Presented at ISEC 2000

The Role of the Day EBD School in Securing Social Inclusion For Its Pupils

Elizabeth Hales, Headteacher: Chalcot School, Camden, London

Abstract

I am the Headteacher of Chalcot, a day school for boys aged 9-16 years who have emotional and behavioural difficulties., situated in an area of social deprivation in Inner London and serving seven LEA'S. All pupils gain academic qualifications at an appropriate level, We use a structured behaviour management system, which incorporates positive handling of children when out of control. Our pupils' lives out of school are often chaotic and they crave caring adults taking control and setting boundaries. Our greatest success has been in working in partnership with our children's carers and families ', establishing trusting relationships and a common approach at home and school, We recently achieved a very positive Ofsted report.

Last year I was successful in gaining a Winston Churchill fellowship, entitled "Breaking Cycles of Abuse across Generations", to visit America for two months in order to learn from good practice in working with parents of disruptive children and teenagers. I looked at structured parenting classes, home/school link programmes and parenting education directed at teenagers. All of these involved multi-agency work, This was a unique experience and has enabled us to further strengthen our work with parents.

Working for Equal Opportunities for all is an integral part of my life and I believe that social disadvantage and poverty constitute the greatest barriers to achieving this.

Good, Special EBD Schools assist those who need them in becoming 'Socially Included' and can become centres of expertise which, can assist other institutions in gaining skills, which help them to avoid exclusion and truancy. I would like to speak in favour of having a range of special provision, and to put the case for all schools which provide high quality education and are open and welcoming to the communities they serve, being recognised as part of the move towards inclusion for all.

I am currently the Headteacher of a day school for boys aged 9-16 years who have emotional and behavioural difficulties. The school is situated in an area of social deprivation in Inner London and serves seven LEA's. Working for Equal Opportunities for all is an integral part of my life and I believe that social disadvantage and poverty constitute the greatest barriers to achieving this.

During the four years I have been Head, the school has moved from being at risk of special measures and being closed to becoming a thriving school offering a quality service to its pupils and their families. The pupil roll has increased from 23 to 50. We were re-inspected last summer and found to be a good school with 94% of teaching satisfactory or better. We serve the more extreme end of the Day, EBD continuum and our typical pupil is of average ability. Although performing educationally below potential, the boys are "streetwise" and quick-witted.

The school's strengths are in the quality of academic provision, structured behaviour management and working relationships with parents. All pupils who are suitably placed with us attend regularly. Often this is the first school they have wanted to be in. All pupils gain accreditation in Year 11 (Some in Year 10), in 6-8 subjects at an appropriate level. We use a structured behaviour management system, which incorporates positive handling of children when out of control. Our pupils' lives out of school are often chaotic and they crave caring adults taking control and setting boundaries.

Our greatest success has been in working in partnership with our children's carers and families, establishing trusting relationships and a common approach at home and school. We appointed a Senior Manager who is a qualified and experienced social worker and teacher in order to establish the importance of this aspect of our work.

In 1998 I was successful in gaining a Winston Churchill fellowship to visit America for two months in order to observe and learn from good practice in working with parents of disruptive children and teenagers. My project was entitled "Breaking cycles of abuse across generations". I looked at structured parenting classes, home/school link programmes and parenting education directed at teenagers. All of these involved multi-agency work. This was a unique experience and has enabled us to further strengthen our work with parents.

During my study trip I was fortunate to be invited to attend two formal training opportunities, at the personal invitation of their organisers, as well as many other interesting initiatives. One at Boys Town, Nebraska, for structured parenting classes and one for the "Families and Schools Together" project in Wisconsin. Both of these involved working intensively with groups of professionals and their clients.

I am determined to use the knowledge and skills I have gained from my Winston Churchill Award to enable disadvantaged families to take more control into their own lives and to break the cycles of deprivation. The opportunity to travel and to meet so many like-minded people, from a different culture, but who none the less share my enthusiasm and commitment to change lives for the better is a humbling and inspiring experience which has enriched my life. On both sides of the Atlantic, it takes a lot of understanding, knowledge and skill to work respectfully with parents, who themselves have suffered abuse (about which they are probably reluctant to admit). They need to be helped to take responsibility and control back into their lives, without being made to feel that they are personally to blame for everything that has happened. It is about helping people to be strong and make positive choices in situations where they could easily be overwhelmed by guilt, and the sheer enormity of their difficulties, both practical and emotional. Many of the mothers are still in abusive relationships (not necessarily with the child's original father) or are single parents struggling with poverty and feelings of inadequacy.

