RESIDENTIAL CARE
Residential child care prior to 1950
Prior to 1947 the care of children was governed by the Poor Relief
Acts which empowered Boards of Guardians to care for children in
workhouses or to have them boarded-out (fostered). The functions of
the Boards of Guardians in relation to children transferred to the
newly established welfare authorities on 1 November 1947. At that
time the Ministry of Home Affairs recommended that the 8 welfare
authorities established under the Public Health and Local
Government (Administrative Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1946,
established homes to provide for persons in need, including children.
Almost 80 per cent of children in care lived in institutional
placements (Table 6).
Table 6: Children in care, 1947
The above table also demonstrates the significant degree of reliance
upon the voluntary sector for the provision of placements for
children; virtually all of this provision was in large institutions.
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 75
Chapter 4
Placement Number
Care of voluntary organisation 1,000
(Virtually all institutional)
Boarded-out 312
Workhouse/other 189
Local Authority Institution
TOTAL 1,501
During the 1950s the main concern confronting welfare authorities
was the dismantling of the Poor Law and Workhouse system. In an
effort to expedite the removal of children from workhouses they
were endeavouring to obtain suitable houses for conversion into
children's homes. By the beginning of 1950, the number of children's
homes opened, numbered 3 while 4 had been purchased for
conversion and negotiation was underway to purchase further
properties.
It was envisaged that each children's home would accommodate
between 25-30 children on a temporary basis pending their transfer
to foster homes. Only in exceptional circumstances would children's
homes provide a permanent home for children who were deemed
"not suitable to be boarded-out"
The beginning of the 1950s was, therefore, marked by a high
proportion of children who could not be cared for by their own
parents and families living in institutional care. There was also a high
degree of reliance on voluntary sector providers, who were
responsible for the financial support of children placed in their care
by parents. The 1950s marked the beginning of the statutory sector
making its own provision for children in children's homes to end the
use of placement within the workhouse system.
The legislative and policy context
The post-war years saw a dramatic increase in social legislation and
the dismantling of the Poor Law and workhouse system, which had
been in existence for more than 100 years. The emergence of the
notion of a Welfare State in the 1940s combined with the concepts of
the provision of social welfare to ensure societal cohesion and the
need for the State to become a provider of such services. For the first
time, therefore, a comprehensive statutory framework was
established which defined statutory and permissive powers in respect
of various groups of people, namely, children, elderly persons and
people who are either mentally ill or mentally handicapped or
physically disabled.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 76
The 1946 Public Health and Local Government (Administrative
Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland), created a new administrative
structure to carry out the functions of the Boards of Governors.
Eight welfare authorities were established across county and county
borough council areas in Northern Ireland. Each welfare authority
was required to appoint a Welfare Officer who would assume the
responsibilities that had previously been invested in the Boards of
Guardians. The welfare authorities were also required to act through
statutory welfare committees. A structure was, therefore, put in place
to divest the Boards of Guardians of their previous responsibility
for children.
In 1946 the Government published a White Paper, "The Protection
and Welfare of the Young and the Treatment of the Young
Offender" (Cmnd. 264, HMSO). The White Paper drew attention to
the lack of knowledge about the problem of caring for neglected
children due to the previous reliance, which had been placed on the
voluntary sector and the Poor Law system, to meet their needs. The
report also highlighted the need for one government department,
the Ministry of Home Affairs, to have responsibility for all children's
legislation. It also recommended:
• the establishment of an advisory committee, the "Child Welfare
Council" to provide advice to the Minister;
• that welfare authorities should appoint sub-committees to deal
with statutory duties in relation to children;
• that welfare authorities should establish their own children's
homes:
• that welfare authorities should set realistic boarding-out rates
which were to be reviewed regularly by the Child Welfare Council;
• that welfare authorities should arrange for staff to attend suitable
training courses;
• that voluntary homes should be subject to registration; and
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 77
• every attempt was to be made to have children boarded-out in
foster homes.
The policy stance articulated above in favour of fostering was to find
expression in legislation, the Children and Young Persons Act of 1950.
The 1950 Act also served to make good the gap in provision between
England, Wales and Northern Ireland for children in need of care and
protection which had resulted from the failure in Northern Ireland to
introduce legislation equivalent to the Children and Young Persons
Acts (England and Wales) 1933.
The main provisions of the Children and Young Persons Act (NI) 1950
were designed to:
• centralise the care of children under one Department, the Ministry
of Home Affairs,
• enhance the powers of welfare authorities to provide for children
that was not available under previous legislation. Section 92
specifically required welfare authorities to provide
accommodation for children in their care;
• end the last of the old Poor Law Enactments;
• regulate through registration (Section 95) and inspection
(Section 101), voluntary children's homes; and
• establish a statutory bias in favour of foster care.
The Children and Young Persons Act (1950) was far reaching in
relation to the requirements imposed upon welfare authorities in
relation to children's homes. Section 92 specifically addressed issues
such as:
• the equipment of homes;
• the medical arrangements for protecting children's health;
• promoting the religious upbringing of children;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 78
• requiring the approval of the Ministry for the appointment,
qualification and training of children's home staff;
• limiting the period in which children may be accommodated
in homes;
• providing for different types of homes for children with different
needs; and
• enabling the Ministry to close a home if it "is unsuitable for
the
purposes or if the conduct of the home failed to comply with
regulation".
Section 96 also enabled welfare authorities to make arrangements
for the accommodation of children in care near their place of work
or education.
The above requirements made it clear that consideration had to be
given to the need for homes to have an explicit purpose, size and
function and also given to issues such as children's health,
educational and religious needs. The statutory bias in favour of
fostering contained within the legislation, meant that the notion of a
time limit on placement in a children's home was firmly enshrined in
the 1950 Act. The view was that residential care was a short term or
temporary measure, unless there were special circumstances, which
dictated otherwise.
Following the Children and Young Persons Act of 1950 there was a
rapid expansion in statutory sector provision of residential care and
an increasing number of children coming into the State's care. It soon
became apparent, however, that insufficient attention was being
afforded to the prevention of family breakdown. In England and
Wales, the call for preventative work to enable social workers to
anticipate crises in families and to act proactively to avoid the
reception of children into care, resulted in the Children and Young
Persons Act of 1963. This enabled local authorities to assist families
in
either cash or kind to reduce the need to bring children into care. In
Northern Ireland, the Children and Young Persons Act 1968 replicated
this provision of the 1963 Act as well as re-enacting the 1950 Act. It
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 79
failed, however, to anticipate the changes likely in England and
Wales following the "Children in Trouble" (1968) or "The
Child, the
Family and Young Offender" (1965) White Papers, which resulted in
the Children and Young Persons Act (1969). In Northern Ireland the
distinction between offender and non-offender was, therefore,
maintained.
The significance of the Children and Young Persons Act 1968 was its
emphasis on prevention and giving due regard to the welfare of the
child. It also continued to provide legislative support for the bias in
favour of foster care.
In January 1976, Sir Harold Black was appointed to chair a review of
the legislation and services relating to the care and treatment of
children and young persons under the Children and Young Persons
Act (NI) 1968, the Adoption Act (NI) 1967 and the Probation Act (NI)
1950 taking into account developments in these fields in Great
Britain. The review group reported in December 1979, "Report of the
Children and Young Persons Review Group", more commonly known
as the Black Report. The implications of the report for the residential
care of children were significant for the following reasons:
• it proposed the removal of the statutory bias in favour of
fostering;
• it recognised the need for a range of small residential homes to
ensure the appropriate placement of children;
• it advocated the establishment of a specialist facility for young
people with severe behavioural problems;
• it recommended that full consideration should be given to the
wishes and feelings of children in care;
• it made proposals to improve the quality of residential care,
particularly through the encouragement of appropriate training
for residential workers;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 80
• it advocated the establishment of an independent visitor for all
children in care; and
• it advised the separation of justice and care provisions for children
and young people.
The thinking and principles contained within the Black Report were
progressive. The Report affirmed that provision of services for
children should be based on an assessment of need and that services
should be tailored to meet the identified needs of each child or
young person. It also established that the form of care provided
"must be considered on its merits and matched to the needs of the
individual child". Residential care was, therefore, perceived as an
integral part of a continuum of services. It should not exist as an
isolated service selected as either an easy first choice or as a last
resort for children.
The inclusion of recommendations relating to the future of the
training schools contained within the Black Report meant that the
full potential of this report was not realised. There was strong
opposition to change in this area and the Prior Agreement of 1986
largely maintained the status quo pending legislative change.
Implementations of many of the Report's recommendations were,
therefore, deferred until new children's legislation was introduced in
Northern Ireland. The Children (NI) Order 1995, which commenced in
November 1996, enacted much of the progressive thinking found 16
years earlier in the Black Report. The statutory bias in favour of
fostering was removed from the statute book and the concept of
placements being selected according to their ability to meet the
assessed needs of individual children was established as the way
forward.
The 1968 Children and Young Persons Act remained the legislative
framework for children's services for 28 years. The bias in favour of
fostering which inevitably led to a perception of residential care as
an option of last resort also found expression in Regional Strategies
(1987-92 and 1992-97). The 1987-92 Strategy stated:
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 81
"Boards should seek to reduce the need for residential care
and, with the development of preventive and foster care
services as alternatives to residential care, to reduce the
stock of residential provision."
The 1992-97 strategy however referred to 4 main areas directly
related to the residential care of children. These were:
• the need for a range of small residential facilities geared to
specialist tasks in order to meet the assessed needs of children;
• the recognition that for some children residential care is a positive
and desirable way of meeting their needs;
• an emphasis on the provision for all children of adequate
preparation for leaving care and access to after-care provision; and
• establishing a target that each Board should, by 1997, have at
least 75 per cent of children in care living in a family placement,
not including those children placed at home on a 'home on trial'
basis.
Children's legislation was comprehensively updated by the
introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 in
November 1996. The Children Order largely replicates the Children
Act 1989, which was enacted in England and Wales in 1991. It brings
together the public and private legislation in respect of children and
introduces a range of court orders to deal with children's cases. The
statutory bias in favour of fostering in Northern Ireland was removed
by the Children Order and its emphasis on assessment of need both
at individual and area levels. This theme is taken forward in the most
recent Regional Strategy (1997-2002), which requires that the need
for service provision should be determined on the assessed needs of
children. Paragraph 8.13 (ii) states that:
"The Department should issue guidance on the means of
assessing needs of children...so that Boards employ
comparable methodologies in the assessment of needs. It
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 82
should also issue guidance to Boards on the format and
content of Children's Services Plans ...".
Each HSS Board is, therefore, required to produce a Children's
Services Plan (CSP) under The Children (1995) Order (Amendment)
(Children's Services Planning) Order (Northern Ireland) 1998. These
regulations amend the Children Order by inserting at Paragraph 2 of
Schedule 2, a requirement on HSS Boards to produce a CSP. The plans
are produced on a triennial basis in collaboration with other
statutory and independent providers and are subject to annual
review. Each HSS Board is required to produce a CSP, which provides
for a range of services configured to meet the assessment needs of its
child population. The first CSPs were produced in April 1999.
In a legislative and policy context there has been a shift from blanket
solutions to meeting the assessed needs of children for whom living
with their own parents and families is not an option. Foster care is no
longer perceived as the appropriate placement choice for all children.
The beginnings of this shift in thinking can be traced to the 1992-97
Regional Strategy where recognition is given to the fact that for
some children residential care "is a positive and desirable way of
meeting their needs." The emphasis on assessment and placement
choice is now firmly established by the Children Order and the 1997-
2002 Regional Strategy.
The impact of major events
Residential child care has been the focus of considerable attention
and public inquiry over the past 50 years. The most influential
document is arguably the Report of the Care of Children Committee
(1946), (Cmd. 6922) most commonly referred to as the Curtis Report.
The remit of the Committee was:
"To enquire into existing methods of providing for children
who from loss of parents or from any cause whatever are
deprived of a normal home life with their own parents and
relatives, and to consider what further measures should be
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 83
taken to ensure that these children are brought up under
conditions best calculated to compensate them for the lack
of parental care".
Just as the Committee was established, the death of Denis O'Neill at
the hands of his foster carers was receiving extensive media coverage.
Once the trial of the foster carers ended, Walter Monckton was asked
to lead an inquiry into Denis' death. While the Curtis Committee was
asked to take account of Monckton's conclusions, its terms of
reference remained unaltered.
The Curtis Committee was the first inquiry in the United Kingdom
directed specifically to the care of children who were deprived of
normal home life and covered all groups of such children, excluding
those in penal or borstal situations. The Curtis Report laid the
foundation for a modern child care service. It proposed that each
child in care "should each be the personal concern of the new
children's officers and their staff - personally known to them and able
to rely on other known people for stable relationships and
consideration of their needs".
The Curtis Report is widely perceived as having been opposed to
children being in residential care. The report takes, however, a
balanced view of both the relative merits and demerits of residential
and foster care, as the following quote demonstrates:
"We should like to deal briefly with the principle that
(adoption apart) boarding-out should be regarded as the
ideal method of disposing of the children. We think this is
true where the home is in every way satisfactory and suited
to the particular child...But as soon as the foster home falls
below the entirely satisfactory standard, the institution - at
all events the institution based on the small family group -
begins to have advantages. ...Children undergoing several
changes of foster parents are often worse off than if they
had never been boarded-out at all" (P.
461).
In reaching its conclusions the Curtis Committee visited many
children's homes and foster homes. They found many children's
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 84
homes had remained "little changed since the nineteenth century,
either in buildings or organisation... Some were more up-to-date and
provided a relatively interesting and varied way of life for the
children". The Committee concluded by recommending that fostering
should be promoted as the next best alternative to adoption as a
means of providing children with the emotional satisfaction of a
family and links with the wider community. The result of Curtis in
practice was:
• to develop boarding-out as a policy;
• to promote the recruitment of foster parents;
• to close larger children's homes; and
• to reduce the amount of residential accommodation available to
children in care.
