youth offending - Solution Focused Brief Therapy UK

Youth Offending

The Consultancy have extensive experience in training staff from all agencies involved in a young person's life including the Police and have devised strengths-based, future focused programme for implementation with young people who offend and their families. Working to the ethos of working with the young person to help them towards a more constructive life rather than implementing punitive measures is proving effective for better outcomes.

One of our programmes: Affecting Early Years (AEY)was inclded in the West Midland's Early Intervention Programme started by Inspector Chris Dowen of West Midlands Constabularly in May 2007 (pictured above with Eileen Murphy and the trained AEY Officers.

This programme has been developed over the last two and a half years with local schools, housing managers and community renewal officers and the Consultancy were commissioned to train 20 Officers in our AEY (Affecting Early Years) Programme © Eileen Murphy Consultants & Associates to prepare them for their work on this scheme.

In the last two and a half years the scheme has, along with other initiatives have led to the following reductions in crime across the Dudley Sector area:

1009 less crimes
198 less Serious Acquisitive Crimes (Robberies, Burglaries and Vehicle Crime)
201 less Criminal Damage crimes

(Crime figures April 2008 to December 2009)

Using the Solution Focused Approach with young people who offend can be implemented in 1:1 sessions and Groupwork.

When working with this group, we would begin with the clear acknowledgement that behaviour that infringes on other people's safety; wellbeing and property is unacceptable. That might sound the most obvious statement to make but is worth saying because often workers can slip into a "blame free" stance. Blame free is good but if we are not careful we can avoid "accountability" while we strive to ensure we are "blame free".

Many young people that we, and the teams we train, work with, may not have experienced clear groundrules or a framework for behaviour. Equally, some of the young people have been given guidance and care by their parents but have lost their way during their adolescent years. Both groups need the opportunity to reflect on their behaviour towards others and to be offered the opportunity for a watershed and a chance to adopt new constructive behaviour.

Often, for instance, simply acknowledging that learned behaviour can be unlearned can free young people from the belief that because their parents did x,y,z that this means that they are hardwired to do the same.

Often, workers who are unaware of the Solution Focused Approach, consider that a "future-focused" model may not be appropriate when working with violent, anti-social young people who many refer to as feral children. However. Solution Focused work is about much more than simply focusing on the future - its about offering people a new view of themselves and possibilities for change. All young people, regardless of their behaviour, have every possibility of growth and development no matter what their current behaviour and Solution Focused working can provide the opportunity for developing new behaviours.

Below are examples of the tools and language of the Approach and how it encourages constructive conversations:

SCALING:
"On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being: you have no interest at all in looking at change and new behaviours and 10 being: maybe you might be interested looking at that. What number are you on right now?"

In our experience, this vague "maybe" is more attractive to a resistant young person than "and 10 is you accept there has to be changes". Taking the scaling up in quarters gives both the worker and the young person the opportunity to hear small, practical, real details of how change would look.

Of course, it really doesn't matter if they respond with a "1" - our response on any number is "and if I asked you that same question next week and you told me you were 1 and a 1/4 would small things would you have done differently between now and then, stay small on this". If they are any number higher than a 1, then of course we are very interested in what makes it that? because there is a clear difference between 1 and 3 for instance - we are always curious about that difference and what moves have already been made towards a changed mindset.

SILENT SESSIONS
Eileen Murphy developed the Silent Session method when working with extremely resistant clients, including young people who had been referred through the statutory services. Since then, many clients have made use of it as a non-intrusive way to be guided on a journey of change. All of our training courses now include a slot on this work and its benefits.

PRESUMPTIONS
Having spent many years working with young people to encourage them to protect themselves around drug misuse; sexual relationships; gang recruitment etc - Eileen stopped encouraging and started "asking", i.e. "given that you will come into contact with lots of people who may offer you drugs - how do you keep yourself safe around that?" The presumption is always that they are doing so and they often proceed to tell exactly how - for instance a young man recently told us "well I just say I had a bad trip last time - they give you less hassle if you have had a bad experience rather than if you just dont want to get involved". When he was asked if this strategy worked for him all the time - he replied that he had just thought about it and had in fact not used it before but would now.

The "presumptions" strategy allows for people to think and ask themselves questions and can certainly reduce the "I don't knows....." than can occur when young people are trying to avoid the question. Eileen maintains that she doesnt care if the young person is "making up the answer" because, she says, "he would only make them up from his own ingredients - and this alone can offer a starting point of change".

VISUALS AND MONITOR CHARTS:
The Consultancy have devised very effective visuals for use with clients across all fields but these are especially useful with young people. The Monitor Charts allow for a simple, recording for the young person on how they reached their goal; who else did what to help; what difference did it make. These visuals and Charts are always uniquely tailored to the individual.

Our Solution Focused Approach - Working with young people who offend 1/2/3 day courses provide teams with a tool for change when working with young people who offend and their families. Both approaches are fit for purpose for Statutory orders including Parenting Orders.

In keeping with the YJB's Key Effective Practice guidelines, the training offers Youth Offending teams both an intensive, whole-team resource including ISSP.

Youth Panel Training

A new training programme Solution Focused Youth Panel Meetings for Youth Panel Members is available over a period of 1, 2 or 3 days.

The language of the approach is useful in Youth Panel settings because it offers the victim an opportunity to take real steps towards emotional recovery and the offender to recognise what change needs to happen in small, realistic ways and how they will achieve that change in order to reduce the risk of recidivism.

The training includes positive ways of engaging the client’s families to play a part in helping to make real changes. The ethos of the Approach is to work collaboratively with the cultural, socio-economic and individual family culture of the client.

The result is that families feel empowered and can work within a statutory intervention that recognises, respects and uses the family’s sense of competency and control over their own lives while maintaining the unique culture of each family unit.

Because it is a non-damaging model, the particular language and time-distortion techniques allows workers and volunteers from all social care fields to use the approach.

For further information about these courses, please contact the Consultancy at info@brief-therapy-uk.com or Telephone 0208 542 9310