Social Exclusion and the raising and educating of children.

Most children who exhibit out of control behaviour, which does not have a medical explanation, have themselves been exposed to violence and other forms of abuse or neglect in early childhood, either as direct victims or as witnesses of abuse towards their mother and others. It is very important that they receive structured and understanding help whilst they are still young enough to have the damage repaired as far as possible, otherwise they are at risk of growing up to repeat the cycle of abuse. It is well documented that such abuse is passed on from generation to generation and is connected to the abuse of alcohol and other drugs in many cases. This scenario is widespread and is a contributory factor in 'Social Exclusion'.

The children I work with are at the more extreme end of a continuum. They are more likely to have poor school attendance, difficulties in learning and concentration despite adequate intelligence, to be involved in crime, to smoke, drink and use other drugs at an early age. These boys are only a small proportion of the whole picture and in many ways they are the lucky ones because, at least, their needs have been identified and dedicated people are trying to help them. They have often been excluded from two or three other schools before they have been assessed as needing special help and referred to special education.

However, there are similarly disturbed children in many mainstream schools, particularly in poor, urban areas and their behaviour often accounts for disruption and lack of discipline which jeopardises the learning of themselves and other children. This stretches the skills and patience of even the most dedicated of their teachers to the limit. Many such children truant from school, almost to the relief of some of their, hard working but overwhelmed, teachers. Their family lives are so chaotic that it is often difficult for the many agencies (Education, Social Services, Health and the Legal system) to keep track of them. In fact, it is often the success or otherwise of these different services to communicate and work together in multi-disciplinary teams which determines how well such children's needs are met.

My previous school was a mainstream secondary school in a very poor area in East London called Hackney Downs. We welcomed pupils who were excluded from other schools together with others who needed education but who could not get accepted into other schools. The majority of the pupils were eligible for free school meals, were recent immigrants, many were refugees from areas of famine and conflict and/or had special learning needs. I was acting headteacher from a few weeks before its Ofsted Inspection in May 1994 until the time that the school was closed, twenty months later, following a political 'rangle'. The teachers, pupils and parents became pawns in a situation created by officials and politicians of both central and local government. The injustice of the whole affair which ended in a failed judicial review, and the school's closure in the full view of the media affected adversely and disproportionately the lives of the already disadvantaged. This led me to join with three colleagues to write the story of the last few years of the school's life and its fight for survival. It is published as 'Hackney Downs; The school which dared to fight', by Cassell, ISBN 0 304 707 10 4.

This experience has had a profound effect on me for many reasons. Not the least of which, being that I grew up in a family which was proud to be hard working, from London's East-end roots. I had parents who instilled in me and my siblings a strong belief in the value and power of education to bring about changes in individual lives and society as a whole. It pains me to see so many children who carry such destructive baggage with them through their lives, which gives them low self esteem and prevents them from using the opportunities which are available through education to maximise their potential. This is a serious problem for the whole of society which, leads to a waste of resources, because it is not being fully recognised and therefore not tackled from the right direction. The proportion of children who are living very stressful lives is much higher than most people realise.

It is good to have the aim of educating as many children with special needs as is possible in main stream schools, providing their needs will be properly met and their presence will not adversely effect the education and lives of other children. Those who have emotional and behavioural difficulties will invariably have families who have difficulty in accessing the 'culture' of schools. Their subsequent difficulties in supporting the school's systems will compound their children's problems, often leading to truancy or exclusion. Each case must be considered individually so that all children can achieve their potential. It is often the case that a special school has more time and is better equipped to give a good service to the parent as well as the child. This may include allowing the parent to spend prolonged periods of time in the school, improving their relationship with their child and learning more positive ways to improve their behaviour. In any case, special schools are a good place to start to develop good practice in creative ways of working with families, such as many of the examples that I saw first hand in America. They could then act as centres of expertise from which good practice could spread. This would then help a wider group of children and families.

A parent support group for 'court ordered' and self referring parents, in an extremely poor and run down part of San Francisco

Annex 2

(The summary and appendixes to my Winston Churchill Fellowship Paper.)

SUMMARY

In the Berkshire Farm Centre, promotional and fund raising material there is a very relevant and apt quote from Sir Winston Churchill "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." This sums up the attitude towards life of the many people I encountered on my trip and those who helped me to prepare for it.

