The limitations of trauma-informed resettlement practice - Dr Paul Gray

Paul Gray, Deputy Director of MCYS

In the last 10 years, there has been a rapid decline in the number of children receiving custodial sentences. However, while the number of children in custody may have declined, those that do end up in the secure estate are now typically the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged. As such, it is unsurprising that, despite several recent resettlement support initiatives, outcomes for children leaving custody remain relatively poor; evidenced in part by the high reoffending rate of those leaving custody. With this in mind, it was to be expected that one of the key priorities in the Youth Justice Board’s strategic plan for 2019-2022, published on the 24th May 2019, is resettlement and the transition from custody to the community.

In September 2018, the Youth Justice Board published How to make resettlement constructive. This document outlines a new evidence-based approach to resettlement entitled ‘Constructive Resettlement’; a strengths-based and future-focussed approach aimed at supporting a child to shift their identity from pro-offending to pro-social.
This approach was largely informed by the Beyond Youth Custody (BYC) programme; a six-year England-wide learning and awareness programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund as part of the Youth in Focus initiative. Since its inception in 2012, BYC has built a robust evidence base about what works in terms of effective resettlement for young people leaving custody. As well as identifying the need for supporting those leaving custody to shift their identity from pro-offending to pro-social, the BYC programme also highlighted the need for trauma-informed resettlement practice.

The reason for this focus on trauma is that research has consistently found that a significant proportion of children serving custodial sentences in England and Wales have lived through traumatic experiences and events. For example, a study of children serving custodial sentences found that around two fifths had been on the child protection register and/or had experienced abuse or neglect. A separate study of children incarcerated for more serious offences found that just under three quarters had experienced some form of abuse, over half had experienced significant loss via bereavement or cessation of contact, and over a third had experienced the double trauma of abuse and loss. With this in mind, the BYC programme developed a trauma-informed resettlement guide for those working with children leaving custody. Alongside this, in its recently published strategic plan, the Youth Justice Board has committed itself to expanding trauma-informed practice among local services in England and Wales with a view to, amongst other things, improving the resettlement outcomes of children leaving custody.

While the focus on supporting traumatised children in the youth justice system is to be welcomed, the fact remains that those children who require support need to be identified in the first place. Indeed, one of the key features of trauma-informed practice is the assessment of need. As the BYC resettlement guide notes, children’s health needs should be systematically screened for. To ensure that children’s physical, emotional and mental health needs are comprehensively assessed, the Offender Health Research Network (OHRN) was commissioned by the Youth Justice Board and the Department of Health to develop the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool (CHAT). Since the start of 2014, CHAT has been rolled out across the juvenile secure estate. However, while CHAT should help to better identify those traumatised children who need support and signpost them to the most appropriate available support services, the very nature of trauma is such that children are often reluctant to disclose it. For example, those who have experienced trauma frequently want to avoid thinking about or discussing painful experiences and events. Research has also found that traumatic experiences can lead to a child having a general lack of trust of adults. Alongside this, it has been found that children are often resistant to assessments which are perceived as labelling them as having emotional/mental health problems, with young men in custody often wanting to present themselves as ‘super-masculine’ and invulnerable.

Whatever the reason for a child choosing not to disclose any trauma, the result is manifested in the same way: an unwillingness or refusal to disclose any traumatic experiences and events that may have occurred in that child’s life prior to entering custody. With this in mind, it is not surprising that research has found that trauma is consistently under-reported. Unfortunately, though, this lack of disclosure may limit the effectiveness of CHAT, and in turn, the efficacy of a trauma-informed approach to resettlement. If a child chooses not to reveal any previous traumatic experiences and events, how can services then best support that individual. This is particularly worrying when it comes to identifying those severely traumatised children who may need the support the most.