Children and Young People in Custody (part 2): The Youth Secure Estate and Resettlement Contents

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4Youth Justice Reform

78.Charlie Taylor’s 2016, review of the youth justice system proposed reform of the custodial estate, noting that:

“The changes that are required to transform the nature and effectiveness of the youth custodial estate are significant, but the argument for doing so is strong. If the astonishingly high reoffending rates are to be reduced, mental health problems tackled and the educational attainment of children in custody improved, the government must be prepared to change the entire way it thinks about youth custody.”114

79.Proposals included the introduction of secure schools and reforms to the existing estate, including putting health and education at the heart of youth custody. The Government agreed that the Review “makes a compelling case for change” and noted that they would implement Charlie Taylor’s “key recommendation by putting education at the heart of youth custody and improving the provision of health care to tackle the factors that increase the risk of offending.”115 The Government pledged to develop two secure schools in line with the principles set out in the review.116 The Youth Justice Reform Programme was launched in 2017 to deliver the custodial reforms in two phases: one focused on reforms to the existing estate and another concerned with the longer-term vision of creating secure schools.117

Secure Schools

80.The Taylor Review found that half the 15 to 17-year-olds entering YOIs have the literacy and numeracy levels expected of a 7 to 11-year-old. Around 40% of those surveyed in under-18 YOIs reported that they had not been to school since they were 14, and nearly nine out of 10 had been excluded from school at some point.118 The review concluded that “education needs to be our central response to youth offending”, stressing that making sure children are in full-time education or employment can be one of the most effective ways to prevent youth crime. Charlie Taylor said:

“In order that education is truly placed at the heart of youth custody, I believe that the government must reconceive youth prisons as schools. I propose the creation of Secure Schools. These will be smaller custodial establishments of up to 60–70 places which are located in the regions that they serve. They should be set up within schools legislation, commissioning in England in a similar way to alternative provision free schools, and governed and inspected as schools. Rather than seeking to import education into youth prisons, schools must be created for detained children which bring together other essential services, and in which are then overlaid the necessary security arrangements. Education, health and offender desistance programmes need to be at the heart of the work to rehabilitate children.”119

81.The Government agreed and committed to developing “two ‘secure schools’ - one in the North and one in the South - working closely with the DfE [Department For Education].”120 In July 2019, the Government announced that the first secure school was scheduled to open in late 2020 on the site of Medway Secure Training Centre in Kent. The school will provide up to 64 places for boys and girls between the age of 12 and 17 who are sentenced to custody or held on remand.121 The Ministry of Justice told us “the long-term ambition is to replace all YOIs and STCs with secure schools, leaving an estate consisting of secure schools and SCHs.”122

82.The opening of the first secure school has been subject to significant delay. In late 2019, the opening was delayed until 2021.123 In April 2020, Lucy Frazer wrote to the Committee to say the former Secure Training Centre buildings would be temporarily used to provide additional overspill accommodation help tackle the spread of covid-19 within the prison estate, but that Medway would remain the location for the first school and refurbishment work would not be impacted by the reopening.124

83.Only two months later, however, she wrote to us to say that there was a further delay and that the Ministry of Justice was now working towards opening the first secure school in 2022.125

84.The Government’s commitment to developing secure schools has been widely welcomed. The Children’s Commissioner says, for example: that secure schools have “the potential to take a completely new approach to youth offending. The initiative has transformative ambitions, aiming to get to the root causes of offending using a welfare-led, therapeutic approach, and to equip young people with the tools to succeed in society once they leave custody.”126 Ofsted and the Prison Reform Trust are among others to support the introduction of secure schools, albeit with caveats about the needs to provide appropriate environments and the need for more clarity on how precisely they will work.127128

85.There is concern about the pace and scale of the reform. Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner, told us: “I support the move towards secure schools, but we need 10 not one, and the one needs to open.” HM Inspectorate of Prisons, made similar points:

“We welcome the ambition to replace the current estate with smaller institutions with a different ethos to existing provision. However, as is the case with progress in improving existing establishments, we have significant concerns about the slow pace of developing new establishments. Many children will have finished their sentences and become adults in the time it will take to establish one secure school. We also think consideration needs to be given to the impact of further fragmentation of the sector; by 2021 there will be four separate models of custody for children”.129

86.Angus Mulready-Jones, Lead for Children and Young Adults, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, told us:

it has been far too slow to open what looks like one establishment, using existing legislation, in an existing facility. On current timeframes, it looks like it is going to take five years to open one secure school. Despite the fact that the Government’s response to Charlie Taylor’s report suggested that two would be piloted, I am not sure where the second one will be piloted. During this time, many children have been housed in establishments where treatment and outcomes are simply not good enough.

… if you planned a full timeframe based on that one school, it would take 50 or 60 years to replace the existing provision. It needs to be much swifter than that and there needs to be a coherent implementation plan, which is funded, to replace those facilities.”130

87.Colin Allars, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board, added:

“it is not moving quickly enough in terms of the secure school. [Charlie Taylor] pushed very hard and he took the ball to the Department and made it clear to the Department.

In mitigation of the Department, although that is not my job, it was something new, starting from scratch and they have had to work their way through some real difficulties. They appear to be making good progress on those, albeit against a timeframe that we would say is too long, because we need the secure school.”131

88.The Minister for Justice, Lucy Frazer, herself described the delay at Medway as ‘frustrating’ given the wide support for the secure school concept, but described it, too, as an ‘exciting opportunity’ to change custodial provision for young people.132 We could, she said, “have an individual approach that focuses on education and helping people with their mental health issues to help them to turn their lives around.”

