Children's Homes

I would guess, most Police Officers have a Local Authority Children’s Home on their patch. If they’re anything like me, they probably spend a lot of time at them.

These homes house children usually from the ages of 12-16. The kids are usually placed into the homes, because their parents can either no longer control them or have abandoned them. Some have had tough lives, where they have been physically or sexually abused. Others, have drug addicted parents, incapable of looking after them.

I attended our local home recently, after one of the residents had kept the two members of staff awake all night, threatening them that she would ‘do’ them. The girl didn’t cause any damage or assault anyone, but was angry, because she had been picked up by staff (free taxi) an hour earlier than she wanted.

Quite why I had been called is anyone’s guess. The two staff were adamant that they wanted to make a complaint of threats to kill. I asked them what the discipline policy of the home was. They stared at me blankly and said they didn’t think they had one. After a lot of digging, we managed to find a ‘behaviour policy’. It turned out, the behaviour policy does not have any sanctions to impose, if behaviour falls outside acceptable standards.

I had to bite my tongue. What a load of old bollox. Life is all about sometimes having to do things we don’t want to do. If these kids don’t learn the word ‘NO’, then they’ll forever be in trouble. If they don’t listen to reason, they need to realise that they can’t just continue misbehaving. The only way of doing that, is to have sanctions to impose. How many times were you grounded by your parents, when you were young? You soon learnt to behave.

Apparently, because of Human Rights Legislation, staff can do nothing, other than try to reason with the kids. They can’t withhold pocket money, ‘ground’ them, make them do extra chores etc.
Whilst no one wants to go back to the days of child abuse inside care homes, we are heading for anarchy if the present system continues. It is not the job of the Police to discipline children.