I am determined to use the knowledge and skills I have gained from my Winston Churchill Award to help enable disadvantaged families to take more control into their own lives and to break the cycles of deprivation. The opportunity to travel and to meet so many like-minded people, from a different culture, but who none the less share my enthusiasm and commitment to change lives for the better, is a humbling and inspiring experience which has enriched my life. On both sides of the Atlantic it takes a lot of understanding, knowledge and skill to work respectfully with parents who themselves have suffered abuse, about which they are probably reluctant to admit. Many of the mothers are still in abusive relationships (not necessarily with the child's original father) or are single parents struggling with poverty and feelings of inadequacy.

They need to be helped to take responsibility and control back into their lives without being made to feel that they are personally to blame for everything that has happened. It is about helping people to be strong and make positive choices in situations where they could easily be overwhelmed by guilt, and the sheer enormity of their difficulties, both practical and emotional. A lasting benefit to me of the whole trip was the opportunity for personal growth which I gained from meeting Joyce Millman, in Chicago and being introduced to re-evaluation counselling.

A lasting benefit to me of the whole trip was the opportunity for personal growth which I gained from meeting Joyce Millman, in Chicago and being introduced to re-evaluation counselling.

Re-evaluation Counselling, developed by Harvey Jackins in the 1950's

I would liken the idea to that of the parable of the sower; when the seeds fall on fertile (receptive) ground they can indeed flourish and have far reaching consequences. It fits in very well with what I try to do each day in my work, in helping children and adults to talk about their feelings of anger and frustration in order to channel their energies into constructive ways of improving their lives. At times it is quite difficult to treat someone with respect and to help them to preserve their dignity when they have done something really bad like abusing a child or stealing from a friend, but it is important to remember that it is the action which is fundamentally bad and not the person. Given a choice, everyone would rather be able to make positive contributions to society and to be proud of themselves. When people make bad choices it is invariably because they need constructive support to find the right path again and it is not very comfortable having to face up to your own short comings.

I have found the teachings of Harvey Jackins, as outlined in his book called 'The Human Side of Human Beings' very relevant in my work with children and their parents, where the frustrating part is when people are not ready to see that they do have the means to begin to sort out their own lives. My experiences in America have given me many new strategies to try in these circumstances together with a better understanding of myself and an awareness that I have not failed personally if I am not able to solve everyone's problems for them. I believe that I have also gained a deeper insight into my own relationships with my own, now grown-up, children.

The Practical lessons about how the American system works and what Britain could usefully learn from this.

In Britain teachers and social workers pay is fairly similar and does not vary much from place to place, but in America the average pay of a teacher is usually much higher than that of social workers and there is a wide variety in both, from area to area depending on market forces. There are also wide variations in the qualifications needed from state to state and usually 'local' requirements involve studying for special courses which are costly and involve workers in taking fairly low paid jobs, often for private agencies, whilst they gain extra post-graduate credits. Many posts are restricted to those who hold particular masters' degrees. The granting of these is often dependent on undertaking a certain number of hours of voluntary work in addition to studying particular units.

Private Social Services Agencies.

I discovered that organisations which provide private social services, on contract, are often very competitive and pay fairly low salaries compared to those paid by satutory bodies, such as the State Social Service Departments. They are often looked upon as suitable training grounds for those who are taking degrees or have recently qualified and are gaining experience before moving onto better paid jobs. The contracts to provide services such as parenting classes are often granted in very competitive circumstances and running costs have to be kept low. Hence, the widespread use of volunteers and low paid social workers. This can be short-sighted and is often not cost-effective in the medium or longer term. The ultimate success of a project can depend as much on the 'back-up' systems of child-care and transport as the quality of the project itself.

It is still not very clear to me how the relationship between state social services and private agencies works. I also did not observe much useful co-operation between the private agencies. At best they were simply ignorant of the services provided by each other, at worst they were actively competing for clients who fitted the criteria of the group they were targeting. It was unclear what happened to other equally needy people.

I was always interested when I found out that in many cases because of my research I was more knowledgeable about what was available in the areas I was visiting than those who lived and worked there. A very useful outcome of my visit to many of my host organisations was that it gave them an opportunity to find out about each other. This happened time and time again and was very frustrating. In fact many people I worked with said that the time I had spent with them had been worthwhile simply to put them in touch with each other, apart from what they learned about England from me.

