Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 15
16th Report - Children and young people in custody
Published 10 Feb 2021
Paragraph 99
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 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.
From: Justice Committee, 16th Report - Children and young people in custody (HC 922), paragraph 99, 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".