The Solution Focused Secure Unit

Working to reduce re-offending and help young people to lead more productive lives

The ethos that underpins the Solution Focused Secure Unit is that young people respond better to raised expectations rather than warnings and sanctions.

Many young people entering the secure estate may have received poor or erratic parenting. Some will have never experienced responsibility. Many will have no understanding of respect and courtesy either because it has never been shown to them or it was shown to them from a position of weakness.  

This whole-team 7 day training and development programme equips staff to work within a framework that encourages a watershed for young people, procedures that support that framework and a renewed staff morale because everyone is working to a strengths-based ethos.

first team in the country to use the Solution Focused Secure Unit Programme, Gladstone House, Dyson Hall, Liverpool 

From the moment of arrival at the Solution Focused Secure Unit - the young person experiences courtesy and respect from a position of strength. The workers, clearly in control, explain the Expectations of the Unit, elicits the strengths and competencies of the young person and expects co-operation. The workers look for and feedback noticed positive change throughout the young person's time at the Unit which offers the young person an immediate opportunity for change of both behaviour and attitude.  

This ethos is not new - similar attitudes have worked very well in adult prisons where even the most committed recidivists have responded to raised expectations and courtesy from a position of strength.

On the basis that mistrust is easier to betray than trust, young people are taught in real ways about justice, responsibility and respect for others by example.

On admission, the young person is told what is expected of him rather than what is not allowed; an increase of responsibility is offered instead of solely relying on the reward system to bring about constructive behaviour which in itself has long-term benefits as part of personal development.

Sanctions are explained by way of encouraging the young person to understand them not as a punishment, which is short-term and which they are well used to, but as a Consequence of their behaviour and a period of reflection is encouraged until given a fresh opportunity for the work to continue.

The young person is offered Groupwork sessions, including Developing as a Young Person; Art Expression; Anger Control; Parenting the 21st Century Child which the Unit staff have been trained to implement.

All staff, including support and domestic, working on the Unit are trained in the Solution Focused Secure Unit Approach to enable the ethos to be sustainable.

The Solution Focused Residential Unit
The Consultancy have also developed a whole-team training and development framework for Local Authority and Private Residential Children's Homes that provide an opportunity for children and young people to thrive in a strengths-focused ethos.   The National Children's Bureau included an outline of our Solution Focused Residential Unit Training Programme on their website. We have also developed a Shared Care programme that encourages the inclusion of parents in respite care offered by local authorities.

For an informal discussion about the full Solution Focused Secure Unit training or to enquire about inhouse courses on elements of this training -  please contact us at info@brief-therapy-uk.com or Telephone 0208 947 8093 or the office mobile 07779 242 289