Other factors, which contributed to the misperception that Curtis was
opposed to residential care, were:
• Dr John Bowlby's work in 1951 on "Maternal Care and Mental
Health", which was often misinterpreted as advocating that any
maternal figure was better than group care; and
• the concerns expressed by the Parliamentary Select Committee on
Estimates at the rising cost of residential care, foster care was,
therefore, deemed a more appropriate and a cheaper option than
residential care.
The consequences of emphasising fostering on the development of
residential services for children cannot be over stated. As the Castle
Priory Report of 1968 noted:
"it is not surprising that residential work became the
"Cinderella" of the Child Care Service for a time and many
people engaged in it felt discouraged and despondent
about a future in which they appeared to be destined
always to be a second best method of care".
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 85
Practice, however, soon established that fostering was not a panacea
for all children. For older children and those, whose earlier life
experience meant that they were unable to be cared for by foster
carers, residential care began to be recognised as a "positive
choice"
rather than a last resort. During the 1960s, the growing interest in
residential social work found expression in the Williams Committee
Report, "Caring for People" (1967). Its recommendations
particularly
those concerning training were viewed as controversial and provoked
considerable discussion amongst residential social workers. Following
its publication a small representative group was established to study
the problems of residential work. The group met at Castle Priory
College during March 1968. It established the following over-arching
questions:
• what sort of children are receiving residential care?
• what is the nature of the professional task in residential
social work?
• what sort of training should be provided for residential work
and is the present training appropriate?
• what professional support and consultation are needed?
• what standard of staffing ratio is necessary?
Castle Priory is best remembered for its work on establishing staffing
ratios for residential homes. It was, however, an important milestone
in recognising residential child care as a professional task, which is
different from the traditional concept of substitute parenting.
The public scandals surrounding residential care, which have come to
light in relation to the abuse of children have all had a dramatic
impact on the development of residential services for children. Recent
investigations in Great Britain, include:
• "The Leicestershire Inquiry",1992;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 86
• "The Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Children and Young
People who Sexually Abuse Other Children" (NCH 1992);
• "Choosing with Care: The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into
the Selection, Development and Management of Staff in
Children's Homes" (The Warner Report) (HMSO, 1992);_
• The "Children's Safeguard Review" (SWS Inspectorate for
Scotland
1997 (Kent Report);
• "People Like Us: The Report of the Review of the Safeguards for
Children Living Away from Home" (Utting Report), (DoH 1997);
and
• "Lost in Care" (Waterhouse Report), 2000.
All serve to underline the risks inherent in the group care of children
and the measures needed to protect and safeguard them.
Impact of the Kincora Inquiry
In Northern Ireland many of the remedial courses of action suggested
by recent inquiry reports in Great Britain, had been established
following the allegations of malpractice at Kincora Boys' Hostel,
Belfast. In 1980, when evidence of this malpractice came to light a
team from the Department of Health and Social Security in London
was established to provide advice on the supervision and
management of homes and hostels. The team's advice was contained
in the Sheridan Report (1982). The significance of this report stems
from its emphasis on:
• the management, supervision, monitoring and inspection of
children's homes;
• the recognition of the links required within the voluntary child
care sector and between it and the Boards;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 87
• the need for a complaints procedure for children in care and their
parents;
• the need for effective recruitment and selection procedures for
residential workers;
• the examination of residential child care within the context of all
child care services.
The development of a policy on complaints procedure for children in
care, owes much to the Sheridan Report. The Report also made a
highly significant contribution in terms of its impact on the
development of monitoring arrangements for children's homes and
the selection and vetting of residential staff.
Public interest in Kincora continued throughout the early 1980s and
in 1984 a Committee of Inquiry was established under the
Chairmanship of Judge William Hughes. The Committee considered
instances of homosexual offences and misconduct involving children
resident in 9 children's homes. The resultant report "Report of the
Committee of Inquiry into Children's Homes and Hostels" (HMSO
1986) made 56 recommendations. Many of these recommendations
endorsed the thinking of both the Sheridan and Black Reports. More
significantly, however, the Inquiry sought to enhance the standing
and qualification of residential workers by advocating:
• parity of pay between residential staff and fieldwork social
workers, linked to professional qualifications and training
(Recommendation 6);
• that all Officers in Charge should hold a social work qualification
and that a specific timetable should be established for the
professionalisation of the residential child care system
(Recommendation 9).
In 1991 the DHSS made available the resource to implement the
"Hughes 6 Recommendation", with the aim of achieving a fully
qualified residential child care workforce within a 5 year period. The
status and standing of residential social work was also addressed by
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 88
introducing pay parity between residential and field social workers
and by encouraging the development of an enhanced social work
role for suitably qualified residential social workers.
The implementation of the "Hughes 6 Recommendation" has
resulted in Northern Ireland having the highest level of training for
residential workers across the United Kingdom. The goal, however, of
a fully qualified workforce has still not been attained. Progress in
developing the enhanced role of residential social workers has also
been disappointingly slow. As noted in "Children Matter: A review
of
residential child care services in Northern Ireland" (DHSS, 1998),
the
full potential of Northern Ireland's highly qualified residential
workforce has not been realised. This is in part due to the lack of an
adequate supply of places and the absence of sufficient
differentiation of function within the current stock of homes.
The impact of the Sheridan and Hughes Reports on the development
of internal and external monitoring arrangements for residential
homes for children cannot be over-emphasised. Many of the
subsequent investigations in the rest of Great Britain, referred to
above, have demonstrated that the absence of robust monitoring
arrangements, particularly of an external nature has contributed to
the abuses of children remaining undetected for many years.
In the "Safeguarding Review" undertaken in Northern Ireland,
following the publication of the Utting and Kent Reports covering
the rest of the United Kingdom, listed above, the Chief Inspector,
Social Services Inspector, (SSI) indicated that the monitoring
arrangements in place in Northern Ireland were a significant
safeguard for children. He also underscored that there was the need
for ongoing vigilance and that there was no room for complacency if
children's wellbeing was to be safeguarded whenever they are cared
for away from home.
The scandals and inquiries which have become associated in the
public conscience with residential care have served to emphasise that
adults entrusted with the care of vulnerable children are capable of
physically and sexually abusing them and that children need ways to
have their concerns and complaints heard and heeded. In relation to
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 89
Kincora, as early as 1967, there were written allegations from 2
residents to the Belfast Welfare Authority alleging that they were
being abused by staff. These allegations appear to have been viewed
as malicious and were consequently dismissed. Over the next 13 years
there were repeated allegations and complaints; all were either
disregarded or unsubstantiated. The need for professional input into
the monitoring and management of children's homes is essential if
the culture and practice within them is to safeguard and promote the
well being of children.
The past 50 years have seen major social and professional changes all
of which has had an impact on children's services and residential care.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by
the United Kingdom government in 1991, affords children looked
after by the State "special protection" (Article 20). They
also have
rights, which include family contact, provided it is not a risk to the
child, (Article 9), to have their circumstances regularly reviewed
(Article 25) and the right to be consulted (Article 12).
Inspection arrangements and service standards
In addition to establishing monitoring arrangements and a
complaints procedure for children in residential care, work was also
progressed to develop standards for the inspection and monitoring of
children's homes in Northern Ireland. In 1986 the Social Work
Advisory Group, now the Social Services Inspectorate, in collaboration
with the HSS Boards' Assistant Directors of Social Services (Family and
Child Care), agreed a comprehensive set of standards for residential
child care. This was the first time that an explicit statement of
practice and professional criteria had been issued. This paper was
comprehensively redrafted in 1992 "Quality Living: Standards for
Services: Children who live away from home". This standards
framework adopted a children's rights approach to the setting of
standards. An inspection framework document was formulated and
shared with Boards and voluntary children's homes. The standards
established have informed subsequent inspections. They were revised
and reissued in 1996 to take account of the changes associated with
the implementation of the Children Order.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 90
The commencement of the Children Order in November 1996 resulted
in responsibility for the inspection of children's homes transferring
from SSI to the 4 HSS Boards' Registration and Inspection units. The
frequency of inspection was increased as a consequence of the
Children Order to 2 inspections each year one of which is
unannounced.
"Children Matter"
In June 1997 the Chief Inspector, SSI, was asked by the Health and
Social Services Committee of the DHSS to head a review of residential
child care. The background to the review was:
• the rapid retraction of the voluntary residential sector, discussed in
more detail below;
• the emergence of a range of difficulties within the residential
sector which suggested that control had been lost in some homes.
The report which emerged from the comprehensive review of
residential child care services, "Children Matter", included
the
following findings:
• there was an insufficient supply of places to enable placement
choice;
• homes were generally configured as "general purpose" homes
and dealt with a range of children's needs which were at times
conflicting;
• there was a need for more specialist facilities to enable children to
be placed in homes capable of meeting their assessed needs;
• the current stock of children's homes were in the main large,
institutional type buildings which had had limited capital
investment in them and needed to be replaced or brought up to a
homely standard of finish; and
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 91
• there were social, economic and practice issues which were likely
to combine to increase the demand for residential child care
places.
The Department accepted the findings and conclusion of the
"Children Matter" report, its Action Plan and 31
recommendations.
Following publication of "Children Matter" in 1998, the 4 HSS
Boards
produced their response, "Implementing Children Matter", which
set
out a 5 year programme of specific capital developments designed to
redress the shortfalls and shortcomings evident within the residential
child care sector. Due to concerns regarding the expansion of
residential places, the Minister for HSSPS, established the
"Children
Matter" Taskforce, July 2000, with the following terms of
reference:
• to confirm the total additional places (new and replacement)
needed in each Board area to meet the "Children Matter"
agenda;
• to agree an Action Plan for each Board which identified the
individual schemes needed to provide these places;
• to explore new sources of funding and service provision;
• to construct an overall Regional Plan to meet the requirements of
"Children Matter" targets, including the consequent resource
implications and staffing requirements; and
• to monitor implementation of the Plan.
The contribution and changing role of the voluntary sector
The role of the churches and religious organisations in the provision
of homes for children in Northern Ireland was fully developed before
the State assumed a greater responsibility for the care of children.
The Children and Young Persons Act 1950 and its accompanying
statutory rules provided the context for the growth of statutory child
care facilities. The Welfare Authorities' Homes (No. 130) 1952
Regulations facilitated the growth of children's homes within the
statutory sector. Until then residential care in Northern Ireland was
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 92
largely provided by the voluntary sector, as illustrated at Table 6
above. Since the Children and Young Persons Act 1950 placed a duty
on welfare authorities to receive children into care whose parents
were unable or unfit to care for them the number of children in the
care of voluntary homes has reduced.
Until the Children and Young Persons Act 1950 came into force the
only authority for the inspection of voluntary homes was contained
in Section 25 of the Children Act 1908. Under the Children Act, the
Ministry had no power to require such homes to be registered nor
was there any means by which any Government Department could
intervene in the arrangements for the training, education, or aftercare
of children accommodated within them. In a few homes
effective after care and boarding-out schemes were in operation but
in the majority of homes improved standards of accommodation,
education and training were required. The Children and Young
Persons Act 1950, therefore, gave the Ministry of Home Affairs the
power to require the registration of all voluntary homes and to cause
them to be inspected. The Ministry was also empowered to make
regulations for the conduct of such homes and for securing the
welfare of children living within them. For this purpose, the Children
and Young Persons (Voluntary Homes) Regulations (NI) 1952, were
made. Conditions were also established to set a maximum size on the
number of children to be accommodated in children's homes.
The scale of voluntary provision and its relative position in relation
to
statutory services is illustrated by the following statistics in Table
7.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 93
Table 7 - Number of children in care 1947-59
The figure for 1959 shows the substantial proportion of children
cared for by welfare authorities, the scale of new provision in
relation to residential care and the commitment to having children
boarded-out (63 per cent of all children were boarded-out).
In 1960, 2.4 per 1,000 children were in care in Northern Ireland, lower
than for England and Wales (5.2 per 1,000) and Scotland (6.5 per
1,000). In the same year a report entitled, "The Operation of the
Social Services in relation to Child Welfare" (Child Welfare Council,
HMSO 1960), provided details on the considerable progress made in
relation to child care services since the implementation of the
Children and Young Persons Act 1950. It also noted that unlike the
children in statutory homes, children in voluntary homes, apart from
those operated by Dr Barnardos, were rarely boarded-out. Discussing
the future role of the voluntary sector it concluded that the number
of children in their care would continue to decline. It envisaged their
role as being involved in the long-term care of children where special
treatments were required or where boarding-out was inappropriate.
The Report also commented on the uneven development of child care
services across Northern Ireland and on the difference in pattern of
provision between welfare authorities and voluntary homes.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 94
Voluntary organisations Welfare Authorities
Year Number Number
1947 1,000 501 (of whom 189 were in
workhouses or other
institutions, and the
remainder boarded-out)
1959 751 1,148 (of whom there were 728
boarded-out 226 in
welfare homes 158
maintained in voluntary
homes or on behalf of a
welfare authority)
Between 1963 and 1966 all voluntary homes were visited by a
committee, appointed to "consider and report upon the role in the
child care service of organisations providing voluntary homes within
the meaning of Section 98 of the Children and Young Persons Act (NI)
1950 and the principles adopted by such organisations in caring for
children and young people". ("Role of the Voluntary Home in
the
Child Care Services" Report by the NI Child Welfare Council, 1966.)