The Grant System.

As my trip progressed I began to understand more about how the American system of Federal and State funding works (or in some cases doesn't work) and how it is responsible for the rather patchy provision in social services from state to state and place to place which exists. Much social services is provided by private agencies which bid for federal grants to fund specific projects. A proportion of the clients are mandated by the Courts to attend parenting classes etc. in order to obtain or maintain custody of their children, or because the children themselves are in difficulties with the legal system.

Successfully bidding for Federal and State grants to provide services is 'big business' and many people are employed full-time simply on filling out grant applications. These projects have to meet very specific criteria, according to the particular fund involved and the government department involved. e.g. Similar work could be funded through "drug prevention" (mental health) or "juvenile crime reduction" (law) or "returning people to work" (employment), "Reducing child abuse" (social services), etc. This can result in several different agencies providing services to the same client group funded by different federal offices who do not liaise. The agencies are often seeming to compete for the client's 'custom' and all are very anxious to justify the success of their particular project in order to have the grant maintained in the following year. This results in much time and resources being put into the submitting of grant applications and the collecting of statistics to justify the existence of the project.

On the positive side the system encourages innovation and leads to a variety of interesting work going on. The benefits of this are that good practice can develop from good ideas, if they are successful in getting and maintaining the grant but otherwise provision can be very poor. The disadvantage is that provision can be patchy and doesn't lead to uniform equal opportunities for all those in need.

A cynical observer could be forgiven for wondering if social conditions might not be better if all this effort couldn't be directed towards the real task in hand of improving peoples' own skills in order to help them become useful citizens in a better co-ordinated way. I am sure that there are very important lessons here for our own politicians and policy makers. 'Joined -up thinking' cannot come too soon and it must be made to exist in reality, both at the grass roots and the pinnacles of government, both in America and Great Britain.

The benefit laws for parents with dependent children.

It was particularly noticeable that everywhere I went people involved with helping single parents were very worried about the 'TANF' laws, which were in the process of being introduced. These were about bringing in stricter rules regarding welfare entitlements and many people currently receiving benefits were going to loose their entitlement and need to find work. One particular concern was that welfare benefits were going to be time limited and there was concern that more children would need to be taken into care because their parents would not be able to afford child-care on the low wages that they would be able to earn. This seemed to be counter-productive and a retrograde step when considering the well being of those families.

The children of many single parents have extra health, emotional and learning needs, which make holding down a job very difficult for their parents. Society must take into account all the issues when deciding on social policy. Solutions to the problems of poverty are very complicated and will not be found by simplistic means such as removing welfare benefits once children reach school age. There are many parallels here with our own situation and I hope that our Government does not repeat mistakes made in America in its understandable enthusiasm to get everyone back into paid work in order to raise their self-esteem and reduce poverty. There needs to be a balance and we need to proceed with caution.

APPENDIX 1

Parenting classes and support groups.

Boys Town Parenting Classes.

Boys Town Training is very though. There are 6, weekly lessons and it follows a set format for each lesson, using published material which is well researched and trialled. Each 2 hour lesson follows this pattern:

10-15 mins, Review of the materials and the use made of the last lesson.

15-20 mins, Instruction about a new skill or skills.

10-20 mins, Observing examples of the new skill, from video or the Parent Book.

10 mins, Break.

60 mins, role-play and feedback, so that everyone gets a chance to practice the new skill.

10 mins, Setting up the Home Assignments for the coming week. This involves reading and practising the new skill in real situation.

At the first session the need to share real experiences and issues of confidentiality are discussed

The following are the focus of the sessions:

1. What do we mean by discipline? It is not a negative concept such as punishment, rather it is a good thing for families to share. The parent needs to share their wider experience of life with the child for his benefit. The Parent is the teacher of positive discipline. It is important to see bringing up a child as a privilege to be enjoyed, not as a burden to be endured. Parents learn to describe good and bad behaviours, in order to be able to instruct children what is and isn't required, rather that just shouting at the child when they are doing something wrong. The message is "Tell the child what you do want, don't just tell them they are doing something wrong.

2. How do we change behaviour? The use of positive and negative consequences. A consequence is not a repressive punishment. It is the minimum that must happen to bring about a change in behaviour without being vindictive. A reward of good behaviour is as important as a negative consequence of bad behaviour. Rewards do not have to cost money. Spending time with your child and giving them praise are good rewards.

