“I live with my son, Tim who is 10 years old.
His first three years were difficult since we both suffered from my husband’s
violence. Although I managed to move Tim away, his behaviour deteriorated. He
has been “asked to leave” nursery school, infant school, and two primary
schools (where he had support teachers too). Now, to my distress, I learn that
the EBD school, which he has only attended since Easter, cannot manage him
either. He attacks me, his teachers, other children, himself and property.
Nothing seems to make any difference. The special unit that catered for
children like him is being closed because of cuts and my local authority say
they can’t pay for the boarding provision I think would help him. I wanted him
to go straight to EBD school when he was 5 but I was told that would deprive
him of a normal education.”
Ms T.
Whatever the cause or causes, violence and
its management is a major burden for the child, the family, the school and
wider society. Educationalists have long been aware (in both the Warnock Report
and the Fish Report) that there are some 2% of children who cannot manage in
any ordinary setting. Within this disturbed group there are some, like Tim, for
whom even an EBD school (school for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed
children) is not adequate.
These
inappropriate placements exacerbate the original damage as they make multiple
rejections inevitable. Dr. Marcus Johns, Consultant Psychiatrist and
Psychoanalyst, points out, “Damaged children, like Tim, are unable to contain
the violent impulses generated by their pain and frustration. They are then
often cruelly punished by being expected to conform to the standards of
normality. This expectancy leads to them being inappropriately placed and then
becoming the victims of further cruelty and victimisation.” Traumatised and
disturbed children are not emotionally integrated because of the very nature of
their history and problems. To try and integrate them is, at best, to misunderstand
their plight. At worst, token and fake integration is an active agent of
further deterioration.
Appropriate placement, which by its very
nature has to be an intensive input of professional time, is bound to be
expensive. Therapeutic schools, communities and day units like Peper Harrow,
Thornby Hall, The Mulberry Bush, The Monroe Centre and the Tavistock Clinic Day
Unit have high staff ratios and extremely skilled professional staff. In the
current climate this is a real difficulty. As Peter Wilson, Chairman of Young
Minds, comments, “These resources are costly and there is a real problem here
as to whether our society will foot the bill for what it takes to contain and
treat violent and vulnerable children and young people. However, there are
certain children who need to be contained beyond what can ordinarily be
contained in an ordinary school or even an EBD school. These children are
actually extremely difficult to tolerate. In many cases they have been, like
Tim, attacked or frightened or abandoned themselves.”
How can Tim get the provision he needs? Local
authorities all over the country face real economic difficulties. Without a
mass national mandate for more money to be raised for the most vulnerable what
can education departments do? Firstly, they can help parents and children by
being honest. How different might Ms T have felt had she been told “Look, we
are sorry you are dealing with Tim single-handed. We need ś 10,000 p.a. to
place him in a day unit and ś 50,000 to place him in a residential unit and we
have not got that”? That is very different to tailoring ideology to suit your
pocket.
Telling Ms T that her disturbed child can’t
go to an EBD school at 5 because he will be missing a “normal” education when
the child’s behaviour guarantees his exclusion from all activities, let alone
the national curriculum, is, to her, frighteningly out of touch with reality.
Indeed, the emotional and interpersonal cost of reality, not paying the
financial price, is likely to end up much more costly in terms of disrupted
teachers and pupils and work difficulties for the parent.
The most
vulnerable children and young people have, at different times, been looked
after by either health or education authorities. There was a time when it was a
major achievement for education to offer an umbrella to such children. The
pendulum has swung again and this is an important social imperative which needs
concerted action to alter social policy. In the meantime Ms T, Tim and
countless others are suffering secondary handicaps which have been added to
their own original problems.