Evaluating Working Practices

Abstract

We now turn to consider young people’s and staff’s experiences and evaluations of responses to violence. Accounts of the level of intervention associated with each of the main forms of violence will be explored, including consistency within teams, problems of identification and mechanisms for information-sharing. Building on this, the different forms of intervention employed within homes, both informal and formal, will be discussed. Perceptions surrounding the appropriateness of these measures, evaluations of their success and young people’s opinions about staff actions will all be examined. The final section of this chapter considers working methods for anticipating and reducing peer violence within residential settings. However, before focusing on intervention, we initially explore young people’s own help-seeking strategies, first in relation to peers and then to staff.

They are supposed to restrain us but it depends really … depending who’s on (duty) and who’s watching.

(Colin, aged 15)