In 1966 there were 20 voluntary homes, which were specifically
children's homes. Twelve of the homes were run by religious orders
of the Roman Catholic church; 3 were closely connected with the 3
main Protestant churches; 4, although not associated with any
particular denomination, had a strong religious background, and one
had a secular origin.
Voluntary organisations were able to make decisions regarding the
admission of children to their homes at the request of a parent. The
1966 Child Welfare Council Report found that such decisions were
not always taken "by someone who as well as knowing the
circumstances, is fully qualified to assess the relative merits of
various
solutions". While recognising that the power to admit children
without reference to the statutory authorities was essential to the
ethos of voluntary homes and also ensured parental choice, the
Committee concluded that the practice "is likely to lead in the
future
to serious difficulties unless allied with closer co-operation with
welfare authorities". The Committee noted that the 1956 Report
"Children in Care", (HMSO 1956, Paras 110-115) had suggested
as a
means of improving co-ordination between voluntary homes and
welfare authorities that the former should seek the help of the latter
before admitting children. The 1966 Child Welfare Council Report
attributed the decline from 82.4 per cent to 71.5 per cent in
voluntary admissions to homes in the period between the two
committee reports as primarily due to the recommendations
contained in the 1956 "Children in Care" Report. The 1966
report,
further recommended that voluntary homes should either use the
services of welfare authorities or themselves employ qualified field
staff for the purpose of adequately assessing the decision to
accommodate a child.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 95
The Child Welfare Council Report concluded that there was "an
increasing acceptance by the statutory bodies of their responsibilities
in the field of child care". This was evident by the increased
numbers
of children both in voluntary homes maintained by welfare
authorities and the 1,195 children in the care of welfare authorities.
The report also noted that many more of the children in voluntary
homes than the 238 taken into care by the welfare authorities would
have become the responsibility of the authorities had application
been made to them in the first instance.
The Child Welfare Council Report examined the extent of boardingout
for the 694 children who were wholly the responsibility of
voluntary organisations. On 31 March 1965 only 16 per cent of such
children had been boarded-out, which differed significantly from the
welfare authorities' figures of 54 per cent of children in their care
being boarded-out. Only 5 of the 20 voluntary homes used boardingout
to any considerable extent and 2 of these used it primarily with a
view to adoption. The Committee drew attention to Section 101(2) of
the Children and Young Persons Act 1950, which empowered the
Ministry of Home Affairs to direct that a child in a voluntary home
shall be handed over to a welfare authority with a view to the child
being boarded-out. This power was never used and the Committee
recommended that voluntary homes should be encouraged to boardout
a larger proportion of children in their care.
The Committee in addition to concluding that boarding-out of
children was not promoted also commented on the inadequate
support provided to children after their final discharge from
children's homes. It recommended, therefore, "the appointment of a
qualified field worker to carry out these essential functions or where
this is not possible "full use should be made of welfare authority
services".
The Report noted the value of voluntary homes and the increased
variety of services and their ability to cater for various age groups
and children of different religious backgrounds. It concluded that
provided voluntary homes offer services to a satisfactory level there is
"no reason why this relationship should not flourish". This
Report in
many ways is central to the future role of the voluntary sector.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 96
Essentially, it endorsed the increasing emphasis placed on statutory
provision first heralded in the Children and Young Persons Act 1950.
The terminology used in the Report demonstrated a view of the
voluntary sector as a complementary and reducing element within
the wider child care sector. The Report noted that:
"By working in co-operation with welfare authorities ...in
addition to the financial security arising from regular
payments for children in care, voluntary homes can ensure
that they are participating in what should be a
comprehensive service and that they have access on a
regular and informal basis to facilities which they would
otherwise be unable to provide."
It was not until the early 1980s that the Report's prediction of a
reducing role for the voluntary sector was realised.
When the Report was being prepared, voluntary children's homes
were used to a greater extent for purely voluntary cases than in the
rest of the United Kingdom. The proportion of children maintained
by voluntary organisations in Northern Ireland on 31 March 1965 was
32 per cent of all children deprived of a "normal home". The
comparable position for England and Wales and Scotland was 17 per
cent and 15 per cent respectively. From 1966 on, it is possible to trace
the increasing role of the statutory authorities both for decisions to
admit children to care and for the funding of such placements.
The statutory bias in favour of fostering contained in the Children
and Young Persons Act 1968, further impacted upon the voluntary
residential sector as emphasis was placed on promoting the number
of children looked after in family situations. In policy terms this
legislative preference resulted in the DHSS Regional Strategies for
1987-92 and 1992-97 providing a framework, which resulted in the
further retraction of both the voluntary and statutory sectors'
residential child care provision. The twin emphasis on residential care
as a last resort and providing care in smaller homes placed
considerable pressure on the voluntary sector which traditionally had
provided care in large scale buildings for children with less complex
needs. The level of disturbance in children's behaviour also increased
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 97
within homes as a consequence of the rising threshold for admission
to residential care.
In addition to legislative and policy imperatives there were also the
wider scandals within the residential sector both in Northern Ireland
and the rest of the United Kingdom, which shattered public
confidence in group living and also inhibited providers from
remaining in what was perceived as a difficult and volatile
environment. The Kincora Inquiry, which has been discussed earlier,
was followed by the withdrawal of voluntary residential providers,
largely from the secular and Protestant church sector.
The Hughes Report sought to improve the quality of care provided to
children by raising the status and training of residential workers.
Recommendation 6 of the Report required that residential staff were
employed and qualified on terms and conditions comparable to their
field social work colleagues. The funding of the Hughes 6 staffing
recommendation was met by the DHSS with the aim of producing a
fully qualified residential social work workforce. To achieve this goal,
however, homes had to cope with large numbers of staff being
released for training purposes. In addition, qualified staff had more
job mobility than was previously the case and retention of them has
been a major issue for the sector. The cost of providing staff with
good terms and conditions has also significantly increased the costs of
residential care. The contracting difficulties, which subsequently arose
between voluntary providers and statutory commissioners, have been
cited as a significant reason for the ongoing retraction of the
voluntary sector.
Table 8 below shows the scale of withdrawal of the voluntary sector
during and following the "Kincora scandal" which first came to
public attention in January 1980.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 98
Table 8 - Retraction of the voluntary sector
since 1978
The "Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Children's Homes and
Hostels" (Hughes Report) was published in December 1985. Following
that date the main voluntary providers were the homes run by the
Religious Orders of the Roman Catholic church, with the Protestant
church sector only retaining minimal input through the Belfast
Central Mission. The scale of provision made by Barnardos also
substantially reduced during and following this period.
The above table also serves to illustrate the size differential between
voluntary and statutory providers. For example, during 1982 the
average number of children living in a voluntary home was 14
compared with 10 in statutory homes. "Children Matter" sets
out in
its report the number of places available in both voluntary and
statutory children's homes at Appendix 1 Table 1. The figures show a
retraction between 1986 and 1997 from 31 to 15 homes in the
statutory sector with the number of places falling from 480 to 176
and in the voluntary sector a reduction from 12 to 6 homes with
capacity reducing from 208 places to 64 (1997). "Children
Matter"
projected a further retraction within the voluntary sector in the
following 18 months suggesting that around 22 places would be
available from these providers in 1999-2000. This forecast proved
remarkably accurate, as fewer than 20 places were provided by one
church based voluntary provider, namely the Belfast Central Mission,
by 2000.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 99
Year Voluntary Homes Statutory Homes % voluntary homes
(No. of children) (No. of children) (% children, vol.)
1966 24 (298) 22 (316) 52% (49%)
1970 24 (407) 23 (358) 51% (53%)
1974 24 (447) 29 (335) 45% (57%)
1978 23 (457) 32 (335) 42% (58%)
1982 25 (349) 35 (350) 42% (50%)
1986 12 (144) 31 (333) 30% (30%)
The past 50 years have, therefore, seen a virtual withdrawal of the
voluntary sector from the provision of residential care. Explanations
for this shift are complex and include:
• changes in the legislative context and consequently the increasing
assumption of responsibility for children in need of care by the
statutory authorities;
• the policy imperative in favour of providing for children in small
scale residential settings when historically the voluntary sector
comprised, in the main, large institutional buildings;
• the statutory and policy bias in favour of fostering which resulted
in the retraction of the residential sector as a whole;
• societal changes resulting in fewer applicants for the vocations
which largely removed the workforce from many of the homes
run by religious orders;
• the requirement for a qualified workforce and the increase in
costs of residential care as a consequence of this policy;
• the increasing public concern regarding the standard of care
provided to some children within residential homes and the
withdrawal of voluntary organizations as a result of well
publicised concerns about institutional child abuse; and
• more complex contracting arrangements as a consequence of the
changed role of HSS Boards and Trusts.
The main achievements in residential care for children since 1950
1. Children's residential facilities have moved away from large
impersonal institutions to smaller, more homely settings.
2. There has been a widespread recognition that staff who work
with children in residential settings are performing a skilled and
valued role. This has resulted in a greater emphasis on their
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 100
support, training, status, and the terms and conditions of their
employment. In Northern Ireland post the Hughes Inquiry, this has
resulted in parity with Family and Child Care field social workers.
3. Increasingly residential care is not used to meet the needs of
younger children or as a long-term placement option for older
children who require experiences of family life.
4. There is increased recognition of its value as a service of choice
for
some children rather than as a placement of "last resort". It
is now
viewed as an integral part of the child welfare system.
5. There has been increasing recognition of children's vulnerability in
residential settings and consequently greater safeguards have been
devised in terms of staff vetting, monitoring arrangements,
standards setting, inspection, and the establishment of complaints
and representations procedures. In addition, a considerable body
of regulations and guidance has been developed under the
Children Order to assist with the operation of high quality
residential units.
6. There is an increased awareness of the diversity of children's
needs and consequently the need for a range of facilities within
the residential care sector to ensure that children's assessed needs
are met.
7. There is increased priority afforded to listening to the views of
children when decisions are being made about them.
The way ahead
"Children Matter" set out the shortfall in the existing stock
of
children's homes and the likely consequences for children and the
operation of children's residential services if there is no expansion of
provision. The Report also argues for greater differentiation of
purpose for residential homes to enable children to be placed in
homes capable of meeting their assessed needs. This approach reflects
the changed legislative base for the provision of children's services.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 101
The devolved administration, the Northern Ireland Legislative
Assembly, has taken an active interest in children's residential
services. The HSSPS Committee, which was established in November
1999, selected for its first Inquiry, children's services, which it
identified as a priority area for scrutiny. The subsequent report of the
HSSPS's, "Inquiry into Residential and Secure Accommodation for
Children in Northern Ireland" was published in December 2000. The
terms of reference of the Inquiry was:
"To investigate the current position with regard to
residential and secure accommodation for children in
Northern Ireland, and to make recommendations for
improvement".
The Report found that "the severe shortage of places and suitable
accommodation contributes to a multitude of problems within the
residential sector and compounds the vulnerability of those children
most disadvantaged in our society". In the Assembly debate on the
Committee's Report all parties endorsed it and the Minister for
HSSPS, in her response congratulated the Committee on the
comprehensive nature of the report and undertook to consider each
of the 36 recommendations. The Minister also concurred with the
approach, which the Committee had taken in viewing residential
services as part of the spectrum of child welfare services rather than
in isolation. The priority afforded to the expansion of the number
and range of children's residential services is clearly evident from the
Northern Ireland Executive, the Minister and the HSSPS Committee.
Carrying forward the commitment into action is the task of the
"Children Matter" Taskforce through establishing Regional
Plans to
address both the expansion of places and the creation of more
specialist residential services for children. Already the Phase 1
Report,
published in June 2001, has established targets to increase the
number of residential places by 77 and to replace 70 existing places.
The Taskforce's Phase 2 Report will take forward the development of
specialist residential services for children with a range of complex
needs.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 102
The availability of a high proportion of qualified residential staff
provides Northern Ireland with a good base from which to expand
provision and to develop more specialist models of service for
children who require residential care. Although it will be a major
challenge to recruit and retain a significant increase in the workforce
to staff the large number of new homes in planning. The current
model of general-purpose homes has not the capacity to utilise staff
resources and skills to the level necessary to sustain morale and retain
staff within this workforce. There is a need to establish models of
service, which enable staff to operate to explicit statements of
purpose and function and to achieve good outcomes for children.
Residential care and foster care are not mutually exclusive options
rather they are integral parts of the child welfare system. The
successful functioning of each is linked closely to the health and well
being of the other.
There is a need for concerted effort if residential services are to
develop both to the number and type required and to be informed
by an ethos which views residential care as an essential part of the
child welfare system, accessed according to children's assessed needs,
rather than as a last resort. In 1950, welfare authorities were
encouraged to build and to commission children's homes to enable
the Poor Law provision to be ended for children. Now 50 years later
the Department is again asking the successors of welfare authorities,
HSS Boards and Trusts, to expand their provision. Early indications are
that the progress being made today is not at the pace of those
charged 50 years ago with this duty.
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5
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 105
Chapter
JUVENILE OFFENDING
Development of the juvenile justice system - pre 1950
In order to understand the juvenile justice system as it was in 1950 it
is important to have an understanding of the key factors that
influenced its development. One of the most important of these was
the Lynn Committee, which was appointed in 1935. The Committee
recommended changes in the law regarding the protection and
welfare of the young and the treatment of young offenders. Its terms
of reference were influenced by many features that had been
introduced in England by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
The underpinning ideas of the 1933 Act, which have influenced the
juvenile justice system in Northern Ireland over a long period of time
were:
• that children coming before the courts should be dealt with
separately from adults;
• that concern for their "welfare" should be a major factor in
all
proceedings criminal or civil; and
• an acknowledgement that the distinction between children who
offend and children who come from deprived backgrounds is
often an artificial one.
