weekends spent with their families, for example, can be problematic, as can disciplinary sanctions. The manner in which telephone calls are made, the receipt and sending of letters and the organisation of personal consumption also constitute sensitive issues. National directives, on the part of both the judicial youth protection service and the associations, need to do exclude any vagueness and hesitation in this respect. The same applies to the educational projects mentioned above. It would be desirable to display or make available the Charter of rights and liberties of persons committed to the institution. As a consequence, children need to be protected by adults from violence, fear and behaviours not in accordance with health and well-being. Clear instructions need to be given to the staff of institutions with regard to this point: no laxness or complicity in these areas in admissible. Particular attention needs to be devoted to the manner in which, in practice, this educational work can be continuously fulfilled by all. Work with families, which may themselves be in difficulty, is inseparable from educational action aimed at their children. In the first place, the institutions need to organise reception of families on the site (which requires norms concerning premises) and ensure the greatest possible involvement of the latter in the efforts made with the children, except in cases where harm for the latter might result therefrom (regular provision of information in both directions, feedback on weekends etc.); and, in the second place, they need to be in a position to notify the social services of the family home in case of special difficulty (the youth worker charged with following the child’s development being able to serve as an intermediary). It should never be possible for children to be admitted to young offenders’ institutions without preparation. Experience shows that the more the stay is explained to the young person placed in an institution, the better it is accepted by the latter, and that relations with the other adolescents are all the easier in so far as the latter have been prepared. Initial contact with a tutor, a transitional phase (a night in a hotel), reception documents which are carefully composed and handed over (models could be established if necessary) are always preferable to dramatic encounters. Juvenile court judges should understand the necessity thereof. Adolescents need to receive education through responsibility in their daily lives and the activities proposed to them. They are entitled to moments of relaxation and solitude, although understanding with others is indispensable, and they need to comply with the rules of time decided upon: boredom is not educational. Teaching and leisure activities need to offer them opportunities for improving their behaviour, in accordance with simple, clear and shared frames of reference. Periodical stages of progress need to be distinguished, for which passing from one stage to the other cannot have an automatic character. Extensions of stays beyond their usual duration of a six-month period renewed on one occasion (a total of one year therefore) by juvenile court judges should not be ruled out, on an exceptional basis, even in case of judicial supervision, when the child is engaged in a very positive course of action in the CEF, including for example the preparation of a vocational training qualification (over a two-year period). This possibility means an amendment of the third paragraph of 2° of II of article 10-2 of the statutory instrument (ordonnance) of 2nd February 1945. 57