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Hostels, Boarding or Residential Facilities

Schools should refer to the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, which applies to school care accommodation services.

Children living away from home for significant periods of time may be vulnerable in a variety of ways:

• lack of strong family contacts may result in a readiness to make inappropriate emotional attachments to peers or adults
• emotional or academic stress can result in poor physical and emotional health
• close and sustained contact with peers may result in their succumbing to peer pressure, becoming the victim of bullying or themselves indulging in bullying
• the balance schools make between supervising free time and promoting young people's independence may result in young people becoming involved in potentially risky activities in their leisure time, without the risks having been fully assessed.

There are ways that schools and staff in hostels can help prevent pupils becoming the victims of abuse by their peers or by adults, known and unknown, and prevent self-harm:

• provide induction packs for boarding pupils with clear information on sources of support for pupils who are unhappy or feel threatened, including school staff, local contacts ( e.g. local authority Children's Rights Officer) and ChildLine
• provide a copy of the school complaints procedure to pupils and parents
• ensure that pupils are enabled to sustain family contacts through telephone, fax and e-mail, in order to reduce feelings of isolation
• ensure accommodation arrangements, including toilets, showers, and sleeping facilities respect pupils' rights to dignity, privacy and personal space
• residential accommodation for disabled pupils who require support for personal care, should also ensure privacy and personal space
  (see Intimate Care for Children and Young People with a Disability)
• staff should have in place good formal and informal methods of monitoring the welfare of the pupils in their care, regular individual and group meetings and informal observation at meal times and in free time (for example, noting patterns of eating and sleeping)
• ensure an adequate supervision ratio (the nature of which will vary depending on the age of the young people and the lay-out of the premises)
• guard against initiation ceremonies or other rituals of belonging to groups ( e.g. sports teams, houses)
• ensure group activities do not become exclusive or elite, thereby isolating a minority or an individual.

Children who board, whose parents live abroad (which may include children who have come to study in this country), should have a named guardian in this country. However, if there are concerns about the suitability of the named guardian, or about any agency arranging placements for children from abroad, the school should make direct contact with the parents to explain their concerns.

Schools, pupils and parents should agree guidelines on:

• arrangements for leaving the school site unaccompanied
• communication procedures for letting staff know where a pupil is going, who with, and what the time of return will be, arrangements for transport and emergency contacts
• agreement on special arrangements for activities such as parties, part-time work outside school, staying with friends and other activities.

In circumstances where abusive relationships have developed between pupils, there is a need to address these matters openly, seeking help for both parties from other relevant agencies outside the school. Particularly where a young person can be seen as potentially abusive, it is important that appropriate support is sought for that young person, drawing on the specialist skills of social work or psychological services.

Parents may prefer to home educate their children for many reasons. They may have specific values and ideas about the nature of education or the content of learning; they may not want an institutional setting for the care and development of their child; they may have tried education in schools and feel their child has had a negative experience.

Local authorities have a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area. There are a number of ways in which authorities may fulfil this duty with regard to home educated children. However, many home educators feel that an 'inspection' or 'surveillance' approach is offensive and any tensions resulting in lack of co-operation will not generally enable authorities to detect child abuse or neglect. The foundation of the relationship between authorities and families who home educate must be their shared interest in 'the best interests of the child'. In this regard, it may be appropriate for education authorities to ensure that the child's views on their education are sought.

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