There was also a widely held view that supported the
"treatment"
for young offenders in a residential setting. In practice this resulted
in
residential sentences for child offenders for sometimes quite minor
offences which could last up to 3 years. They were seen as providing
the child with help and guidance that the child "needed." It
is easy
to underestimate how radical this view of childhood actually was.
Readers of Oscar Wilde's collected letters may recollect how Wilde
wrote to the Times newspaper in support of a prison officer who was
dismissed for giving a young child a "sweet biscuit" because
the child
was crying and found prison food too hard to digest. Between Oscar
Wilde's time in Reading jail in the 1890s and the 1933 Act something
radical had happened to the collective conscience of public policy
makers. There was a desire to be progressive and more
"scientific" in
approach and a belief that this would be of benefit for the child and
the wider society. Since that time sentencing of child offenders has
been influenced by the movement between two ends of a
continuum, the need for treatment and the need to make sentences
proportionate to the seriousness of the offence committed.
The Lynn Committee examined the extent of "juvenile
delinquency"
in Northern Ireland. It concluded that although there had been a rise
in indictable offences involving children and young people under 16
during the 1930s that the numbers of such offences committed by
young people in Northern Ireland was still relatively small. The
Committee also felt that there were important factors to be taken
into account in looking at the reasons for juvenile offending. These
included lack of parental responsibility, poor housing, lack of
employment and lack of recreational facilities. They also found that
there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate the effects of cinema
and dance halls on delinquency!
The Lynn Report was certainly as radical as the content of 1933
English legislation . The recommendations that showed advancement
in thinking in relation to juvenile offenders included:
• the use of police "private warnings" (cautions) for child
petty
offenders;
• the introduction of special qualifications for magistrates sitting in
juvenile court with a resident magistrate always present as
chairman;
• the belief that the jurisdiction and procedure of the juvenile court
should not be similar to an ordinary adult court and the court
should be "empowered to exercise...the widest powers of
guardianship and protection";
• raising the age of criminal responsibility from 7 to 8 years;
• the provision of a special remand home for boys;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 106
• the view that imprisonment was unsuitable for juveniles even in
the case of very serious acts of delinquency;
• reformatories and industrial schools should be combined into a
system of approved schools; and
• after-care should be regarded as an essential part of the approved
school system.
The Committee gave consideration to whether whipping as a court
sentence should be abolished (the penalty was rarely used in
Northern Ireland) and decided that it should be retained but used
infrequently as they had no doubts that in most cases it had
damaging effects. In coming to this decision they were swayed by the
opinion of Sir Cyril Burt, the psychologist, who felt that in some
cases,
involving the most vicious offenders, it could be useful.
The Lynn Committee recognised the value of supervision of young
offenders in the community. At that time there were just 10
probation officers in Northern Ireland, half of whom were based in
Belfast. Of the Belfast probation officers 3 were women. One other
remaining officer was employed as a court missionary and another
was employed by the Catholic Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. All
the officers were employed on a part time basis and needed another
form of occupation to support themselves. The scales of
remuneration were low even by the standards of the day. Caseloads
were high. A part time senior probation officer had a caseload of 70
and a part time probation officer had a caseload of 37. Pre-war
probation officers had a calling that was often based on religious
conviction, concerned especially with the evil effects of drink. The
cornerstone of their beliefs was that each offender had dignity,
worth and, above all, could be reformed.
The Lynn Report made significant recommendations regarding the
organisation, appointment, numbers, training and improved
remuneration of probation officers. It visualised a secular, public,
professional body that had outgrown its charitable origins and would
have a significant part to play in supervising child offenders. The
Committee had a vision of the future that moved the emphasis of the
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 107
service away from the moral improvement of offenders towards an
approach based on social science, especially psychology.
Developments 1950-onwards
There was no official or immediate Government response to the
recommendations of the Lynn Report but most of the
recommendations were enacted eventually. Developments in child
care had been overtaken by World War 2. After the war, however,
the Children and Young Persons Act (NI) 1950 was enacted.
It provided for:
• the abolition of reformatory and industrial schools, which were
now to be referred to as training schools. Specific reference was
made to classifying such schools according to "the age of the
persons for whom they are intended, the religious persuasion of
such persons, the character of the education and training given
therein, their geographical position, or otherwise as it thinks best
calculated to secure that a person is sent to a school appropriate
to his needs";
• raising the age of criminal responsibility to 8 years; and
• the introduction of statutory rules, orders and regulations for
juvenile courts, the composition and duties of Boards of
Management of training schools and the appointment of suitable
people to undertake after-care duties for children on release.
The Committee's recommendations relating to probation were taken
forward in legislation in 1950. Although there had been a Probation
of Offenders Act dating back to 1907, the probation service did not
become full time until the Probation Act (Northern Ireland) 1950 was
enacted, establishing the legislative basis for the modern probation
service. Staffing was relatively slow to grow with only 14 full-time
officers and one part-time officer in post by 1955.
The 1950 Act enabled the court to make an offender the subject of a
probation order instead of passing sentence on him. This meant that
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 108
the order did not appear as a criminal conviction and as long as the
probationer complied with the conditions of the order he did not
have to return to the court for sentence. The probation order was
made for a period of between one and 3 years, during which time
the probationer had to agree to be supervised by a probation officer
and to receive visits at home. In more recent years the minimum
length of a probation order has been reduced to 6 months. Since the
co-operation of the offender was essential to the likely success of the
order, his or her consent was required before an order could be
made. The law required the probation officer to advise, assist and
befriend the probationer. It was hoped the offender could be
encouraged to desist from further offending.
The statutory basis of the service has expanded since the 1950s:
• community service was introduced for adults in Northern Ireland
under the Treatment of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1976
and made available to 16 year olds under the Treatment of
Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. Community service
involves the offender being required to undertake unpaid work in
the community under the supervision of The Probation Board for
Northern Ireland (PBNI). As with a probation order the offender is
required to give consent to the making of a community service
order (CSO). The length of a CSO must not be for less than 40
hours and not more than 240 hours of unpaid work. The statutory
basis for community service orders is now set down under Articles
13 and 14 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996
which repealed the relevant Articles in the Treatment of Offenders
(Northern Ireland) Order 1976;
• additional requirements could be placed upon offenders by the
courts as part of a probation order under the Criminal Justice
(Northern Ireland) Order 1996 if the court considered them
necessary to secure the rehabilitation of the offender, protect the
public from harm or prevent the commission by him of further
offences. These included requirements to reside at a particular
place, to participate in designated activities, to attend a probation
day centre or undertake treatment for a drug or alcohol
dependency. An offender could also be required to undergo
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 109
medical treatment where a qualified medical practitioner
considered this to be necessary; and
• a combination order was introduced as a high tariff community
sentence. It combined a probation order and a community service
order. The order could only be applied to a person over the age of
16. The length of such orders could be between 6 months and 3
years for the probation part combined with between 40 and 100
hours of community service.
The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 introduced three
other important changes that affect child offenders.
• the name of the juvenile court was changed to the youth court
with an expectation that, at some point in the future, the court
will deal with 17 year old offenders;
• the social enquiry report (SER) that probation officers produce for
the courts to assist sentencers was replaced with the pre-sentence
report (PSR). The PSR is intended to be a more objective document
that focuses on the offence and addressing risks of re-offending
and of harm to the public; and
• the probation order has now become a sentence of the court in its
own right. It is a community punishment, which can only be
passed when the offence for which an offender is being sentenced
is regarded by the court as "serious enough" to justify a
community penalty.
In the new legislation the purpose of the probation order, which in
the 1950 Act was given as being to "advise, assist and
befriend", was
redefined as being for "securing the rehabilitation of the
offender"
or " protecting the public from harm from him or preventing the
commission by him of further offences". There is an expectation
that
lack of adherence by the offender to the conditions attaching to the
order will result in the offender being returned to court, when an
alternative sentence may be imposed.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 110
Having commenced with a small group of officers with few having
any formal qualifications, the probation service has developed
substantially in the past 50 years to cope with the new legislative
requirements. The Probation Board (Northern Ireland) Order 1982
facilitated the creation of a new arms length management structure,
which has enabled the service to be run by a community based Board
of Management. The Probation Board today has a staff complement
of around 300, of whom, approximately, 200 work directly with
offenders or are service managers. All probation officers are qualified
social workers. The probation service now operates as a professional
service, which has been given a clearer function to provide
programmes for the supervision and assistance of offenders and to
help them prevent re-offending. It also seeks to protect the public
from harm.
A major report in 1979 by the Children and Young Persons Review
Group, chaired by the late Sir Harold Black, which had been
established to review legislation and services relating to the care and
treatment of children and young persons under the Children and
Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 and to consider, in
particular, the future administration of the probation service made
significant proposals for change in the arrangements for
management of juvenile offenders. Many of these have been
implemented over the past 20 years. One of its recommendations,
that training schools should be closed and replaced with a single
custodial establishment for young offenders, was not implemented at
the time. The training schools at Rathgael, St Patrick's, St Joseph's
and Whiteabbey remained in existence although the Rathgael and
Whiteabbey Schools were combined into one school for both girls
and boys on the Rathgael site. Lisnevin Training School was
established at Millisle, after a short period at Newtownards.
Custodial sentences, in the form of training school orders, have been
available to the juvenile courts since 1968 for children who commit
more serious offences or who are persistent in their offending. They
could also be made, until the implementation of the Children (NI)
Order 1995, for children who were found by the courts to be in need
of care, protection and control or children who persistently failed to
attend school. This led to substantial numbers of training school
5
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 111
orders being made in the 1970s and 1980s but these do not truly
reflect the number of juvenile offenders. Over recent years efforts
have been made to separate children who were sent to training
schools as being in need of care, protection and control from those
who were adjudicated offenders. This separation was formalised in
1995 when under the provisions of the Children (NI) Order 1995,
training schools were required to provide separate accommodation
for care and offender cases.
The training schools were not seen to be very effective in preventing
re-offending. A research study, Juvenile Offenders and Reconviction
in Northern Ireland, based on an analysis of all juveniles convicted of
an offence in 1991, found that 86 per cent of juveniles sentenced to a
training school order were re-convicted within 2 years of sentence.
Under the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Children) (NI) Order 1998
the training schools were replaced by juvenile justice centres in
February 1999 , using the existing training schools premises and staff.
Unlike the training school order, the new juvenile justice centre order
(JJC Order) is a determinate sentence that, in the majority of cases,
comprises 3 months in the juvenile justice centre followed by 3
months supervision in the community by a probation officer,
although the courts can make a JJC Order of 2 years duration in
serious cases. In such cases the maximum length of time spent in
custody is 12 months followed by 12 months supervision in the
community. Courts considering making a JJC Order must first have
regard to whether the offence meets the seriousness criteria set
down in the Criminal Justice(Northern Ireland) Order 1996. This is a
significant move from the treatment model of working with child
offenders towards a more explicitly criminal justice model. It is, in
part, a recognition that lengthy residential treatment for child
offenders has not worked and, in part, a recognition that the length
of time in custody should bear some relationship to the seriousness of
the offending involved. The emphasis in custodial centres now
focuses more directly on working with the child on his or her
offending behaviour, although other development needs are taken
into account.
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The decline in numbers of young people receiving custodial sentences
has resulted in the closure of some of the existing secure
accommodation. Lisnevin Juvenile Justice Centre, which is located in
premises built on the design of a category C prison, has long been
considered unsuitable for children. Following a public consultation,
the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has recently determined that the
two remaining juvenile justice centres, which were housed in the
former training schools at Bangor and Millisle, are to be replaced by
a single, purpose built, juvenile justice centre. The principle
objectives
of the new centre will be to challenge and reduce offending
behaviour through the provision of programmes to address such
behaviour, and to keep juvenile offenders in a safe and secure
environment. It will also be an objective of the new centre to seek to
assist the young people who are sent there to prepare constructively
for their return to the community.
With the introduction of the Children and Young Persons Act
(Northern Ireland) 1968 the age of criminal responsibility was raised
to 10 where it has since remained. The recent review of the criminal
justice system in Northern Ireland which was provided for in the
Belfast Agreement considered whether there should be any change
in the age of criminal responsibility. It concluded that the age of
criminal responsibility should remain at 10 years of age. However, it
also recommended that children aged between 10 - 13 inclusively,
who are found guilty of criminal offences and who require to be held
in custody, should not be sent to juvenile justice centres, but that
their accommodation needs should be provided for by the secure care
system.
Trends in juvenile offending since 1950
It is difficult to establish with any degree of accuracy the amount of
crime committed by juveniles as a significant proportion of all crime
is not reported to the police and not all the crime that is reported is
cleared up. Therefore, official police crime statistics do not give an
accurate picture of the extent of juvenile crime, although they
may give some indication of trends.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 113
Published figures show that, with the exception of a slight decrease
in the years between 1987 and 1990, there has been a continual
increase in the number of crimes recorded by the police over the past
50 years. It is likely that the numbers of crimes by juvenile offenders
has also increased during this period. Despite this, the number of
juveniles coming before the courts has reduced over the last 25 years
by approximately 65 per cent. It is known that most juvenile
offending is minor in nature and only a relatively small number of
juveniles persist in committing offences. Thus, over the past 25 years
increasing attention has been given to the diversion of child
offenders from the court system and alternative methods being used
to deal with children who offend.
Juvenile offenders coming before the courts now predominantly tend
to be those who are more persistent in their offending or who have
committed more serious offences. However, the SSI, in a recent
unpublished review of the operation of the Criminal Justice
(Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, found that, amongst those
entering juvenile justice centres on remand from the courts or
through short placements under the Police and Criminal Evidence
Act, there is an over representation of children coming from
residential children's homes. These children account for 20 per cent
of such placements.
