The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a blog post on children’s experiences in secure children’s homes. The Commissioner’s team visited three secure children’s homes and spoke with 40 children aged 13- to 16-years-old. Emerging themes included:

Placement breakdown: Before coming to the Secure Children’s Home, children experienced many ’placements’ that had broken down. They had been told they were ‘too complex’ or ‘high risk’. These children told Help at Hand the most important thing for them was having a stable home to go to when they were released, and a long transition into that home to get them ready for the change.

Nowhere else to go: Children told the team they were worried that they would be kept in secure accommodation not because they needed to be there, but because children’s social care could not find an appropriate home for them to go to.

Unexpected changes: Some of the children said that the way they were moved to the Secure Children’s Home was sudden and unexplained. They were not told that they were going until the last minute and felt this was unfair.

Following the visits, the Children’s Commissioner will use the stories and experiences shared by these children to shape her work over the next 18 months to improve the quality and availability of children’s social care and to advocate for children living in care and away from home.