Citation

Harris R, Timms N. Br. J. Soc. Work 1993; 23(6): 597-612.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a056011

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper describes the characteristics of a sample of children (N = 399) being held in secure accommodation in eleven local authorities prior to the implementation of the Children Act 1989. It is argued that secure accommodation cannot be divorced from other aspects of child care policy and practice; that any confidence that problems of excessive or variable usage can be removed by more restrictive legislation is largely misplaced; that when social workers resort to secure accommodation it is often through a combination of 'worry' about an unpredictable child and uncertainty as to what else to do; and that since not all children in secure accommodation wish to leave it (and the more secure accommodation constitutes good quality child care the more children are likely to want to stay) a 'rights' framework, though necessary, is not a sufficient moral or conceptual basis for developing secure accommodation policy and practice.