89.Although the concept has been welcomed, the decision to locate the first school at Medway has not met with universal approval.133 The Howard League told us: “The vision of secure schools was well-intentioned but, as the choice of Medway STC as the first site highlights, is just re-inventing yet another type of prison that risks repeating decades of failure at terrible cost.”134 Just for Kids Law were similarly ‘disheartened’ by the choice of Medway:

“It raises real doubts that the government has any intention of taking a child-centred approach regarding youth custody reform. It is too big, too far from London–where the majority of children will come from–and looks and feels like a traditional custodial estate. Charlie Taylor’s original proposals for Secure Schools suggest that simply importing education into child prisons will not work.”135

90.In the short term, too, a single new secure school will be able to accommodate comparatively few children and young people, with the rest remaining within the existing estate. Angus Mulready Jones, Lead for Children and Young Adults, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, said:

“ Some of the impact of the effort to get secure schools across the line has been, perhaps, that some of the other work has not happened at a pace that anyone would like.

During that time, we have published several reports with recommendations on how to manage behaviour better, on the impact of children being housed a long distance from home and on resettlement, as well as our separation thematic and the establishment report, and they highlight time and again the need for reform. There is a need to focus on the real basics of custody and care, things like making sure that each child can meet a named professional each week. It is really simple stuff, a building block to reform those establishments, and through those basics to start delivering some of the more difficult stuff in terms of education and more therapeutic input.”136

91.We welcome development of the secure school model and agree with the Minister for Justice, Lucy Frazer QC MP, that this offers an opportunity to reform the existing estate to better meet the needs of the children it holds. It is disappointing that the timetable for opening has been subject to continued delays, with opening of the first school planned for 2020 now pushed back to 2022, five years after the original commitment to developing two secure schools. The Ministry of Justice should set out why the opening has been subject to repeated delays. We recommend that it guarantee that the first school will open as now planned in 2022, and set out what is being done to ensure that that opening is achieved on time.

92.We welcome the Government’s long-term ambition to replace YOIs and STCs with secure schools, but we are concerned about the level of commitment demonstrated in achieving this aim, given the length of time it has taken to develop a single secure school. We recommend that the Ministry publish a timetable setting out how, where and when it plans to replace YOIs and STCs with secure schools and what resource has been allocated to ensure this commitment is achievable and is met.

Reforms to the existing estate

93.As well as promising two secure schools, the Government committed to reform the rest of the youth custodial estate. The Ministry of Justice told us:

“Inspection reports for Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) and Secure Training Centres (STCs) show that safety is not good enough, and in July 2019 an Urgent Notification was invoked for Feltham ‘A’ YOI. The YCS is working to address challenges in staff recruitment and retention, including training that focuses on the needs of children. “137

94.On staffing, the Ministry of Justice further note that:

“As part of the reform programme, the YCS is working to address recruitment challenges in YOIs and high levels of staff turnover in STCs, and transform the skillset of staff to focus more upon the needs of children and young people. They have introduced a new Youth Justice Specialist role and are providing funding for every Prison Officer in the YCS to undertake up to a foundation degree in youth justice and transition to this new role on progression and at a higher pay-grade. This role engages with the root causes of young people’s offending behaviour, develop strong positive relationships, and co-ordinate their progress through new and existing educational, health, behavioural and psychological programmes.”

95.As of 31 March 2020, there were 1,530 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in post in the youth custody service.138 That is 257 (14.4%) fewer than the figure one year before. In the year ending 31 March 2020, 103 joined the YCS, some 79.0% fewer year on year. There were 202 leavers in the year ending March 2020, some 18.8% more than in 2019. The Youth Custody Service had the highest sickness absence rate of all HMPPS staff, too, at 14.6 average working days lost each year.139

96.Difficulties with staffing, whether with overall numbers or with inexperienced staff owing to recent turnover, may mean that services are not fully provided, with potential negative effects, in particular, on the rehabilitation of young offenders. Independent Monitoring Boards, among others, highlighted the effect of staffing shortages on time offenders spend out of cell, including some missed healthcare appointments.140 The Children’s Commissioner noted that the “implementation of positive behaviour management schemes is undermined by challenges in the recruitment and retention of staff. Though staffing levels have been improving, there are still issues with high turnover and lack of training which undermines relationship building between children and staff.”141 Ofsted said: “currently, all three STCs do not have staff at all levels with the necessary skill, experience, training and qualifications to care well and safely for children.”142

97.In June 2020, the Ministry of Justice announced a £4.9 million scheme that will see each officer working in youth custody become a Youth Justice Specialist after completing degree-level training. Some 114 have already achieved degree-level qualification and more than 240 others are now in training.143 The Ministry of Justice also note that the Youth Custody service has increased staffing by a third in three years, with 289 more front-line personnel than it had in December 2016.144

98.We welcome the Government’s commitment to reform the rest of the estate, but we are concerned that the youth estate in its current form is not meeting the needs of the children being held. We have heard about high levels of violence and self-harm and about staffing issues. The Ministry of Justice should set out specifically what reforms to the existing estate have taken place since the Taylor Review and what reforms are in progress or due to commence and complete over the next two years, before the new secure school opens.

99.We welcome the recent announcement that officers working in youth custody will become Youth Justice Specialists after completing degree-level training, but we remain concerned about staff turnover in the youth estate, and the effect that staffing difficulties have on day-to-day running of the secure estate. The Ministry of Justice should set out its workforce strategy, specifically relating to staff in the youth custodial estate. We further recommend that the Ministry commission research into the reasons why staff turnover has been high.