An examination of the management of challenging behaviour in Ireland’s special care system

Special care falls within the remit of state care specifically designed to provide secure accommodation, education and therapeutic interventions to a small cohort of children aged 11-17, who are at risk to themselves or to others. As special care units are locked units where a child is civilly detained, a child can only be placed in special care following an order from the High Court as a measure of last resort and for a specified short period of time. The primary objective of special care is to provide a short-term stabilising intervention, in a secure therapeutic environment, in an attempt to improve the welfare needs of the child. Children who are placed in special care often have complex welfare needs and behavioural issues. Due to their complex needs, the behaviour of the children can be deemed challenging for staff to manage.

The aim of this research project was to examine how challenging behaviour is managed within Ireland’s special care system. A mixed methods approach was taken in addressing this research question using both doctrinal and qualitative method’s. The combination of methodological approaches allowed me to gain an understanding, based on a real world inquiry, of how challenging behaviour is manged in reality within Ireland’s special care system. Furthermore, it allowed for the identification of gaps in the normative legal and policy framework, with regard to the governance of behaviour within the special care system.

The key findings of this research are as follows:

1. The governance of human behaviours, particularly the behaviour of vulnerable children, is complex and multi-faceted. In order to understand what effective governance of challenging behaviour looks like, it is necessary to look beyond the normative legal and policy framework and examine how law is implemented in reality on the ground in non-legal terms.

2. Understanding the craft of developing effective relationships is just as significant and important as the craft of drafting policy and legislation with regard to the governance of human behaviours. Closer attention should be paid to understanding what an effective relationship looks like and its impact on the implementation of legal rules and policy.

3. There is a need to listen to and gain the views of those that are vested with the responsibility of implementing law and policy, and those directly affected by the law and policy, in order to gauge whether assumptions inherent in the normative legal and regulatory framework are well founded.

In a discussion chapter, I evaluate and interpret the overall findings in light of Lipsky’s Street-Level Bureaucracy theory and additional relevant literature. I present how this research project has contributed to knowledge and I also consider the potential implications for policy and practice and outline a number of suggestions for future research.