Consequences empower children because they are able to make choices which affect their lives. A negative consequence could be loosing a privilege or having to do an extra chore. A positive one could be being allowed to join in an adult activity, or getting special attention, as a reward for responsible behaviour or learning a lesson. Rewards should always follow the good behaviour, not be a bribe in anticipation of it. Physical Punishment and the withdrawal of normal meals are never suitable consequences, since children have a right to be physically safe and adequately fed.

3. What is Effective Praise? Parents learn how to give praise which will be understood and appreciated by children of all ages. Parents must learn to respond to children's positive behaviour with sincere and enthusiastic praise. Many parents have got into the habit of ignoring or taking for granted, good behaviour and criticising bad behaviour. This model leads to both parent and child feeling that they only inter-act in negative ways and neither enjoy their relationship. Using Praise effectively can be the single most important skill that a parent needs to learn in order to improve their relationship with their child. Often it needs to be re-inforced and practised for several weeks until it becomes second nature. It is often painful for parents to acknowledge what has been wrong in the relationship up until now. No child wants to be bad, but often it has been the only way to get any attention at all. Parents can get very emotional when they realise that they have been repeating patterns of negative parenting that their own parents used with themselves as children.

4. Giving 'Child-centred' reasons. These are explanations which the child can relate to. They show the child that you have their interests at heart. e.g. Pick up your toys so that they don't get trodden on and broken, rather than, so that the room looks tidy.

5. Using 'Preventive Teaching'. This is when a parent teaches the child a skill they are going to need in advance. This gives the child the opportunity to practice the skills they are going to need before hand and gives them more chance of getting it right. It is setting children up to be successful and confident. It could be in preparation for a new situation, such as starting a new school, or it could be to help prevent them repeating an old mistake, such as being rude on the telephone.

The parent is taking control and getting the child to learn to communicate more effectively. Many parents have never before realised that helping to prepare children for life in advance, like this is part of their responsibility. Parents often have to learn the skills themselves before they can teach them. The parents are helped to think about social situations in advance that their children might need help in preparing for. 6. Staying Calm. Both parents and children need to recognise when they are loosing control and practice techniques which help them to retain or re-gain control. There is no point in trying to deal with a situation through anger.

7. Using 'Corrective Teaching'. This is what the parent must do in response to a situation in which the child has made a mistake. The steps are: Get control of yourself, Get your child's attention. Describe the problem behaviour, give a consequence which will help you to correct the behaviour, describe what you want and practice it. Give praise when it is done correctly. The first step is the most important, there is no point in reacting whilst you are out of control. It is better to remove yourself from the situation first and then deal with it when you are calm. Never be afraid to give praise or remove a negative consequence when your child shows that they have learned their lesson. This is being wise, not soft.

8. Teaching self-control. This is used when a child does not respond to 'corrective teaching' and their behaviour gets more and more out of control. It has a calming down stage, firstly for the parent and then the child. Then a 'follow-up' teaching stage. At first, children may be in the habit of being defiant, but the more the parent learns to remain calm and not to shout, the quicker the child will listen and calm down.

Parents learn that the only way to change their children's behaviour is to change their own first. But they learn this with dignity whilst gaining the skills that they need to become better parents. by the end of the course they feel that they have discovered this for themselves, which is the only way to learn.

Parents' Anonymous, Phoenix, Arizona.

The parenting classes I attended organised by Parents' Anonymous, put great emphasis on bringing out the links between alcohol and dysfunction in families, no matter what the social class or other factors involved. There were twelve women and nine men present and 17 of these admitted to be the children of alcoholics. A video entitled 'the morning after' was used to initiate discussion. A brainstorm of feelings and impressions soon brought out comments which linked the participants' own childhood experiences with difficulties that the now had within their own families. I was impressed by how open the group was with each other and how easily they had accepted me into their discussions.

The group was facilitated by a paid worker and a volunteer, who was a psychology student. The facilitator spoke about her work with children's group and many of the adults present empathised with the biggest problem, which is getting the children to accept that their parents drinking problem is not their fault. strong feelings were expressed about parents who can not keep promises. Members of the group who did not have experience of alcohol problems started to relate similar difficulties with keeping promises and to explore 'Why'? Some acknowledged that their own parents had been the children of alcoholics and had passed on related anxieties without realising it. I was impressed at how much they were achieving in self understanding in such a short session.

