Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 14
16th Report - Children and young people in custody
Published 10 Feb 2021
Paragraph 98
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Children and young people in custody All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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.
From: Justice Committee, 16th Report - Children and young people in custody (HC 922), paragraph 98, 10 February 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 April 2021 (deadline 10 April 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out progress and planned work across separation, self-harm, use of force, race disparity, secure schools and resettlement, with several stated timescales, and says it agrees that more needs to be done to improve transparency on separation data.
- On separation, it expects to begin publishing separation data on a quarterly basis in the 2022/23 financial year, and "expect the policy to be published by August with implementation following immediately after".
- On pain-inducing techniques, it says it "aim[s] to remove this technique by the summer", accompanied by a suite of training for staff.
- On the first secure school, it says it "continue[s] to work towards an opening date at the end of 2022" and will keep the Committee updated; its long-term ambition is to replace all YOIs and STCs with secure schools, an "ambition that will take some time to be realised".
- On staff turnover, it is reviewing turnover in public sites, with a provisional reporting date of 30 June 2021. On transitions to adult custody, it aims to publish a policy framework "later this year".