One change that has had an impact on the number of juvenile
offenders coming before the courts, has been the establishment of
juvenile liaison bureaux to consider the cases of children who have
committed offences. The Black Committee Report recommended that
there should be an extension of police cautioning. The juvenile
liaison scheme has encouraged closer co-operation between agencies
such as probation, social services, education welfare and the police in
decisions about children who offend. The effect has been to divert
many child offenders away from the courts and for their cases to be
dealt with in other ways. In some cases a police caution is
administered; in others children and their families may be referred to
diversion projects or social services for continuing support. Research
data from cautioning schemes in England shows that 80 per cent of
children subject to a first formal caution do not re-offend.
Unfortunately although the juvenile liaison scheme has expanded
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 114
considerably, juvenile liaison bureaux are still not in place in all
parts
of Northern Ireland. The best format for inter-agency co-operation
has, however, still to be determined. Over the past two years a
"children's panel" has been piloted in one HSS Trust area and
its
progress has been subject to evaluation.
As part of a second caution or a caution for a serious offence children
are now sometimes encouraged to make reparation to their victims
through a process of restorative justice and staff from the core
agencies have been trained in the Thames Valley model of restorative
cautioning although the victims rarely attend. Indications from
England are that restorative schemes are not easy to establish but
they can enable justice to take place more swiftly so that it is more
real and meaningful to the child and can also be of benefit to the
victim.
Figures for 1999-2000 show that there were 12,323 cases referred to
the juvenile liaison scheme. Of these, only 5 per cent (643) were
referred to the courts for prosecution. The other cases were dealt
with by advice and warning (60 per cent), or by official caution (11
per cent). The remaining 24 per cent involved no further action.
One of the more common offences for which juveniles appear before
the courts is that of criminal damage. Burglary and robbery offences
by juveniles have reduced substantially since they peaked in the early
1980s. Motoring offences by juveniles brought before the courts have
fallen substantially since the 1970s and sexual and violent offences
have consistently represented a small proportion of offences
committed by juveniles. Some offences reflect changes that have
taken place in society over the past 50 years. Drug offences, which
currently represent a very small number of the total cases coming
before the courts, and joy riding are offences which were virtually
unknown 50 years ago.
Trends in sentencing juvenile offenders
For most of the 20th century children who offend were given a
special status under the criminal law. Since the Children Act 1908,
magistrates courts dealing with children under 16 were required to
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 115
deal with them separately from adult offenders by sitting at a
separate place or at a different time. The juvenile court dealt both
with those children who were in need of care and protection and
those who had committed criminal offences. The 1968 Act in
Northern Ireland raised the age for separation of children from adults
in criminal proceedings to include 16 year olds.
In recent years there has been an interest in developing new
community based approaches to dealing with youth offenders. Apart
from the new community sentences referred to earlier, courts were
empowered to make attendance centre orders under the provisions
of the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968. The
first attendance centre was established in Belfast in 1970. An
attendance centre order requires a child to attend a centre for a
period of between 12 and 14 hours, spread over a number of weeks.
There is provision for the duration to be less than 12 hours in certain
circumstances for children under 14. The attendance centre order in
Northern Ireland is taken as an opportunity to carry out a piece of
focused work with the child in order to address his or her offending
behaviour. This involves the use of an accredited centre with trained
staff. There was, however, only one attendance centre in Northern
Ireland for 30 years, which limited the availability of the sentence to
those within the greater Belfast area and consequently attendance
centre orders have only ever represented a small percentage of the
overall sentences for juveniles in Northern Ireland. More recently
efforts have been made to extend the provision to other parts of the
Province.
The main sentencing trends until 1998 were as follows:
• the use of fines for juvenile crime which has declined over the
years, in part, because the fine often had to be paid by parents,
particularly in the case of younger children. The use of the fine for
juvenile offenders has now reduced substantially from 35 per cent
of all disposals in 1970 to approximately 10 per cent in 1998;
• absolute discharge which is used only in a very small percentage of
cases. Courts have also made use of conditional discharges for a
substantial proportion of juvenile offenders. Over the past 30
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 116
years the percentage of cases given a conditional discharge has
varied between 22 and 28 per cent. Although, as the children who
appear before courts nowadays tend to be more serious or
persistent offenders it can be anticipated that the use by the courts
of absolute and conditional discharge will diminish in future;
• probation orders have consistently represented between a quarter
and a third of the outcomes for juvenile offenders over recent
years;
• since 1990 more use has been made of the community service
order for juveniles but overall it represents only about 3 per cent
of all disposals for juvenile offenders;
• the number of training school orders had been falling over the
past 20 years. Numbers of training school orders fell from 267 in
1986 to 140 in 1997. With the separation of juvenile offenders
from those young people requiring care, the population of the
training schools declined considerably. In 1997 there were 69
training school orders made. This fell to 52 the following year.
During this time the average number of children in residence was
88. Since the commencement of the new shorter juvenile justice
order the number of direct committals was 73 (1999) and 76 (2000)
with an average number of children in residence of 29; and
• the JJC Order is intended for only the most serious and persistent
juvenile offenders. The number of children who have been made
subject to JJC Orders, which have been available to the courts since
February 1999, has been relatively small. Fifty-one JJC Orders were
made over the first 9 months since the introduction of the new
order. The court can also make a young offender centre order in
respect of a 17 year old where it considers a custodial sentence to
be necessary. Between 20 and 50 such orders are made annually,
representing 3-6 per cent of all juvenile/youth court disposals for
juveniles in Northern Ireland. Young Offenders Centres are part of
the prison system. It is anticipated that when the new purpose
built juvenile justice centre is built there will be no need for
children under 17 years of age to enter the prison system.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 117
Under the provisions of Part IV of the Children (NI) Order 1995 there
is now a general duty placed on each HSS Trust to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children within its area, who are in need.
Each authority is required to take reasonable steps designed to
reduce the need to bring criminal proceedings against such children,
to encourage children within its area not to commit criminal offences
and to avoid the need for children within its area to be placed in
secure accommodation.
These requirements are broad in scope and have led to variation in
the emphasis placed on work with child offenders across Board and
Trust areas and in the resources devoted to it. Agreed targets and
standards for the use of diversionary strategies by agencies concerned
with juvenile justice are a necessity to move this area of work further
forward. A clearer framework is needed to ensure that, working in
close co-operation with others, social services can make a real
contribution to the prevention of delinquency by children.
The emphasis in the past on early and prolonged residential
treatment of juvenile offenders has not been particularly successful.
In the past five years there has been greater emphasis on providing a
wider range of alternatives for dealing with children who offend
with custodial sentences used as a last alternative for only the most
serious offences. There are examples of good practice in preventive
work being undertaken by agencies such as Extern, Northern Ireland
Association for Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) and
Whitefield in close collaboration with social services. Whitefield is
managed by the Juvenile Justice Board, and has 16 projects largely in
the Eastern areas of the country.
The main achievements in juvenile justice since 1950
1. There is widespread recognition that juvenile offending should be
considered within the context of the social circumstances of the
young person concerned.
2. The age of criminal responsibility has increased from 7 to 10.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 118
3. Working with young offenders requires the involvement and cooperation
of a number of agencies - statutory and voluntary.
Multi-agency working has developed especially over the past 10
years.
4. Although the emphasis for most of the last 50 years has been on a
welfare/treatment approach, this has recently changed towards an
approach where the length of custodial intervention is in
proportion to the seriousness of the crime.
5. There has been a considerable interest in alternatives to custodial
care. Community based initiatives have been successfully
implemented.
6. The introduction of restorative justice schemes is seen as an
important development in helping not just the young offender
but also the victim.
The way ahead
Northern Ireland has so far been spared the moral panic that has
occurred in England and Wales, which has led to a rapid increase in
legislation. While there is no room for complacency, especially with
regard to the use of drugs and violent assaults among young people,
sentencing statistics show a falling number of young people coming
before the courts since the 1970s and the most common crimes
committed by young people are linked to property.
A strength of juvenile justice services in Northern Ireland during this
period has been a willingness to innovate and experiment and this is
continuing with the development of diversionary services, mentoring
schemes and restorative justice projects.
In terms of lessons that can be learnt the undernoted are recorded:
• the former training school system was expensive, it incarcerated
children for long periods of time often for relatively petty offences
and was ineffective in reducing re-offending;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 119
• there is a need to develop an inclusive form of training for
residential and field child care staff and juvenile justice workers so
that the juvenile justice centre is not isolated from the
mainstream. Well-qualified staff can be attracted and retained and
there is movement between the field and the centre;
• the provision of services for child offenders across Northern
Ireland has been inconsistent. Examples of this include the
inconsistent coverage of juvenile liaison bureaux and a lack of
cohesion in children's services planning for children in conflict with
the law. This demonstrates the need for Government to take more
of a leadership and co-ordinating role. It is likely that this will
happen through the forthcoming juvenile justice agency;
• work with child offenders has been insufficiently evidence led.
There has been a lack of research and practice based knowledge
on working effectively with child offenders has not sufficiently
developed. The NIO's paper, Juvenile Offenders and Reconviction
in Northern Ireland, showed reconviction rates for community
service of 71 per cent, for probation orders of 80 per cent and for
attendance centres of 89 per cent;
• there is need to ensure that there is total commitment to interagency
co-operation from the commencement of a JJC Order for
each young person. This should cover the assessment of need and
of risk and include the planning for and delivery of programmes
that tackle offending behaviour;
• there has been insufficient emphasis on engaging directly with the
family of the child offender at an early stage, and subsequently, in
order to help the family develop skills to deal with their child's
offending behaviour;
• the establishment of a bail support scheme would further reduce
the number entering juvenile justice centres on remand.
Identifying alternative residential care and fostering for those who
cannot remain at home while awaiting a court hearing would also
help to keep out of custody children who do not need to be
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 120
remanded or placed in a secure unit under the provisions of the
Police and Criminal Evidence Act; and
• children who are offenders have too often been excluded from
mainstream services in education and training and, while there are
exceptions to this, the quality of services that they have been
given have not been of adequate standard to help the child
reintegrate. There has been insufficient focus on the issue of
school exclusion. A scheme of school based conferencing has
recently been introduced on a pilot basis by Barnardos, working in
partnership with the Southern Education and Library Board, aimed
at intervening before the suspension of a pupil takes place.
The report of the Criminal Justice Review offers an opportunity to set
in place good multi-agency standards for police, probation, social
services, the juvenile justice centre and other agencies so that they
can work together in a joined up and effective way. To be effective
this will require publicly published standards, key performance
measures and engagement with sentencers. The review group also
considered that restorative justice might be particularly useful in
dealing with juvenile offenders without a long history of criminality
but whose offending was a matter of real concern to local
communities. Restorative justice is an approach to dealing with harms
created by crime which views such problems as a breakdown in
relationships and seeks to repair those relationships. It tries to
balance the rights and interests of offenders, victims and the
community. Rather than by dealing with them as a violation of the
law where the offender must be punished, restorative justice focuses
on the harm that the crime does to the victim, to the community and
also to the offender. The aim is to repair the damaged relationship
which may be at the root of criminal behaviour and which will have
been further damaged by that behaviour.
The review group has recommended the development of restorative
justice approaches for juvenile offenders and that a restorative justice
approach should be integrated into the juvenile justice system in
Northern Ireland. While the review group recommended that a court
based youth conferencing scheme should operate on the basis of
court referrals it has also acknowledged that pre-court conferences
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could also be developed as part of a diversionary strategy. The
emphasis on restorative justice offers an opportunity for a new and
additional approach to dealing with juveniles who offend as we
enter the 21st century.
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DISABLED CHILDREN
Introduction
Described on occasions as 'the forgotten children', it is only in
relatively recent times that the social care spotlight has begun to
focus on children who have a disability. Baldwin and Carlisle (1994)
point out that the need to develop publicly funded care for disabled
children living with their families was not recognised by statutory
authorities until the early 1970s - indeed 'children with disabilities
have been excluded from mainstream child care policy for most of
this century'.
Yet the numbers of disabled children are significant. A prevalence
study carried out in 1992 by the Government's Policy Planning and
Research Unit estimated that 14,600 children in Northern Ireland
were disabled (PPRU, 1992). This represents a rate of 35 per thousand
children. The number of children estimated to have disabilities in the
highest severity category was 2,600, the equivalent of 6 per thousand
children in the population. The lowest severity category was
estimated to include some 3,300 children, representing a rate of 8 per
thousand children. Some form of disability therefore affects many
children in Northern Ireland.
It would be difficult to trace the development of social care services
for disabled children in isolation from advancements in education
and the health services. Their histories are intertwined. Long stay
hospitals and special residential schools in the past provided a form
of institutional care for disabled children. Indeed, most of the
residential homes for the disabled established by voluntary bodies in
the early years of the Victorian era and well into the 1970s provided
an element of medical treatment and education. As educational and
medical services became community based and more severely
disabled children were able to be cared for at home, statutory
welfare services faced the challenge of developing effective
community support services and this remains the challenge for today.
