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Interview: Not just for boys - Michael Nerini, service manager, Clare Lodge Secure Children's Home

When you think of a secure children's home (SCH) what image springs to mind? Young male offenders? If that's a "yes" then you hold the stereotype Michael Nerini, service manager at Clare Lodge SCH wants to break.

Clare Lodge, in Peterborough, is one of only two all-female SCHs in England and unusually does not have a contract with the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to look after young offenders.

Instead, the home looks after 16 females aged between 10 and 16 who have been placed there for their own safety by local authorities in England. It helps young women who are suicidal, who self harm, have abuse histories or other difficulties.

Nerini is keen to change the commonly-held perception that secure units are synonymous with young offenders and says people need to understand more of the work that goes on.

"People don't realise secure units aren't all the same and that our unit is quite different to others," he says. "There are more reasons and more benefits for placing children in SCHs than the fact that they have offended."

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