Kibble Education and Care Centre has been offering specialist services to troubled and troublesome young people since 1857. It is currently registered to offer placements to 64 residential and 40-day placements to young men between the ages of 12 and 18. Since 1996, placements have been offered to almost all of the 32 local authorities across Scotland and also occasionally further afield. Throughout its history, the core services on offer have included residential placements. Since 1996, the organisation has been developing a range of residential placements for the young men referred whereby the different residential units across the campus and also in the nearby Community House can offer varying degrees of support in a flexible manner in order to respond to the changing needs of the young people.
Young people should feel safe and secure in any residential school.— Skinner
One of the concerns that can arise within residential care is when young people are moved within the system due to placement breakdown. Kibble has attempted to develop a continuum of service that enables young people to progress positively within their placement while remaining at Kibble rather than having to move between establishments. Young people referred to Kibble for a residential placement can be placed in one of three generic units; a unit offering intensive support; one of two units offering placement to young people who have experienced significant trauma; or to one of two units offering intensive support to young people as an alternative to secure placement. There is also an off-campus Community House providing four placements for over-16 year olds who have been referred from the other Kibble services.
From summer 2007, it is hoped to offer 18 places within Kibble Safe Centre for young men who require a secure placement. It is hoped that the model which is being developed within the organisation will ensure that the young men remain in security for as short time as possible before being offered a placement within either the open campus or the community-based services.
In recent years, the needs of the young people referred to Kibble have become evermore complex. In order to try and address these needs and offer appropriate support to young people, the organisation has continued to research best practice and has introduced systems which have proved effective elsewhere. These include Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI), and currently also being introduced is Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI). Training is being offered to the staff in order to professionalise the service offered to the young people through the use of these and other accredited approaches. Within the organisation, there is a Social Education Team which has introduced a range of programmes as specialist interventions when working with young people which include Offending is not the only choice (OINTOC), the Ross Programme, a bespoke Anger Management programme, Substance Abuse, with a number of other programmes being introduced. Within the team there are also currently two trainee psychologists who offer forensic assessments to the young people within the organisation's two units who work with young people who have experienced significant trauma and will also offer the same detailed assessment to young people within the Safe Centre.
The organisation is committed to the Codes of Practices which have been developed for Social Work and Social Services and to the appropriate National Standards which are monitored by the Care Commission.