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Chapter
Services for disabled children prior to 1950
In the pre-war period many physically and sensory disabled children
were in the care of charitable institutions. Children in these
institutions were taught trades, particularly shoe making, shoe
mending and tailoring. On reaching school leaving age they often
went into sheltered employment. Evason et al (1976) note that prior
to the inception of the welfare state, the education authorities had
done little for disabled children. This was generally true of all the
statutory authorities. There is a complex pre-war history associated
with the contribution of voluntary organisations to the health, social
care and education of disabled children. Most of this history still
remains in the archive records of pre-Victorian institutions and
charitable bodies. A few examples are noted here:
• the 'Cripples Institute' (now the Northern Ireland Institute for the
Disabled) founded in 1878 had by 1904 established 2 residential
homes with schools, each catering for 50 disabled children. At one
stage, orthopaedic surgery was carried out on site. One of the
homes, originally 'The Mrs Stuart Memorial Home' in Bangor, was
formally recognised as an educational establishment in 1957 and
continued as a residential school until 1983, when it was closed
due to diminishing needs for disabled children to receive
education away from home;
• in 1836, a committee of interested individuals formed the Ulster
Society for Promoting the Education of the Blind, Deaf and Dumb
and opened a small school for deaf children with 'a small dwelling
house' for children from outside the city. This work was the
forerunner to the establishment of the Ulster Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb and the Blind which by 1843 had 100 boarding
pupils. There were rigorous regimes in the school and only one
month's 'vacation' period was allowed when pupils could return
to their own homes (Hailes, 1989).
In the early 1940s there was no institution to cater specifically for
the
needs of adults or children who were 'mentally handicapped.' In
practice, 'most mentally defective children went to ordinary schools
or stayed in their own homes.' (Caul and Herron, 1992).
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In the absence of a full and readily accessible historical record of the
residential and other support services offered by voluntary
organisations, it is impossible to map the general provision that
existed for disabled children prior to the inception of the welfare
state. Statutory welfare provision developed within legislation that
brought children and adults together in the use of the term,
'disabled persons.' Even by the early 1950s post war period in
Northern Ireland, however, statutory welfare services aimed
specifically at disabled children were almost non-existent.
Welfare policy and legislation
It was health legislation, rather than welfare law that first enabled
the provision of help at home for families with a disabled child. The
Health Services Act (NI) 1948 provided for a health authority to make
arrangements for domestic help where 'such help was required
owing to the presence of any person who is ill, lying in, an expectant
mother, mentally defective child, or a child not over compulsory
school age.' The 1949 Welfare Services Act (NI) which followed was
the first important welfare legislation to address the needs of people
with disabilities. The introduction to the Act stated that it was an Act
to:
'substitute for the existing Poor Law relating to workhouse
accommodation and relief, requiring welfare authorities to
provide residential and other accommodation for certain
persons in need thereof ... to provide for the disposal of
workhouse property; to make further provision for the
welfare of handicapped and aged persons'.
'Handicapped' groups were defined as persons who were ' blind, deaf
or dumb and other persons who are substantially handicapped by
illness, injury or other congenital deformity or other such disabilities
as may be prescribed and whose handicap is of a permanent and
lasting nature'. Examples of the assistance that could be given were:
• informing those eligible of services available to them;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 125
• giving instruction at home and elsewhere in methods of
overcoming disability;
• providing recreational facilities and the compilation and
maintenance of Registers of Handicapped Persons; and
• domestic help, but only for the handicapped.
The 1948 Act further provided that authorities could assist voluntary
bodies in the provision of services covered by the Act and voluntary
organisations that were providing meals or recreation for the aged
and handicapped.
The powers of health authorities to provide domestic help were
repealed by the 1954 Welfare Services Act (NI) and transferred to
local welfare authorities who assumed full responsibility for the
'home help' service as it came to be known. The 1954 Act brought
within the scope of welfare authorities the authority to provide
domestic help for any household for which help was needed by
reason of, inter alia, the presence of persons who essentially fell
within the definition of the 'handicapped' groups identified above.
No further changes were made until the Welfare Services
(Amendment) Act (NI) 1961 added the provision of meals to the
services that welfare authorities could offer directly to the
handicapped.
In 1971, the Welfare Services Act (NI) created a duty on each welfare
authority to 'ascertain the number of persons who in its area stand in
need ... of the several services which it is the function of the welfare
authority to provide' and gave welfare authorities general powers to
promote the welfare of the disabled, including the mentally
disordered, but little changed in the examples of services that could
be provided.
The above welfare enactments were repealed in the 1972 Health and
Personal Social Services Order for Northern Ireland. This imposed a
general duty on the Ministry (subsequently the DHSS now the
DHSSPS) to provide or secure the provision of personal social services
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 126
in Northern Ireland designed to promote the welfare of the people
of Northern Ireland. There is no specific mention of disability in the
Order.
The next legislation to address the needs of disabled people was the
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (NI) Act 1978 which made it a
mandatory function of HSS Boards to ensure that they were
adequately informed of the numbers and needs of handicapped
persons in their area. The Act required Boards to publish information,
make arrangements for social services to meet the needs of disabled
people, including practical assistance in the home, transport
arrangements, home adaptations, holidays and help obtaining a
telephone. This was amended by the Disabled Person's Act (NI) 1989
which further required Boards to identify the needs of school leavers
with disabilities and provide appropriate services. The Disabled
Persons Act gave people with disabilities rights to representation,
assessment, information and counselling. The Act also gave carers of
disabled people the right to an assessment of their ability to care to
be taken into account and the right to ask for an assessment of the
needs of the disabled person.
Strictly not a welfare provision, but with important implications for
the provision of social care services, the Disability Discrimination Act
1995 stated that disabled people must not be discriminated against
by those providing goods, facilities or services. A failure by a Trust
to
provide a service to disabled children could therefore be considered
to be discriminatory.
The Carers and Direct Payments Act (NI) 2001 which is about to be
implemented gives HSS Boards and Trusts the power to make direct
payments to people with parental responsibility for disabled children
so that the child can access mainstream services and leisure activities.
The Act also extends direct payments to 16 and 17 year old disabled
children where they intend to leave home to go into further or
higher education. Children and their families now have an enhanced
choice of services and for the first time, autonomy in choosing the
type of service they wish to receive.
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Thus, until the introduction of the Carers and Direct Payments Act
(NI) 2001, the needs of children with disabilities historically have
been
subsumed in welfare legislation aimed primarily at adults. This may
well have influenced the way welfare services were delivered to
disabled children. Even at the point in the mid 1980s when social
services developed programmes of care, services for children with
disabilities were, with only few exceptions, delivered within the adult
programmes.
Social Security Benefits and the Family Fund
Many families who have a disabled child suffer financial hardships -
historically disability and poverty have gone hand in hand.
Furthermore, research has consistently demonstrated that the
transparent and hidden costs of caring for a disabled child are
substantially greater than those for able-bodied children.
No extra financial assistance was available for children with
disabilities until Attendance Allowance was introduced in 1971. In its
early days, however, the eligibility criteria for attendance allowance
effectively excluded many disabled children. In 1972, following the
immense publicity surrounding the birth of children damaged by
Thalidomide, the Government announced the establishment of a
Family Fund to help parents 'shoulder the various burdens entailed in
caring for very severely congenitally handicapped children'. It was to
be administered by the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust. A
publication in 1976 detailing its activities showed that 1,691
applicants had received grants in Northern Ireland. The Fund
reported:
'Health and Social Services Boards have responsibilities to
provide aids and adaptations and to provide social work
services. The variability in the level and type of provision in
different areas is well known but the services provided for
families with handicapped children appear to be generally
miniscule and a quarter of families applying to the Family
Fund are actually not known by their social services
department. As far as we can tell, very few of those that
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 128
are known are receiving either casework support or even
routine review visits. I am afraid that the view one gets of
the personal social services from the perspective of the
families is very bleak indeed; anger and frustration that has
wilted with experience to a weary resignation that "they
cannot help you".
Whilst the type of grant made available has changed over the years,
the Family Fund still operates here and mainly supports families by
assisting them with holidays and white goods. The DHSSPS continues
to finance it as part of a national agreement with the other 3 United
Kingdom regions. In the year 2001-2002, some £1.4 million was
allocated in support of the Family Fund.
In 1977 the Mobility Allowance which had formerly been paid to
eligible people aged 15 - 50 years who were unable or virtually
unable to walk, was extended to cover children aged 5 - 15 years and
in later years to children from the age of 2 years. More recently,
further developments in social security benefits to support children
and their families have made a significant impact, such as:
• the extension of attendance allowance to children under 2 years
and to children with a terminal illness without a 6 months 'waiting
period';
• the amalgamation of attendance and mobility allowances into the
Disability Living Allowance;
• the extension of Invalid Care Allowance to married women;
• the creation of Carer's Premiums on Income Support; and
• the Social Fund, which can help 'families under exceptional stress'.
Social security benefits provide an important context for the delivery
of social care services because of their direct impact on the living
standards of disabled children and their families.
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Education legislation and schooling for disabled children
At the inception of the welfare state, the pressures of caring for a
severely disabled child at home already had for many years been
compounded by a lack of suitable education facilities. Children whose
disability prevented them from attending mainstream schooling
would have found it almost impossible to find a local school, unless
they lived in the Belfast area.
The 1947 Education Act (NI) required education authorities to have
particular regard 'to the need for securing that provision is made for
pupils who suffer from any disability of body or mind by providing,
either in special schools or otherwise, special education treatment
appropriate for persons suffering from that disability.' In December
1947, there were only 11 special schools in Northern Ireland of which
5 were under voluntary management and 2 were hospital based. The
597 pupils in these schools were categorised as: blind, deaf, physically
handicapped, delicate and Educationally Sub Normal (ESN). Provision
was concentrated in Belfast. Some of the better known residential
schools for disabled children in Northern Ireland were established
during the 1950s and 1960s but, as noted above, their roots go much
further back.
After many advances in the education of children with sensory
difficulties, the Ulster Society for the Deaf Dumb and Blind purchased
land at Jordanstown Co Antrim in 1953 to establish the Jordanstown
School for children with sight and hearing impairments, which is still
operating today.
The Northern Ireland Council for Orthopaedic Development (NICOD,
now the Cedar Foundation) founded Malcolm Sinclair House in 1953
as a clinic for 25 children, mainly with cerebral palsy. This later
became a nursery school with treatment for the very young. By 1955
there were concerns about problems of 'educability and
employability' of disabled children and NICOD opened Mitchell House
School in 1961. By 1965 the school had 26 residents and 14 day
pupils. The Belfast Education and Library Committee, heavily
influenced by the work of NICOD had made a special class available
in Mountcollyer School in 1956 for children with cerebral palsy and
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 130
other conditions. This became the current Fleming Fulton School,
which when it first opened enrolled children from 5 yrs to school
leaving age and provided residential accommodation for pupils from
outside Belfast. In 1971 NICOD handed over responsibility for its
schools to the Department of Education.
The Health Services (NI) Act 1948 had introduced a duty on the
Ministry of Health with regard to the ascertainment and treatment of
mental deficiency and the care, supervision, training and occupation
of mental defectives. The Mental Health Act (NI) 1948 gave the
Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority responsibility for all mental
health services, including services for 'persons requiring special care'
-
a more acceptable term for children and adults whom legislation had
formerly described as 'mental defectives', 'imbeciles' etc.
Under the Mental Health Act (NI) 1961, medical practitioners or
health authorities were required to refer to the education authorities
any child between the age of 2 years and under the compulsory
school leaving age who was felt to be in need of special care. The
Education and Library Board in turn was to notify the health
authority if the child was found to be 'uneducable'. Parents could be
compelled to send children to training centres where it appeared this
was necessary. A number of special care schools and training centres
were established which, after the restructuring of health and welfare
services in 1972 became the responsibility of the newly created
Health and Social Services Boards.
From the implementation of the 1947 Education (NI) Act to 1970
several amendments and miscellaneous provisions followed and the
1947 legislation was repealed in 1972 by the Education and Libraries
(NI) Act which introduced significant administrative changes. The
basis of educational development in Northern Ireland until the mid
1970s effectively was the 1947 Act. (Evason et al, 1976). A number of
disabled children from Northern Ireland were sent to special schools
in the South of Ireland and in England. In some cases, welfare
authorities paid for young disabled school leavers to attend
rehabilitation courses in England.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 131
The most radical reforms, however, to have had an impact on the
education of disabled children were introduced in the 1980s and
1990s. The Education (NI) Act 1981 and the Education Order 1986
committed the Government to the integrated education of all
children. The Order imposed a duty on Education and Library Boards
to promote the education of children with special needs in ordinary
schools alongside other children, no matter how severe a child's
disability, subject to certain conditions. It introduced arrangements
for assessing a child's special educational needs and making a
'Statement' of how these would be met. In 1987, responsibility for
the education of children in 'special care' schools passed from HSS
Boards to Education and Library Boards.
The 1989 Education Reform (NI) Order established the Northern
Ireland Curriculum and applied it 'with such modifications as may be
specified in the Statement' to children with special educational
needs. The Disabled Persons (NI) Act (referred to above) and
introduced in the same year, required Education and Library Boards
to seek information from HSS Boards on the first assessment after the
child's 14th birthday as to whether a child with a statement is
disabled and to notify them between 8 and 12 months before a child
under 19 years is due to cease full time education. This should assist
in addressing some of the problems that disabled young people can
experience in the transitional period from child to adulthood, when
after leaving school many suffer from social isolation, a lack of self
confidence, self esteem and have difficulty in finding and keeping a
job (Hirst and Baldwin, 1994).
Finally, the Education (NI) Order 1996 and its associated Code of
Practice created more rights of appeal by parents against decisions on
assessments and statements. The Code of Practice which came into
effect in 1998, gives detailed practical guidance to schools and
Educational and Library Boards on how to identify, assess, record,
meet and review special educational needs (Titterington, 1999).
In terms of their integration into ordinary schooling, disabled
children have come a long way in the 50 years under consideration. A
survey of disabled children carried out in 1994 by the Government's
Policy, Planning and Research Unit (PPRU, 1995) showed that 95 per
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 132
cent of children who fell within the least severe category of disability
were attending an ordinary class in an ordinary school. By contrast,
however, only 25 per cent of children in the most severe category
attended an ordinary class. Sixty-seven per cent of this group were in
special education, which included a special school or a special
class/unit or remedial class/group of an ordinary school.
