom they see as watching and judging their parenting. Professionals will need to be persistent and ensure that teenage parents are fully involved and consulted on the services they require. 

Generally when working with teenage parents you should: 

·         Involve them in shaping how services are delivered or find out what it is they want

·         Adopt a flexible and patient approach

·         Be willing to change the service

·         Provide a multi-agency approach

·         Be willing to examine your own attitudes and beliefs regarding teenage parents 

It is important to remember that not all partners of teenage parents will be teenagers. Research shows that engaging with fathers can be challenging but many want to be involved in their child’s lives. It is often necessary therefore to think creatively about how to involve fathers. Often a partner’s support to teenage mothers can have a positive impact in areas such as take up and sustaining of breastfeeding and smoking reduction during pregnancy. Local Children’s Centre’s may offer Dad’s groups or they may prefer a one to one arrangement.The youth service may also offer tailored services for teenage parents.

End of extract, view full guide ‘Supporting Teenage Parents’ 

Useful Links:

Teenage Pregnancy Next Steps: Guidance for Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts on Effective Delivery of Local Strategies 

Bubbalicious –information and advice for teenage parents.

Family Planning Association –advice and guidance on sexual health, contraception and pregnancy choices.

Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths – advice for professionals and teenage parents on sudden infant death, health and sleep safe.

Dads-space –advice and information for Dad’s.

Was this blog useful, do you have any comments or suggestions or would you like to contribute to this blog? If so please add a comment or Contact Us - insert your comments/suggestions in box provided.

The Truth about Adoption

Last night (14th December) BBC Panorama focussed on 'The Truth About Adoption', this blog - written by one of our Consultants, Nick Lister, outlines the key issues.

Adoption is now high on the political agenda as the best option for the 65,000 children in care. But, with less than 5% actually placed for adoption, children must wait an average two years and seven months for a permanent family. Why does it take so long? What is the human cost?

This Panorama Special followed six children in Coventry waiting to be adopted over six months. Some had waited five years. Others were returned after almost three years with prospective adopters. One child, then aged 18 months, was returned after just two weeks. This film addressed the hidden cost of adoption breakdown. In all cases, the children's pain and longing was tangible, as was the burning attachment experienced by birth parents, often against all odds and what appears to be the children’s best interests.

This edition of Panorama was a ‘no holds barred’ view of this issue from inside a Children’s Social Care Department. The efforts of social workers to try to use the Adoption system to provide stability in the lives of children was vividly depicted and the programme provided a moving and realistic perspective on the complex issues that people in this system face.

In particular, the resilience and optimism of these children shone through- things might change and there might for some be hurt after hurt to contend with, but these kids just come back fighting, waiting for things to work out and for ‘For Ever’ families to be found for them.

The dedication and strength of experienced foster cares who know what these children want and need to live full lives was there for all to see. If ever there was a job that made a difference, this is it! And finally the Social Worker, against all the odds battling away in a calm, kind manner- feeling for the children but giving it to them straight, being kind and yes, even shedding a tear with them.

Some wider, complicated issues were touched upon including the challenges of parenting with a learning difficulty and the issue of parents who have many children, none of whom they are able or allowed to care for. The participation of children and the balance between involving them and keeping them in touch on one hand, and protecting them from disappointment by keeping things from them was also described vividly by the programme. The delay in progressing adoption form plan to reality was also apparent.

There wasn’t time and it would not have been fitting to explore the perspective of the formal legal system of the family court and the adversarial nature of the process that occurs there; nor was the quasi-judicial functioning and operation of the Adoption Panel and the relationship between the two.

Crucially, the difference between the demand for adoptive families and the supply wasn’t explored and despite the posturing of the government, this is truly what lies at the heart of the problem. Too many children need long-term care and there are not enough people to provide this.

Was this blog useful, do you have any comments or suggestions or would you like to contribute to this blog? If so please add a comment or Contact Us - insert your comments/suggestions in box provided.

Preventing Teenage Pregnancy

This is the first of 2 blogs/guides in relation to teenage pregnancy. 

Also see our blog/guide 'Supporting Teenage Parents.

The following is an extract from a Practice Guide written by one of our Consultants, Tracy Richards, who has worked for many years across agency boundaries supporting teenage parents.

A link to the full guide is provided below.

England's under 18 pregnancy rate is currently at its lowest level for over 20 years, but it is still unacceptably high. The evidence is clear that teenage parenthood results in poor health, under-achievement and low earnings for both the mother and baby.Children born to teenagers are much more likely to experience a range of negative outcomes in later life.

Some of the facts relating to teenage pregnancy are that the majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned and generally about half end in abortion; half of all under 18 conceptions occur in the 20% most deprived areas; teenage mothers are 20% more likely to have no qualifications at 30 than mothers giving birth at 24 or over.

