When young people described approaching professionals directly for help, this was usually a school teacher, although there was one young person who approached the police and the five UASC interviewed for the study were referred to children’s social care services by the police. Similar to other studies about young people’s disclosure, in many young people’s accounts, help from professionals was often sought after having first sought help from peers, or in some cases family members (Featherstone and Evans, 2004; Gorin, 2004). Research by Wade (2002) found that none of the young people interviewed expressed their need for support in terms of help from
professionals as they did not trust them to be discrete.
In our study some young people were unclear which professionals they could have approached for help and felt that professionals who might be able to help were not visible to them when they were looking for someone to disclose to. Lisa and her friend went to their local police station to disclose sexual abuse as they weren’t sure who they could approach in their school:
Interviewer: Would you have rather spoken to someone other than the police?
Lisa: I think so. I think I would have rather spoken to someone who knew more about it because we got referred to someone who didn’t knew anything about it – who wasn’t in that department and knew nothing about child protection.
Lisa: Not really cos I didn’t really know her then. I didn’t know who she was until we really spoke about it after.
Lisa, age 15
Other young people were also unclear regarding the roles of the professionals they had encountered before and during the referral process.
Approaching teachers for help
Young people had varied experiences with the education professionals they approached. Some young people were very positive about the relationship they had with school teachers and the help they had received, while others felt unsupported by their school teachers and felt that their disclosures had not been taken seriously enough.
Where young people had approached teachers this was usually a teacher known to them with whom they described having an established and valued relationship
Interviewer: So why did you go and see the deputy head at that point? Nicola: Because she’s always sorted out my problems. She always has.
Nicola, age 15
A number of young people discussed the benefits of having teachers who were approachable and who young people could trust with disclosures:
Interviewer: Is there any way that you think that people such as
teachers could become more approachable for young people to speak to about these issues?
Lisa: I don’t know – just sort of it’s all about trust isn’t it – some people you get on with and some people you don’t like – some people you can trust and some people you can’t so I don’t know really just keep trying to be approachable and then people would probably go to you. Teachers, I think, just need to be a bit more aware of what is going on because you get some teachers are like – well they are very understanding – and then others they aren’t at all and they don’t care. And it’s sort of like, I don’t know, they need to be more aware of, well more looking out for signs because obviously if someone’s like upset and I don’t know – they might not feel able to talk about it but if they were approachable enough they might – young people might be able to come to teachers and then they should know where to refer it – things like that.
Lisa, age 15
A few of the young people approached school teachers for help and nothing appeared to have been done regarding their disclosure. This left these young people feeling unsupported.
Laura: I think … like sometimes like they listen but they’re not really listening…And it was kind of like I wanted them to do something about it. But nobody ever did.
Interviewer: So you don’t think they helped you at that point?
Laura: Not really…it would have been nice to have a little bit more help and support from them. I told my form teacher everything that was going on at home with my stepdad’s violence and stuff. And she was like well I’ll talk it out with your head of year and everything and we can see what can be done … and then nothing was ever done from there.
Laura, age 15
Young people’s experiences with the police
One young person approached the police for help directly. As explored above, Lisa and her friend went directly to the police station to disclose sexual abuse. In her account Lisa describes approaching the police as a daunting
experience:
Interviewer: What kind of things do you think we should be saying to them about how they can better help young people?
Lisa: I don’t know – I suppose they need to be sort of not as dismissive with young people. I suppose – when we first went into the station I got the feeling we were looked down on… The people at the reception weren’t – they were very – I don’t know- I suppose I got the feeling because we were young – young, youths and that, that they thought we were in trouble but it wasn’t like that and it felt like they dismissed us a little bit and that when we were in the waiting room, but the woman we spoke to was really nice. I suppose they should be more welcoming and have more people on hand at police stations and things like that
specifically for young people cos when I first went and I spoke to someone who I don’t think had anything to do with child protection or anything like that. Spoke to someone completely different who then referred it over. So maybe if there was more people, people who were aimed at talking to younger people then people would feel more able to sort of speak out and come forward with things like that.
Lisa, age 15
Lisa: I didn’t think the child protection officer [from the police] was very good…I didn’t feel very comfortable with her. She weren’t very
approachable for me to sort of talk to.
Interviewer: What do you think might have made you feel more comfortable?
Lisa: [It was] probably just her manner. I know obviously she has to get the interview done but she could have been a bit more, I suppose, patient with me because it’s obviously like a really like, I don’t know, it was a not nice experience and obviously like I’m gonna need time to think about it and sort of go back and she’s sort of, it felt like she was rushing me quite a lot to sort of get it done.
Lisa, age 15
Lisa’s comments are similar to many other young people interviewed for this study. Young people appreciated having space to express themselves and time to develop relationships of trust with a professional. Young people
frequently linked this to their ability to disclose to a professional. An evaluation of the NSPCC Family Alcohol Service (Templeton et al, 2003) had very similar findings with regard to disclosure. Baginsky (2001) says that it is impossible to generalise about the conditions that lead to disclosure of sexual abuse, but also identified the following factors that make disclosure more likely: a child’s educational awareness; anger; perpetrator proximity; peer influence; a safe environment or a precipitating event.
UASC often encounter the police on arrival in the UK and are referred to Children’s Social Services by them. Of the five UASC interviewed for this study most described their encounters with the police as fleeting as they were referred immediately onto children’s social care services. Four of the UASC did not speak English when they first encountered the UK police and spoke to the police via interpreters. Most of the UASC described their encounter with the police positively. However, one UASC described his encounter with the police and immigration services as follows:
Interviewer: What did you think about the police, can you remember? Khalid: I mean they was not like helpful. Like when we come to this country … I speak several language, I can speak seven, eight languages … and they were really swearing to us, and they were very bad at that time, but they didn’t know that I can understand them. But I didn’t say nothing to them because I was very scared that time because we don’t know what will happen to us.
Interviewer: Did you also meet anyone from Immigration around that time?
Khalid: Yeah somebody turned up.
Interviewer: And how did you find them?
Khalid: Yeah uh … that was not a good experience with them either, they just took us the finger prints and other stuff … like nothing has been explained to us that what will happen. But like we don’t know at that time that what they should ask, but now I know that they should explain.
Khalid, age 18