Unfortunately the creche was not so well run. It was very noisy and uncontrolled, being run by two high school girl volunteers. This was unfortunate because it caused many of the parents to have to keep leaving the group at important points in the discussions and the children were not gaining from positive caring role models who were calm and in control. This was a wasted opportunity and I saw in other groups later in my trip the children's sessions being of real value. The Parents Anonymous documentation is very good and states that the children will receive instruction which will help the parent child relationship and it is possible that I was just seeing it on a 'bad day'.

Another down point of this group compared to some that I saw was that the parents had to make their own way there and this resulted in erratic attendance for some of the most needy parents. This is obviously a funding issue which is worth learning from. I could not help thinking that this was due to the need to bid for contracts and the need to be economically competitive in order to secure the bid leads to 'cutting corners'. In the long term this is a false economy because there is little point in providing good quality services and wasting them because the families cannot access them.

At Parents' Anonymous I also attended one session of a support group, which was not a structured class but instead a self-help discussion group facilitated by a qualified therapist. Clients with particular needs were directed towards this particular group which was sited in a very deprived area. I was particularly moved by the problems of one of the mothers who came from a family with a history of sexual abuse. Her 14 year old son was being held in an adult jail on remand awaiting his trial, having been accused of sexually abusing his 11 year old cousin. It was highly likely that he was also the victim of abuse by his step father, but this case had never come to court. The boy had been in custody for six months and the mother was not allowed any physical contact with him. She was only allowed to talk to him through glass for 30 minutes each fortnight. She had no idea how long he would have to wait for his case to come to court and if found guilty he would go to an adult prison rather than getting any therapy. Her problems were overwhelming and it was difficult to see how she was managing to continue to care for her other children, particularly since she also had other housing and money problems and was likely to loose her benefit soon. I could hardly believe that this group was the only help that she was getting.

The 'Strengthening American Families Programme', originating in Salt Lake City, seen in Washington D.C.

This is a programme of relationship and parenting classes consisting of 15 x 2 hour weekly sessions for groups of up to 16 parents and their children. The children also take part in structured sessions about discipline both separately from the adults and in joint sessions. The programme has been in operation in many locations. It has 12 years solid experience behind it and there is extensive research carried out both of the outcomes, and to back up the activities and resources used. I was impressed by the warmth and empathy between the clients and teachers, many of whom had themselves suffered bad life experiences. They were all really giving of themselves and trusting of each other with confidences, which is not surprising when you know that the lead tutor, Bernadette Trowell, is the President of an organisation called M.O.M.S. (Mothers On the Move Spiritually).

It was a great privilege to be welcomed and included into their group. They kindly gave me a set of the parent, teacher and child booklets for the course to help me to get similar courses organised in England. This is a very rigorous and professional programme which incorporates the best of practice that I encountered during my study; structured parenting skill sessions, such as those I had studied at Boys Town, positive child-care, designed to raise self-esteem, and group session designed to help parents and children to enjoy being with each other and to communicate better, similar to some of the activities in the school based programme, FAST. If only the funding had allowed for better surroundings and paid transport, so that the participants could have easily attend every session, this would have been the best programme I saw.

APPENDIX 2

School based programmes

Organisation of the FAST Programme, Developed by Lynn McDonald, Wisconsin.

The programme consists of a series of ten weekly, 2 hour sessions which are organised by a team of four. These consist of a school representative, a community representative, a mental health agency representative and a parent who has already graduated from a previous FAST programme. (Unless this is the first time it has been run in a particular location.) It is considered essential that all of the four organisers are paid workers, including the parent, so that commitment and quality standards can be insisted on and everyone has equal status in the group. These four are paid for ten hours per week to run the programme during the twelve weeks. This is taken up in planning and running the activities for the sessions, debriefing each session thoroughly, visiting and advising parents.

It is very important that the families get to meet a range of workers representing different aspects of the community. It is then more likely that the will have the confidence to self refer, at a later date, if necessary, to mental health or drug support agencies. This enables them to get help without loosing their dignity, which is very important if they are to gain the maximum benefit from the service.

A full-time Social Worker, (or other person qualified to do so ) acts as a mentor and adviser to the programme operating in 4-6 schools in a district, running concurrently. This person needs to have been trained as a FAST trainer and be experienced as a member of a team attached to a particular school. The mentor role is very important and this person acts as a quality control, to ensure that each group is following the programme correctly and for the maximum benefit.

