Youth Justice Board For England Wales
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Steph Roberts-Bibby, Chief Executive Officer of the YJB, said:
There is a declining picture in the secure estate for children as evidenced in HM Inspectorate of Prisons Children in Custody Report today. Sadly, this is not one that can be fixed overnight and there are many contributors at play.
The safety of children in custody is our primary concern, and this is becoming exacerbated by ongoing staffing issues, poor physical environment and the increasingly complex needs of children. The increase in young adults being detained in these settings exacerbates this issue.
Behaviour management systems, designed with children in mind, are overwhelmed by very high levels of violence. This violence is struggling to be managed effectively due to depleted staffing levels, high levels of sickness and a lack of appropriately trained staff to handle the different needs of children and young adults.
The increases of young adults in these settings is an unintended consequence of the capacity issues in adult prisons. This results in fewer young adults transitioning from custody for children when they turn 18.
The report states that 18-year-olds made up 29% of those responding to the survey, increasing from 11% just 5 years ago. The housing of adults and children alongside each other is complex, and in the past has been in very small numbers while the young adult transitions from childhood into adulthood, and from secure settings for children to the adult estate.
Intelligence gathered through our oversight work, and evidence, identifies that there are distinct differences and approaches required in relation to skills that staff need to support young adults (18-21) as opposed to children.
For the custodial workforce there are now specialist youth justice professionals in place rather than prison officers. We identified that to train the workforce to engage in the same principles with 18 to 21-year-olds would require a substantial increase in resource, but that resource is not available to the Youth Custody Service (YCS).
Minister Nic Dakin announced in September that the interim policy to hold 18-year-olds in custody until their 19th birthday would end from October 2024. We will continue to monitor this situation and we hope to see improvements over the coming months that will bring levels of violence down in custody for children.
What is also worrying from the report is that 63% of those surveyed reported experiencing verbal abuse by staff and a third (33%) say that staff have physically assaulted them. I will be writing to the YCS to express my concerns on this and to learn about the steps being taken to address these worrying statistics.