How do we create that all-important safe, predictable, supportive and purposeful environment for our young people in the SEB?

• We prioritise building the strong relationships that are the “agents of change” (Bruce Perry, American psychiatrist, author and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois) and prioritise these throughout our practice with young people, families, school staff and partners.
• We focus on giving the young people control over their time with us. Decisions around how time with us is spent is young person-led, timetabled and staffed  in advance. Where possible, young people’s preferences about who they work with are also accommodated when timetabling.
• The SEB layout and surroundings are safe, welcoming and as predictable as possible. To support this we use visible consistencies such as greeting young people warmly when they arrive in SEB; making sure we send them off with a cheerful ‘see you tomorrow’; ensuring favourite foods and drinks provided; displaying timetables; ensuring that the room layout remains welcoming and consistent.
• Boundaries are established from the outset around the school values of respect, responsibility, perseverance and ambition. These terms are displayed within the setting, discussed with young people when they access the setting for the first time and referred back to consistently when reviewing behaviour and expectations with young people. All staff use ‘interrupt and redirect’, ‘when and then’ or ‘if and then’ patterns to set limits for any escalating young person. We also use restorative conversations to encourage reflection on, learning from and taking responsibility for behaviours. SEB Staff are ready, respectful and consistent in their interactions with young people.
• We embed in our practice the strategy of reinforcing the behaviours we want to see. Some of the methods used to do this are the use of praise to highlight positive choices and positive phone calls home when someone goes over and above in their positive behaviour.
• Throughout all our interactions with our young people we focus on helping them develop the interpersonal skills, emotional self-regulation and resilience that is crucial for them to lead happy, healthy, fulfilled lives. As part of this we encourage our young people to embed opportunities for moderate challenge, led and controlled by them, in order to support them expanding their window of tolerance.
• We understand the importance and practise of empathic listening
• We have a practice of debriefing with staff following a crisis incident. For this we use the CPI Crisis Management Model, the Verbal Escalation Continuum and the COPING model in order to discuss issues such as precipitating factors, our responses, rational detachment, integrated experience, what we can do to re-establish therapeutic rapport and prevent future incidents and also the impact of the incident on staff. This allows us to engage in a process of on-going professional reflection where we can consider the need being communicated through certain behaviours and how best to meet that need.
• What have an extensive, shared programme of training around trauma, attachment, Adverse Childhood Experiences and positive behaviour management.
• We use of weekly collegiate time to develop shared approaches within SEB that create a consistent and safe environment for the yougn people that come to us.
• Above all, we practice a policy of “deliberate botherdness” with all our energies and creativity focused on finding positive solutions for our young people in partnership with them and the team working to support them.