Whilst a significant number of the more severely disabled children
are the subjects of special educational arrangements, it is evident
that there have been important developments in educational
provision over the 50 year period. Residential and day institutions
that by the early years of this period had been well established by
charitable organisations were the key providers of social care,
education and medical treatment for children. Although the duties
imposed on welfare authorities at that time in respect of disabled
children were minimal, this charitable provision had the effect of
relieving welfare services of the care of a large number of the most
severely disabled children within their own families.
Until the 1970s the medical model of education predominated with
an emphasis on 'illness'. At its most simplistic level, the purpose of
education was to provide 'cures' or 'educational therapies'. This was
typified by the numbers of children in long stay hospitals, specialist
institutional care with treatment and training on site - indeed, some
institutions in the early days had their own operating theatres - or in
residential schools which provided specialist therapies.
By the 1980s the medical model had come under much criticism for
focusing on the disability rather than on the impact of the
educational provision on the pupil's learning. Sebba and Sachdev,
1997 note that a more interactive approach developed in which the
child's difficulty was seen to arise from a mismatch between the
characteristics of the child and the organisational aspects of
provision. The responsibility for the difficulties shifted from the
child
and the parents to the school. The school needed to provide
sufficient support to enable the child to cope with the demands of
schooling or to modify the demands to enable the child to do so.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 133
More recently alternative perspectives have been presented in which
disabilities are acknowledged and support and adaptations provided.
The presence of disabled children who experience difficulties with the
organisational arrangements of the school is seen as an opportunity
to consider and address limitations in current provision. In this sense
'special educational needs' can be seen as a vehicle for whole school
improvement (Sebba and Sachdev, 1997).
A few special 'education with treatment' schools remain. However, a
number of factors are now serving to promote more formal
structures of support to disabled children and enabling preparation
for further education, training or occupational life in an
unprecedented way, including:
• the inclusion of many disabled children within ordinary schools
and greater accessibility of locally based special schools;
• the requirement for joint assessment by HSS and Education and
Library Boards of children who have a statement of special
educational need; and
• the impending introduction of direct payments to young people
aged 16 and 17 years.
One of the newer challenges for both education and social services is
to ensure that all disabled children have access to high quality
preschool
and nursery provision from which they have been excluded in
the past. Such initiatives are now being developed with a view to
mainstreaming disabled children within ordinary pre-school provision.
The development of health services for disabled children
The PPRU study, 'Disabled Children in Northern Ireland' (PPRU, 1995)
demonstrated that health services provide the core services for
disabled children. Whilst 75 per cent of the children surveyed were in
regular contact with medical consultants, only 13 per cent were
receiving social care services at home and of these, over a quarter, 28
per cent reported that they were not visited by a social worker.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 134
Sixteen percent of parents said that there were services that their
child needed but was not getting - these were usually social care or
nursing services. There is clearly scope for greater development of the
role of social workers within health care teams.
It would be impossible to catalogue the full history and development
of health services for children with disabilities. Some of the accounts
presented in this section serve to illustrate the growth of community
based health services and the potential for social workers to become
fully integrated as part of the multi-disciplinary team.
Development of services for children with physical disabilities and
chronic or life limiting illnesses
Patterns of disease have changed dramatically since 1947.
Poliomyelitis and tuberculosis of the bones and joints were the two
main crippling diseases at that time. The advent of a vaccine to
eradicate polio and drugs to cure tuberculosis had by the 1950s
changed the face of orthopaedics (James, 1984). However, the poor
health of the people of Northern Ireland just after the war together
with the social, medical and economic problems that prevailed
created the circumstances in which a high number of children with
cerebral palsy were to be expected. Around 1950, NICOD established
the first clinic for children with cerebral palsy, which became the
prime source of advice and care in Northern Ireland for this group of
patients. This organisation also opened Malcolm Sinclair House in
1953 as a treatment centre for children and the work was later
expanded to include treatment centres at Mitchell House and
Fleming Fulton schools. It is of note that the centres employed
physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, teachers
and psychologists. In his comprehensive history of NICOD, Mr W V
James makes no mention of liaison with welfare officers or social
workers in the early years, save to comment that between 1955 and
1959 there were various requests from Down County Welfare
Committee to provide:
• a car for 2 handicapped brothers for recreational purposes;
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 135
• a grant for the provision of a typewriter for a handicapped girl;
and
• a grant for £400 in respect of a handicapped person who wanted
to start a chicken farm.
NICOD in each of these circumstances 'regretted it was unable to
help' - the Welfare Committee eventually provided the typewriter
itself. Children with conditions other than cerebral palsy were also
referred to the centres, for example, spina bifida and other
congenital conditions and, in 1967, several children who had suffered
Thalidomide damage. By 1980, the organisation had established
advice clinics in several parts of Northern Ireland. Rather than parents
having to travel, they 'provided a service that went out from Belfast
to the hospitals and took the treatment to the children and the
parents' (James,1984).
Dr C Field (former Consultant Paediatrician at the Belfast City
Hospital) summed up developments in paediatric care since his
appointment in 1947 and the innovative thinking that led to the
establishment of an assessment clinic in 1976 with a specialist team:
'I soon realised that a single handicap was rare - most
children had several problems. For example, the child with
cerebral palsy, although usually sent to hospital because of
delay in his motor development, very frequently had
problems of hearing, vision, speech, language or
intelligence and emotional, social and educational
difficulties were the rule, rather than the exception.
With all of these difficulties parents found it difficult to
relax and communicate their problems in the hurly burly of
the ordinary outpatient's department. Furthermore, the
examination and treatment of these children required skills
in other disciplines which I did not possess. The other
disciplines were - speech therapy, occupational therapy,
physiotherapy, orthoptics, educational psychology and
social work.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 136
The treatment of handicapping conditions is badly taught
in medical schools but I also found that it is extremely
badly taught in all these disciplines so I had to get not only
therapists, but therapists with a specialist post graduate
knowledge and experience of handicapping conditions.'
(Field, 1982).
The late 1980s and 1990s saw the establishment of Child
Development Centres and Community Paediatricians appointed in
each Board with responsibility for children with developmental
disabilities. As a result, many children have access to specialist
clinics
within their own localities and fewer children have to be seen at
regional treatment centres in Belfast. Dr N Hill, Consultant
Community Paediatrician in South and East Belfast HSS Trust recently
scoped the known morbidities i.e. those that have been recognised
for many years and the 'new' morbidities i.e. emerging trends and
conditions that have become prevalent in relatively recent times. It is
evident that the latter present new challenges to the
multidisciplinary, community team (Figure 1).
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 137
Figure 1 - Disabled children and morbidity trends
*eg children requiring ventilation or dependent on technological
equipment.
The number of children who have disabilities and conditions that
require clinical intervention has grown significantly. This is due in
part to advances in medicine, which mean that more children are
surviving premature birth and neonatal complications and those with
degenerative diseases are living longer. This group of children may
require feeding tubes, suction, catheterisation, nebulisers or
administration of rectal diazepam for the control of epilepsy and
regular injections.
More recent years have also seen the emergence of voluntary
organisations such as Malcolm Sargent Cancer Care, the Children's
Palliative Care Team (formerly the Diana Children's Community
6
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 138
The known morbidities The new morbidities
Developmental delay eg developmental disorders eg
speech problems; developmental co-ordination
disorder, dyslexia, autistic
Childhood disabilities eg spectrum disorder, attention
cerebral palsy, deficit hyperactivity disorder;
Learning disability, specific Life limiting disorders and
learning difficulty; technology dependent
children;*
Chronic illness eg asthma, Complex child protection
enuresis; eg Munchausen by proxy;
Behavioural disorders - School based health problems
child psychiatry; eg anaphylaxis;
Child Health surveillance work Behavioural disorders.
including eg audiology.
Nursing Team) and the Children's Hospice specialising in
multidisciplinary
care and support of children with life limiting conditions.
As the number of children with complex health care needs grows, so
too does the need for shared care services where children can have
short breaks in family based or small group settings. The challenge to
social care services is to find and support such placements through
the training of support carers who will inspire the confidence of the
children and families who are dependent on them.
Development of services for children with learning disabilities
More so than other children who are disabled, children with learning
disabilities face many barriers to full participation in society.
Traditionally they have suffered from poorly planned and coordinated
services in which there was little choice or control for
children and their families. Where there are no chronic conditions,
their health care needs have often not been adequately met. As far
as health and social care services are concerned they have often been
the most forgotten of the forgotten children.
The Mental Health Act (NI) 1948 gave the Northern Ireland Hospitals
Authority responsibility for all mental health services, including
services for 'persons requiring special care'. Services to the latter
were
administered by a sub group of the Hospitals Authority known as the
Special Care Authority. Muckamore House, now Muckamore Abbey
Hospital opened in 1949 for the care of 'mental defectives.' Caul and
Herron (1997) note that the redistribution of responsibilities meant
that services were largely hospital based: 'to parents this had the
virtue of simplicity and continuity since one organisation had
responsibility for mentally handicapped people from the cradle to the
grave. However, the system also had the unfortunate effect of
segregating mentally handicapped people from the rest of society,
both in regarding hospital as appropriate "residential care"
and in
having segregated education in "Special Care" schools.'
Many children who were unable to be cared for at home remained
institutionally based until the community care reforms of the late
6
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 139
1980s when a number of small group homes were established. During
this period there were initiatives, notably by Barnardos to transfer
children with learning disabilities from children's homes to foster care
placements and to provide supported housing and employment
training for such young people. It is an indictment on social care
services, however, that today some children continue to remain in
long stay hospital services as a consequence of the absence of
suitable community based resources.
Child care legislation, policy and the development of services
1947 - 1970
The Curtis Report (1946), a landmark in child care policy, identified
the need to keep children out of institutional care. Many of its
recommendations were enacted in the Children and Young Persons
Act (NI) 1950. Yet despite its original brief to look at the condition
of
all children not living in their own homes, the reviewing team drew
its boundaries to exclude those who had significant disabilities,'
(Shearer, 1980). The Report stated:
'The mentally or physically handicapped child presents
different problems, most of which are outside our frame of
reference.'
One of the consequences of the lack of focus by the Curtis Report on
disabled children was that they were excluded from the strong
recommendation that children in care should be accommodated
separately from adults. Indeed, it specifically recommended that
children with severe learning difficulties should be moved to properly
staffed "homes or colonies", where they could live alongside
adults
who were similarly disabled. Shearer (1980) has argued that the
Curtis Committee, 'whilst proposing dramatic changes in respect of
able-bodied children "proposed no more than a tinkering of existing
arrangements for handicapped children". The need for institutional
provision, particularly for those with learning difficulties, epilepsy
and severe behaviour problems, was not questioned. Nor were
recommendations made for the transformation of the residential
forms of living such children experienced' (Baldwin and Carlisle 1994).
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 140
The 1950 Children and Young Persons Act therefore had nothing
specific to offer disabled children.
The report by the Northern Ireland Child Welfare Council, ' The
Operation of Social Services in relation to Child Welfare ' (HMSO,
1960), considered children in the care of welfare authorities and
voluntary homes in 1957. This report served to endorse and
perpetuate the view that institutional accommodation was the only
option for the disabled child who could not be cared for at home and
that the emotional needs of such children somehow assumed
secondary importance in the light of the issues raised by the fact that
they were 'handicapped.'
" ... the welfare authorities quite rightly take the view that
residential care should not be regarded as the solution for
every child in care, and that no deprived child should be
placed in long-stay residential accommodation until other
methods of dealing with the case have been considered.
Adoption or a foster home is probably best for the
illegitimate baby, the toddler, the orphan and the child in
need of care by reasons completely outside himself. On the
other hand, the child who, because of some behavioural
maladjustment, or physical or mental handicap, finds
himself in the care of a welfare authority, would in many
cases be more suitable for group treatment."
Caul and Herron (1992) recount that welfare services for the disabled
from 1950 onwards were patchy. Apart from the history of
institutional care, it is almost impossible to tell what the state of
welfare services to disabled children living at home were at that time.
Some services, notably those for the deaf and blind were better
developed due to the good services of voluntary organisations. Most
welfare authorities had by the mid 1950s established home teachers
for the deaf and blind. Belfast Welfare Authority was the first
authority to appoint professionally qualified social workers in the
1970s who had undertaken additional specialist courses in working
with the deaf and blind. Other authorities established similar posts
shortly after this. These specialist workers catered for both adults and
children and served to draw attention to issues such as the difficulties
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 141
facing school leavers. There was also good rapport with voluntary
organisations, particularly those involved with people who were deaf
or had hearing difficulties. Other disabled children became the
responsibility of generalist welfare officers, although there was an
attempt to integrate other professionals, such as occupational
therapists into work with the disabled.
As noted above, children in institutions who had a disability were
unlikely to have been 'boarded-out'. Indeed, it was not until the
1970s that organisations such as Barnardo's led the way in
demonstrating that no child, including a child with severe learning
difficulties, needed to be excluded from the opportunity of
experiencing family life with foster carers.
For children who did manage to stay with their families, a lack of
suitable aids, adaptations, transport and education facilities could
add to a family's financial and emotional hardships and could involve
great sacrifice on the part of parents. Three women currently living in
a residential setting recently spoke of their experiences as severely
disabled children in the 1940s and 1950s. The names used are not the
real names of the people concerned:
• Deirdre recalled her experience as the only child of 'middle class'
parents in the 1940s. Her mother recognised her child's needs for
specialist treatment, which, at the time was only available at a
residential centre in England. Refusing to be separated from her
young daughter, she took the child to England where they stayed
for 3 and a half years. The child's father had to remain at home to
keep his job and provide financial support. To maintain herself
and the child, Deirdre's mother undertook unpaid work in
exchange for board and lodgings. When they returned to Belfast,
the child was able to attend an ordinary class in a private school
although she had limited oral speech and writing capabilities. The
private school eventually closed down and she then transferred to
the newly opened Fleming Fulton School. The child's experience of
a period of ordinary schooling was a rare occurrence for the time.
