DFE Project:  Behaviour and Offending by Children placed in Children's Homes

Working in partnership with Mouchel, Brian Atkins and Sue Brunton-Reed from ETC have recently completed a project to identify ways in which behaviour in children's homes can be more effectively managed without the need for police involvement which can lead to unnecessary criminalisation of looked after children.

During this project we talked to and visited children's homes with a good reputation for effective practice in this area to understand how they approached this task.  We also contacted a range of partner agencies in the community to discuss how they coudl support the work of children's homes in their area.  The findings are highly relevant to the current national debate on this topic.

The report will shortly be published by the DFE, and extracts from it will form part of the revised NACRO guide for preventing offending by looked after children.  The report contains a good practice guide for staff and managers in children's homes, and for partner agancies including Local Authority Commissioners, Social Workers, Independent Reviewing Officers, Youth Offending Teams, Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and Magistrates.