Aycliffe Secure Centre - information for professionals

We make sure every young person is:

• registered with a local GP during their stay at the centre
• has access to a dentist in our own dental suite
• has access to sexual health services

All young people admitted to our centre are offered a Comprehensive Health Assessment Toolkit (CHAT), this is a far-reaching health assessment that explores all aspects of health including physical and mental health, substance misuse and neuro-disability.

We have a robust approach to mental health and have a dedicated team which includes a consultant psychiatrist, consultant clinical and forensic psychologist and a community psychiatric nurse, all are located within our centre.

The complexity and diversity of our young people is challenging and requires a multi-disciplinary approach, we have recently adopted the STAIRS model which facilitates effective planning of support.

Intervention

Our Intervention Team aims to provide the young people in our care with individualised levels of care and support, interventions form part of the daily routine. We have an extensive range of programmes including:

• cognitive behavioural programmes focusing on how thoughts and feelings influence behaviour
• substance misuse (up to Tier 4 by our substance misuse team)
• Offending is Not the Only Choice programme (24 sessions focusing on altering pro-criminal patterns that have been identified in repeat offenders)
• Violence is not the Only Choice programme (16 sessions focusing on attitudes, relationships, problem solving, consequential thinking and socio-moral reasoning)
• Ross Programme (16 sessions with a focus on anti-social behaviour looking at developing skills that will assist in pro-social competence)
• anger management
• self-harm
• sexual exploitation
• sexual harm
• peer relationships
• social skills
• self esteem
• absconding
• emotional resilience
• weapons and gangs
• consequential thinking
• knowing and understanding emotions

Interventions are also underpinned with further specific programmes including:

• arson
• robbery
• burglary
• violence
• motivation to change
• anti-bullying
• risk awareness
• anti-social behaviours
• expressing feelings
• communication skills
• homophobic bullying
• equality and diversity
• victim empathy
• domestic violence
• teen talk and hate crime

We want to provide every young person in our care with a safe and secure home and access to a comprehensive and stretching education, we are extremely proud of Aycliffe Secure and the difference we are making. 

Make a referral

Referrals to our centre are directed by:

• Youth Custody Service (YCS)
• Councils - for young people who satisfy the 'welfare' criteria specified within Section 25 of the Children Act 1989 

The NSWCU has been created to provide a single point of contact for secure welfare placements and to streamline the process of finding the most suitable placement matching the individual needs of each young person needing secure care.