The review

This thematic review aimed to understand the reasons for children’s poor perceptions of their relationships with staff, and identify positive practice and areas for improvement. It is based on data collected from three YOI establishments holding children in England and Wales in September 2024 – Parc, Werrington and Wetherby and Keppel. The data collection had two stages: the first was a case file analysis to collect key information on the delivery of the custody support plan (CuSP) and behaviour management processes for a representative sample of children. The second was on-site fieldwork, which included individual interviews with children, officers and members of staff, and group discussions with officers and custodial managers. In addition, inspectors held meetings with managers, reviewed key data and policies, and observed activities on the units.

Findings

Children and staff interviewed at all three YOIs said they wanted the same things: consistency and enough time to get to know each other properly. Yet many aspects of daily life thwarted this interaction. Children were often locked up for long periods of time, staff were frequently moved to different units and there were few spaces for children to talk privately to staff.

Rather than dining together children ate largely alone in their cells, and a lack of informal interaction opportunities meant officers only talked to them as they were being escorted around the establishment. Most children said they were unable to have a meaningful weekly conversation with a member of staff they knew.

Children valued officers who were responsive and reliable, but frequent staff changes meant their everyday requests were often dealt inconsistently. At Werrington and Wetherby in particular, this created a sense of frustration and meant boys did not always trust staff to deal with bigger issues such as bullying and violence.

In contrast to the public sector YOIs, the picture at Parc was much better. Children were out of their cells for much longer every day, the rules were well established, and relationships were stronger.

Most officers had received training on the joined-up Framework for Integrated Care or had some understanding of it. However, the approach had been poorly implemented and many officers said they were not able, or had too little time, to access information that would help them understand the needs of each child. Despite working in very challenging environments, many frontline operational staff did not receive the support that those in other professions take for granted, including regular supervision from their manager.

Conclusion

In his press release accompanying the publication of the report Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said:

“This report sets out in stark terms the failure by the Youth Custody Service to create environments in which children in YOIs can form positive, appropriate relationships with authoritative, well-trained and well-supported staff. In 2018 my predecessor reported that children who had these relationships with staff were likely to be motivated to engage with behaviour management schemes. Seven years on behaviour management is an increasing challenge but chronic inconsistency and a failure to embed the framework for integrated care are corroding the relationships needed for this progress.”

Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here.