Over the past two years Geilsland school, set in the North Ayrshire countryside, has turned one of its three care units into a specialist centre for young sex offenders. It is a move in line with the emerging wisdom that adolescence is the best time to attempt to reform offending behaviour.

Without intervention, there is a risk such behaviour will continue into adulthood, a danger underlined in Reducing the Risk, the report by the Expert Panel on Sex Offending chaired by Lady Cosgrove which was published by the Scottish Executive in the summer.

The specialist unit is called Lomond and the “Lomond boys” are cared for within a regime that provides a high level of therapy. But it also acknowledges the gravity of behaviour which can involve sex abuse of minors, stalking and rape.

The care and therapeutic package is, in turn, set firmly in the context of the daily timetable of education classes and vocational training all Geilsland boys receive. Ranald Mair, the headteacher, stresses the importance of education in providing “a positive arena in which self esteem and confidence is raised and a practical structure for growth and change”.

The day to day regime is a strict one aimed at “creating a safe environment for all”, Mr Mair says.

Boys are escorted at all times as they move around a pleasantly landscaped rural environment between their residential unit and the education block.

Within the Lomond unit even swearing is strictly forbidden. The boys face sanctions and loss of privileges if they transgress. “This is because swearing nowadays has sexual overtones,” Fiona Berry, the Lomond unit manager, says.

The staffing ratio, at four to nine, is high. This enables staff not to be alone with any of the boys to guard against false sexual allegations, a risk Ms Berry warns cannot be completely ruled out.

This strictness is tempered with regular opportunities for the boys to express their views over the running of the unit, or education activities during a “choices” afternoon. At the same time “risk assessments” are constantly being made to gauge the level of freedom and control applied to each boy. One now has got as far as being allowed to leave Geilsland unsupervised to attend further education college.

“We build up trust over a period of years,” Ms Berry says.

A vital feature of Lomond unit is individual and group therapy each week, using care staff trained in the work by Joe Nee, the school’s psychologist. Group work deals with socially relevant behaviour such as anger management while one-to-one therapy focuses on the reasons and causes of `offending behaviour.

This does not adopt the “cognitive behavioural approach” which focuses on the consequences of actions - now common in work with offenders. Mr Nee says: “We concentrate on feelings. What happened? And how did you feel? What was going on in your life then?” The therapy encourages boys to articulate their thoughts. Mr Nee says: “We want to get beyond their two stock answers - ‘it’s shite’ or ‘it’s all right’ when we ask them how they are feeling.”

It is an approach that is translated into the care setting. If there is a flare up of aggression between boys “we get them to talk about it in the same way”, Ms Berry says.

Each boy has key care and education workers who meet regularly. In the classroom education staff use years of teaching experience to encourage calm and productive behaviour from the boys. If there are behaviour problems, these are addressed in meetings between the boys and their key workers.

Mr Mair says the Geilsland approach is straightforward: “We try to win pupils round. But at the same time we set clear boundaries that are not negotiable.”