Stabilise and reform
Youth Custody is one of a tiny number of criminal justice successes in recent times. The youth custody population has fallen dramatically over the past two decades, from more than 3,000 children and young people in 2004/5 to an all-time low of 404 on 31 March this year.
This success has not been without its consequences though. The remains of the youth custodial estate holds some of the most vulnerable children in society, frequently with highly complex needs. Black and Mixed children, Muslim children, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, children with special education needs, disabilities, or neurodiversity and children with care-experience are all significantly over-represented and many are placed a very long way from home.
Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres are failing badly; violence, self-harm and poor regimes are endemic and, unlike the rest of the CJS, this is nothing to do with staff shortages or under-funding.
The Secure School approach, first proposed by current Chief Prisons Inspector Charlie Taylor a decade ago has faltered. Only one such School (Oasis) has been opened and has so far performed poorly and had to close because of structural issues (the wrong doors!). It is currently looking for a new Head and is supposed to be undergoing a phased re-opening.
Government plans
The Government has already invested more money (£300m) in Secure Children’s Homes and extended Release on Temporary Licence (RoTL) to support resettlement planning. It has appointed various taskforces to “drive short-term improvements” and revie safeguarding arrangements. The White Paper makes four key pledges, stating that the Government will:
- Review whether legislation governing youth custodial settings remains fit for purpose.
- Move away from large custodial institutions towards smaller, more child-centred settings.
- Increase the time children spend out of their rooms in Young Offenders Institutions, engaged in education, purposeful activity and rehabilitation, by at least 50% by the end of this Parliament.
- Publish a Youth Custody Transformation Plan in autumn 2026, setting out plans for the future of the custodial estate, the workforce that supports it, and the steps we will take to strengthen provision for children.
The Government acknowledges that a skilled and committed workforce is key to an improved youth custody system. It intends to “broaden pathways into youth custody careers” but is vague on the details, citing the Teach First (education) and Frontline (social care) initiatives, more details in the Autumn.
The Government is similarly vague about the detail of how it will move towards smaller, more child-centred settings but cites the relative success of Secure Children’s Homes, and doesn’t mention Secure Schools. It is also clear that one of the drivers for Government is the “very high lifetime costs” of children who enter the youth custody system.
Again, details are to be announced in the Youth Custody Transformation Plan this autumn.
Conclusions
It is hard to argue with the Government’s aspirations; whether it can provide the necessary funding and political impetus to achieve real change in the three years left of this parliament is another matter entirely.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
