The
York Group Seminar
The
York Group is made up of senior practitioners, managers and academics
who work in the field of group care for children and young people.
Professor Ewan Anderson, who chairs the group, has identified
over twenty types of residential care, meeting medical, social,
educational, custodial and vocational needs of various sorts.
Last
year the York Group looked at group sizes. This year they turned
their attention to the length of time children and young people
do, or should, spend in residential settings. The Stockholm Declaration
drafted in May this year was quite clear that this should be the
shortest time possible, but the papers we are publishing in this
issue demonstrate the nonsense of the Declaration.
Young
people need to be in residential settings for different lengths
of time for different purposes, ranging from overnight emergency
care to long-term placements, at Eton College for example.
Depending
upon the function of the establishment, a young person may not
stay long enough or may overstay, if they are to make full use
of the programme and yet maintain a sense of direction and achievement.
It is a matter of fine-tuning to match the individual and the
setting.
Some
settings provide specific treatment programmes, complete with
timescales, while others are flexible and children come and go.
Some fit in with the academic year. Some ignore it. Different
establishments are staffed by different groups of professionals,
with their differing views of timescales.
These
papers commence with an overview by Ewan Anderson, and then consist
of papers covering secure care and a special residential school.
The
seminar was held in a fascinating setting, Welbeck College, near
Worksop in Nottinghamshire. It is a residential college which
has educated young people to be ready for military training. Being
highly selective, it makes real demands on the young people, to
encourage them to achieve really high standards, and it provides
them with a wide range of education and skills, not only in the
usual school syllabus but also in learning to work in groups and
to take command.
The
College is a splendid mansion with a massive underground ballroom
(being used for indoor weapons drill during the seminar) and an
extensive range of tunnels built by the Duke of Portland. But
that is a story in itself.
