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  • Book cover of Children's Homes Revisited

    Based on a three-year national research study, Children's Homes Revisited explores the current state of residential child care at grass roots level, and compares the present situation to that of a decade ago.

  • Book cover of Inside Parkhurst - The Final Stretch

    Return to HMP Parkhurst in this raw and fascinating account of life as a prison officer. David Berridge returns with more stories from his time as a prison officer at HMP Parkhurst, giving a uncompromising look at the harsh reality of working in British prisons. From dealing with inmate violence and clearing out defiled prison cells to the unsavoury nature of prison language and life, this is an even more detailed look inside Britain's most infamous prison. Through it all, David retains his wry humour and offers a much-needed assessment of the state of UK prisons today, the job crisis and poor recruitment, the corruption and gangs running rife, and the mental health epidemic hitting prisoners, causing many to take their own lives.

  • Book cover of Social Work and Assessment with Adolescents

    This ebook illustrates the day to day work of providing social services to adolescents: it describes the context of that task, its complexities, it's limitations, some of its successes and failings. More specifically it focuses on the role of assessment as part of the social work process, comparing specialist assessments with those undertaken routinely by district-based social workers.

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  • Book cover of Educating Difficult Adolescents

    Educational achievements for children in care are significantly poorer than for the general school population. This book explores why this is and how to enable children in care to succeed in the classroom. The authors adopt a multidisciplinary approach to suggest how best to support children in care in educational settings.

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    The first book on the history of the marine fisheries of Southeast Asia, this book takes as its theme the movement of fisheries into new fishing grounds, particularly the diverse ecosystems that make up the seas of Southeast Asia.

  • Book cover of Inside Parkhurst

    THE FASCINATING SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER Assaults. Riots. Cell fires. Medical emergencies. Understaffed wings. Suicides. Hooch. Weapons. It's all in a week's work at HMP Parkhurst. After 28 years working as a prison officer, with 22 years at HMP Parkhurst, once one of Britain's most high security prisons, David Berridge has had to deal with it all: serial killers and gangsters, terrorists and sex offenders, psychopaths and addicts. Inside Parkhurst is his raw, uncompromising look at what really goes on behind the massive walls and menacing gates. Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and learn how to avoid their many scams. He has been assaulted and abused; he has tackled cell fires and attempted suicides, riots and dirty protests; he has helped to foil escaped plans, talked inmates down from rooftop protests, witnessed prisoners setting fire to themselves, and prevented prisoners from attempting to murder other prisoners. And now he takes us inside this secret world for the first time. With this searingly honest account he guides us around the wings, the segregation unit, the hospital and the exercise yard, and gives vivid portraits of the drug taking, the hooch making, the constant and irrepressible violence, and the extraordinary lengths our prison officers go to everyday. Divided into three parts - the first from David's early years on the wings, the second the middle of his career, and the third his disillusioned later years - David will take readers into the heart of life inside and shine a light on the escalating violence and the impact the government cuts are having on the wings. Both horrifying and hilarious, David's diaries are guaranteed to shock and entertain in equal measure.

  • Book cover of Taking Care of Education

    An evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, which aims to support a small number of local authorities in deploying a range of policies to improve the educational achievements of looked after children.

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    This report sets out to summarize the key messages and implications from research undertaken over the past 20 years into foster care in the UK, and compares the findings with a similar report in a 1970s research review.

  • Book cover of Closing Children's Homes

    This ebook reports on the unprecedented and radical step taken by Warwickshire Social Services Department when, in 1986, it closed the last of its children's homes. This book examines the background to these developments, the reasons for them and their consequences. The findings are set in the context of the crisis of confidence in residential child care that occurred in the early 1990's culminating in the Pindown Report on Staffordshire which revealed an alarming catalogue of inhuman and degrading treatment of children in residential care. This research, undertaken by NCB, reports findings that have major national and international significance. The future role of children's homes is in question and this study examines whether foster care, in particular, is more effective at meeting children's needs than residential care. Young people's own views are included and the work is presented very much in the context of the Children Act 1989.