There are also two paid child-carers at the sessions to look after siblings who are not in the programme and to help with the child based activities whilst the parents are having 'adult only' time. The families also are provided with the money to cook a family meal which is brought to, and eaten at the session. (Each family takes it in turns to cook and serve the meal each week.)

Transport is provided if necessary so that the families find it easy to attend every week for the whole ten weeks and there are also raffle prizes as part of the set activities. All of the activities are research based designed to get the families to enjoy the sessions, enjoy each other's company and learn to communicate with each other better, particularly about their feelings. The activities are designed to raise the self-esteem of the parents as well as the children and to improve family dynamics.

The school identifies the families to be involved. They could all have children in the same class, for instance. They could be self-selecting or targeted according to the presenting difficulties of the children. However it is probably better if they are a combination of the two because that leads to a more balanced group of families who can form more interesting self support networks.

'Turn-about', Anti-Truancy Programme, New York State.

I was particularly impressed by the 'Turn-about' anti-truancy programme which operates in a number of middle schools, as an out-reach programme of the Berkshire Farm Centre, near Albany. It is State funded, jointly by Education and Social Services, and a 'Turn-about' Officer is attached to each of six, social priority schools. Each term 12 students are chosen for intensive work to do 'what ever it takes' to improve the child's attendance and attitude at school. They work with the child in school and the home, observing dynamics in the classroom and the family, then working out a specific programme for each particular child and family. This might involve sorting out housing, benefit or health issues, giving advice to particular teachers, getting the parents involved in a parenting skills programme, getting the parents into school or other activities different for each child. A member of school staff (e.g. Pastoral Co-ordinator) liaises with the turn-about 2-3 hours per week.

The Officer works intensively with these 12 families for a term and then each case is reviewed. Each child can stay in the programme for up to a year. If the family needs more work than that it is referred on to other agencies. Some students are back on track in one or two terms. Follow up work has shown that the majority of the children and their siblings show improved motivation and attendance for a sustained period of at least two years after being in the programme. The strengths of the programme are that the worker is based in the school and therefore is seen by school staff, families and students as an integral part of the school team, not as a social worker. Also the intensity of the work that can be done with each student. Limiting the number of the caseload results in higher quality of provision which can reap measurable, positive outcomes. Apart from the salary costs of the social worker and administration, other costs may be minimal, or otherwise, depending on the family circumstances. (e.g. transport costs, new shoes, coat etc.) This model could easily be used in Britain to help improve 'social inclusion'.

Other School-based projects were seen at Boys Town, Berkshire Farm Centre and in Pittsburgh. These are briefly described in the main text. More details are available on request.

APPENDIX 3

Community Based Projects.

'The Burnham Youth Safe Centre'. Whilst in Pittsburgh, I visited the 'Burnham' scheme to keep juvenile offenders, who would otherwise have been sent to a detention centre, living at home, attending their own school, receiving counselling and therapy and helping to make up for the effects of their crimes within their community. They were electronically tagged, wearing an ankle bracelet, and their whereabouts could be monitored at all times. They were subjected to a strict curfew and their lives were totally structured and controlled throughout their sentence. Their parents were also visited at least four times a week to receive advice and instruction in parenting skills. At weekends the young offenders were required to undertake voluntary work, such as delivering 'meals on wheels' and decorating, gardening and cleaning for the elderly. Their attendance and progress at school was carefully monitored everyday and every evening they were collected from school and taken to an instruction centre where they remained until 10 o'clock in the evening when they were taken home and not allowed out until they went to school the next day or to their voluntary work on Saturday. They were allowed to go out on Saturday evening only, to mix with their friends, but had to be home by nine p.m.

This very strict regime was in-forced strictly and anyone who didn't keep to it was liable to have their detention centre sentence in-forced. The young men that I spoke to on this scheme all seems to be doing well. In fact they appreciated the structure and support that the scheme had introduced into their lives because many of their families were chaotic and had not been capable of maintaining control over them. The parents were also learning useful skills to enable them to cope better in the future and gaining in confidence and self-esteem alongside their sons. The boys had to agree to stay drug and alcohol free as one of the conditions of being on the scheme.

The 'Wraparound' Community project, observed in Pittsburgh is described in the main body of the text. More details are available, if required.

Bettyhales@AOL.com

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