• born with cerebral palsy into a large family in the mid Ulster area,
Elaine, her mother and (when no-one could be found to look after
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 142
them) her young siblings made a journey by ambulance each week
to the Malcolm Sinclair clinic in Belfast where she stayed for
treatment for a few days at a time. One day when she was about
4 and a half years old, Elaine was taken by her mother to a
residential school and simply left there. She grew up a stranger to
her family as most vacations were spent in hospital. As a child,
Elaine thought she would eventually become a 'normal' adult, as
she had only ever seen children, not adults, who were disabled
like herself. In the short times she spent at home, there were no
outings arranged to take Elaine to the shops or other leisure
activities. The only occasion on which she was asked if she would
like to go to church was when there was a 'healing' service. Her
mother recalled many years later that when she 'abandoned' her
at the school she couldn't tell her little daughter what was
happening as she 'didn't know how to'. Elaine felt that the school
did not challenge her academically. She demonstrated her
potential when she left by taking 'O' and 'A' levels at a technical
college and gaining a place at university. Elaine was unable to
settle at home, where she felt very much an outsider and as a
young adult eventually made arrangements for her own care.
• Sarah was the youngest of a family of 9 children born to working
class parents in a remote rural setting; she suffered from cerebral
palsy and could not walk. She recalls that her parents were
friendly with the primary school teacher who was eventually
persuaded to allow her to sit in on a class. Sarah was about 8 years
old when she started school and her attendance involved a daily
one mile walk each way to the school by her mother who pushed
her, first in a tansad and then on a tricycle with a lever to 'steer'.
She remembers with amusement that the other children in the
small school were rostered in twos to take her to the toilet, which
was at the back of a nearby field. Treated with respect by all at
the school she still remains friends with some of her former class
mates.
The only contact Sarah had with a social worker was when she
became too old to remain in primary school and her mother was
anxious not to have to send her to a residential school in Belfast.
To the dismay of the child and her mother, the social worker took
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 143
them to see a school that was clearly for the 'mentally
handicapped'. It was through the insistence of her mother that
Sarah was eventually taken by taxi each day to a school for
physically disabled children in Bangor. Her recollections are of
sadness and disappointment at the lack of career opportunities for
her when she left school. A place was offered at a day centre
where there was no intellectual challenge and the activities were
mainly handicrafts.
Sarah was well into her teens before she got a wheelchair from
'the welfare'. She remembers it as being a large heavy wooden
contraption that was completely unsuitable for her small frame.
None of these women remembers any involvement from welfare
visitors or social workers during their childhood years. It was to be
some considerable time before there would be social work teams in
Northern Ireland specifically offering support to children with
disabilities and their families.
Disabled children were again conspicuous by their absence in the
next major children's legislation, the Children and Young Person's (NI)
Act 1968. This was perhaps indicative of the prevailing views referred
to above, that children with disabilities were purely a health, rather
than a social care concern.
By the mid 1960s, however, disabled school leavers could be found in
day centres which offered craft instruction, music, art therapy and
occupational skills. This period also saw the establishment by welfare
authorities of specially trained occupational therapists to work with
disabled people and Mobility Officers for the Blind. At least one
welfare authority set up monthly meetings which included a trade
union official, the personnel officer of a large bakery, the Blind
Persons' Resettlement Officer and the Disabled Person's Resettlement
Officer to address training and employment needs. Minibuses capable
of taking wheel chairs were purchased to transport disabled adults,
children and young people to day centres and leisure activities. PHAB
clubs (for Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied children) were
well developed by the end of the 1960s. Some hospitals, such as
Lissue children's hospital offered short periods of respite for
children.
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 144
Legislation and the development of services 1971 - 1994
The development of generic social work during this period meant
that families had only limited access to the specialist knowledge that
their situations required, although the 1971 Welfare Services Act led
to the establishment of registers of disabled persons in each welfare
authority. Arrangements existed in some authorities for referrals of
disabled children to be made directly to welfare headquarters by
educational psychologists. Senior managers then allocated the
referrals to each local district for children to be registered and
visited
by social workers. The expectations in at least one authority - County
Down Welfare Authority - were that adults and children on the
register would be visited every 6 months at a minimum and social
workers were required to return 6 monthly monitoring reports to
headquarters. They were expected to assess need and assist families
with issues as diverse as problems in the home situation, schooling,
referrals for aids and adaptations and employment placements. In the
1972 reorganisation of health and social services in Northern Ireland,
the County Down Welfare Authority alone transferred responsibility
for some 3,500 (excluding 'special care', but including ESN) persons
on its register. A generalist model of service delivery continued to
prevail in the statutory services. By the 1970s specialist social work
skills and expertise were mainly to be found in the large number of
voluntary organisations operating in special interest areas in the
disability field. In 1980, for example, the Spina Bifida Association
appointed the first full time social worker to work with families of
children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus throughout Northern
Ireland. At this stage the social worker was dealing with up to 5 new
referrals a month.
A major survey of disability in the United Kingdom was initiated in
1979 by Outset, a charitable body based in London. The postal survey,
which received substantial funding from the DHSS, involved
contacting every household in Northern Ireland to identify people
with a disability. Where persons were identified they were followed
up by interview and an outline of their views and needs was passed
to each responsible social services office. Social workers were to carry
out an assessment of all those who were referred by Outset with a
view to ensuring that they would receive appropriate services. As far
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 145
as can be ascertained, the Outset survey promised much, but in the
end delivered little. It did not appear to have influenced any
significant strategic development of services or generated a particular
focus on the needs of disabled people.
It was not until the mid 1980s that specialist Programmes of Care
were introduced by social services. In each HSS Board, however,
services which children with disabilities could potentially fall within
and between were the Family and Child Care Programme, the
Physical Disability and Sensory Impairment Programme and the
Learning Disability and Mental Health Programmes. Despite a degree
of confusion around the structures and the resulting difficulties of
ring fencing finance to target children with disabilities, there was
rapid expansion of services in the 1980s.
By the 1980s respite care had been developed but much of it was
hospital based. A number of children with profound disabilities
continued to be cared for alongside adults in hospital settings or
long-term institutions. Some new initiatives, however, during this
period included:
• the development of small family group residential homes for
children with learning disabilities;
• the development of respite schemes for children in children's
home and group home settings; and
• the establishment of the first non-hospital/non-clinic based
paediatric support scheme by Barnardos and South and East
Belfast Trust incorporating early diagnostic and 'one stop'
treatment and social care services, including respite provision and
play schemes.
These projects were developed and delivered in partnership with a
range of voluntary agencies.
The implementation of the People First reforms in the early 1990s led
to a further number of disabled adults and children who had
formerly been in hospital settings being moved out into community
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50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 146
based homes and hostels. Some children were placed with foster
carers, although the 1992 PPRU study of the Prevalence of Disability
among Children found that 273 disabled children were still living
permanently in communal establishments. This period, nevertheless,
saw services to promote the independence of young people making
the transition from childhood to adulthood developed in partnership
with voluntary organisations. These provided work and life skills
training in conjunction with housing associations and sheltered
housing schemes.
Perhaps the most significant impact on services for disabled children
during this period was the ratification by the United Kingdom
Government in 1991 of the 1989 United Nations' Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Several Articles of the Convention, by making
reference to all children, place children with disabilities firmly
within
the full implementation of the rights of the Convention. Article 23
details specific entitlements, which include the rights of disabled
children to special care, education and training to enable them to
lead a full and active life. It further provides that:
'a mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full
and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity,
promote self-reliance and facilitate the child's active
participation in the community.' (Article
23, UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child).
Legislation and the development of services from 1995 to the
present:
The Children (NI) Order 1995 was the first child care legislation in
Northern Ireland to make specific reference to children with a
disability. It provided for the first time a legal framework for the
provision of services to disabled children as children in need. Under
Article 17 of the Order, a child is deemed to be in need if:
• he is unlikely to achieve or maintain or to have the opportunity to
achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or
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development without the provision for him of services by an
authority (under Part IV of the Order);
• his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired or
further impaired without the provision for him of such services; or
• he is disabled.
Under Article 2 of the Children Order, a child is disabled if he is
'blind, deaf or dumb or suffering from a mental disorder of any kind
or substantially handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity
or such other disability as may be prescribed'.
The Regulations and Guidance to the Order require Trusts to take
reasonable steps to identify children in need in their area and to
assess the needs of such children. They are required to provide a
range and level of personal social services appropriate to those
children's needs.
The various provisions of the Children Order that are specific to
disabled children include:
• where a Trust is providing accommodation for a disabled child
whom it is looking after, the Trust must so far as is reasonably
practicable, ensure such accommodation is not unsuitable to his
particular needs;
• a requirement on each Trust to set up and maintain a register of
disabled children in its area;
• enabling a Trust to assess a child's needs under the Children Order
at the same time as assessments under other legislation (eg the
Education and Libraries (NI) Order 1986); and
• a requirement on Trusts to provide services for disabled children
which are designed to minimise the effects of the disability and
enable the children to have the opportunity to lead lives that are
as normal as possible.
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The Children Order was implemented in 1996 amidst some concerns
about disabled children being stigmatised by being defined as
children in need. There was also dissatisfaction with the perceived
'inappropriateness and over bureaucracy' of the looked after review
system which includes children who avail of short term breaks. In
general, however, there was contentment on the part of most
parents that for the first time statutory welfare services had a legal
duty to assess needs and provide services to disabled children.
Some 6 years on from the implementation of the Order, significant
strides have been made, although not always at the pace that the
needs of children with disabilities would demand. To assess and
address needs adequately will require the establishment of proper
data bases in each Board and Trust. The development of effective
Registers of Disabled Children will be key to this process. A
multidisciplinary
project has been established to develop a model for a
Register of Children with a Disability. This is being taken forward on
a 4 Board Consortium basis, led by the Eastern Board and will lead to
a prototype register which can be manipulated to suit the needs of
each Board and Trust and will be capable of collating information on
a regional basis.
The final report of a research project on Children and Young People
with Disabilities which considered the impact of the Children Order
on services for disabled children (Monteith and Cousins 1999) found
that further developments had taken place in the planning,
organisation and provision of services by Boards and Trusts since the
implementation of the Order. These included:
• increased co-ordination of multi-disciplinary assessments of
disabled children;
• the separation in some Trusts of disabled children's services from
adult services and establishment of new teams for children with
disabilities;
• new partnerships with other agencies and the voluntary sector;
• additional staffing to support services for children with
disabilities;
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• an increase in the number of disabled children in long term foster
placements;
• an increase in the numbers of children offered respite/short term
breaks;
• expanded summer and holiday schemes;
• projects for transition to adulthood;
• increase in mainstream nursery provision and pre-school places for
disabled children; and
• increased funding of domiciliary care.
Most of the above initiatives have been developed in partnership
with voluntary organisations.
In conclusion, the Children (NI) Order has done much to ensure that
children with disabilities are regarded as children first and has
provided a significant foundation for the development of services to
ensure that disabled children will enjoy the kind of life opportunities
that most other children take for granted.
The way ahead
The context of social care services for disabled children has changed
dramatically from what it was in 1947 and indeed from what it was
even just a decade ago. Changing perspectives in relation to
understanding and interpreting disability over the last 50 years have
influenced not only the way services are provided but also the wider
views of society. When, in the past, disabled children were perceived
to be 'sick' and therefore in need only of medical treatment, welfare
and other statutory services were to some extent absolved of
exercising their full responsibilities. In today's society there is
growing
recognition that individuals are not so much disabled themselves, but
rather live in a disabling society.
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In an ever-changing social context, some of the more recent
challenges for social services are:
• the increasing demand for services to deal with developmental
disorders;
• rising numbers of referrals of children to health and social services
from education services;
• advances in technology enabling very frail children to live longer;
• the move from regional to locality services;
• the development of community children's nursing;
• accessibility of information by parents via the internet; and
• a general increase in the expectations of children and their
families.
(Hill, 2002)
To address challenges such as these, messages from inspection and
research in England show that a number of key factors are important
in determining whether disabled children and their families receive
effective services. They can be readily applied to Health and Social
Services in Northern Ireland and include the need for:
• the equivalent of a children's champion in each Board and Trust
who has clear management responsibility for services to children
with disabilities;
• specialist workers for disabled children and dedicated children's
teams. These are associated with better quality services and higher
levels of satisfaction among service users;
• management of care to each family which is based on the
identification and assessment of family needs and a planned
programme of support rather than on short term crisis
intervention;
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• co-ordinated assessment arrangements wherever possible across
health, education and social services;
• multi-disciplinary training which leads to sharing of knowledge
and the development of understanding between agencies; and
• above all, good communication at every level.
The DoH in London has recently produced the Strategy 'Valuing
People : A new Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century'
(DoH, 2001). This defines a future agenda for disabled children's
services in England. The Strategy includes key actions for education,
health and social care services that are equally relevant to the needs
of disabled children in Northern Ireland. Amongst the actions that
will require joint initiatives are:
• early diagnosis, intervention and treatment of children;
• cross Government programmes for young children, including Early
Years Developments and Sure Start Partnerships;
• co-ordinated care packages of family support;
• increased provision of a wider range of flexible support services
for families of disabled children, including short breaks; and
• more and better information for families, availability of key
workers and other measures to improve co-ordination.
These are key to the future development of services in Northern
Ireland.
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