Amongst the Children/Young People at risk of becoming teenage parents are Children of teenage parents, young people in care and care leavers and Young people who are excluded, truant or underachieve at school.

Some of the risky behaviours that may result in teenage pregnancy are early onset of sexual activity; poor contraceptive use and mental health/conduct disorder/involvement in crime.

Agencies/professionals play a key role in reducing teenage pregnancy e.g.

• By taking it seriously and having an established/ongoing strategy involving all key agencies.
• Accepting and promoting that it is an issue for boys too.
• Contributing towards equipping young people with the skills knowledge, values and attitudes to make positive and informed choices about their relationships and sexual health; being proactive in conversations, not‘one-off’ conversations but threaded throughout any interactions with young people.
• Sending out the right messages to young people, for example, 'Your body is your own and saying “No” is okay’.
• Providing information for young people e.g. where to find local sexual health services, advising on the best forms of contraception and encouraging young people to discuss issue with their parent/carer.
• Exploring ways to work with and involve parents/carers, and provide them with useful information and advice e.g. start early- parents/carers will find it less awkward if they introduce the topic when their child is very young.

To view/download the full Practice Guide Click Here

Do you wish to be alerted when the 2nd blog/guide is posted ('Supporting Teenage Parents'), do you have a comment or would you like to contribute to this blog? If so, please add a comment or Contact Us and add note in Comments box.

Useful links:

Teenage Pregnancy Strategy: Beyond 2010

Teenage Pregnancy NextSteps: Guidance for Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts on EffectiveDelivery of Local Strategies

Brook Advice

Family Planning Association

Was this useful or do you have any comments or suggestions? If so, please Contact Us.

Free Family & Friends Policy

This is a genuine offer - no strings attached!

If you're in Children's Services, you may know that govt required all local authorities to have a Family and Friends Policy in place by September 2011.

Many local authorities still haven't complied, fair enough, times are hard and people are busy.

That's one of the advantages of asking us to look after your procedures/policies, we keep you up to date.

But, enough of the sales pitch, this is a genuine offer...

We have created a template Family and Friends Policy, verified by our own childcare lawyers - used by almost all of our 100+ LA customers (some preferred to write their own).

If you work for a local authority and still have a gap where your Family and Friends Policy should be, contact us and we'll forward you our template to use as you see fit.

No strings, nothing to pay.

If you're interested, call or email Yasin on 024 76 678053 (Yasin.vorajee@trixonline.co.uk).

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Searching/Confiscation: Leadership & Clarity Please

Searching of young people in schools and children’s homes or other similar settings, particularly if it involves confiscation, is a controversial issue.

Teachers/Care staff have been crying out for clear guidance for years, some have been calling for changes in the law. 

However, the law doesn’t need to be changed. What’s required is for government and, particularly, schools and children’s homes managers to provide clear direction and clarity for their staff and young people/pupils.

Lack of leadership and clarity leaves staff feeling vulnerable and this results in them either sticking their heads in the sand or acting by instinct, which can lead to poor or inappropriate actions, complaints and worse.

The bottom line is that staff can search young people/pupils if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that harmful items are being carried.

Harmful items INCLUDE knives, alcohol or stolen items; that’s obvious.

However, the definition can be extended to include devices such as mobile phones – if the device/phone is being or likely to be used to cause significant harm.

I should note here: the key is that schools, homes or organisations caring for or teaching young people have a policy, that staff are properly trained and supervised in carrying out that policy. For example, staff have to be clear what ‘significant harm’ means; this is just a blog, it’s impossible to expand fully in such matters.

The point is, searching of young people/pupils can be a reasonable action; staff don’t have to stand by and permit the carrying of harmful items, if given authority and leadership, they can take action.

In terms of the actions that can be taken i.e. how to search, whether consent is required or not, and whether said harmful items (including mobile phones) can be confiscated – the answers in a nutshell are:

Searches are permissible, in some circumstances, without consent. There are, obviously, limitations; in some circumstances, the Police have to be called in. But, in many cases, staff can deal with matters themselves, on the spot.

Consent doesn’t always have to be given by the young person/pupil e.g. the searching of desks, lockers or bedrooms/in children’s homes.

Reasonable force can be used and harmful items can – some would argue ‘must’ – be confiscated and in some circumstances, disposed of.

I apologise if the reading of this blog leaves people with more questions than answers; it’s just not possible to provide detailed guidance for all situations, and I’m not attempting to do so don’t take the reading of this as permission to search a young person you are caring for/teaching.

The key, as I have stated over and over, is that such measures/actions are permissible in law, we don’t require additional or amended legislation.

If you are caring for or teaching young people and your policy is unclear, you should do something about it, talk to your manager(s), request some clarity; don't leave a policy vacuum, this doesnt help anyone.

For more information please read our Practice Guide #2: Searching and Confiscation

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