CYP Now - Behaviour management approach ‘increases criminalisation of children in care’

Local authorities should move away from a “one size fits all” approach to tackling behavioural issues involving children in care, which can include calling police into residential settings, research recommends.

Just one in six local authority protocols consider a child's gender, researchers find. Picture: Halfpoint/Adobe Stock

A paper, led by Manchester Metropolitan University and published in the journal Youth Justice, seeks to find alternative solutions to “the unnecessary criminalisation of some of the most vulnerable children and young people in society”, according to its authors.

Analysis of 36 local protocols which were created in response to the government’s non-statutory 2018 National Protocol on Reducing Unnecessary Criminalisation of Looked-after Children and Care Leavers, reveals concerns over an excessive use of police involvement with children in care and an approach to record keeping that often “fails to contextualise” a child’s care background.

It finds that children in residential care are disproportionately likely to receive a criminal caution or conviction.

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