Safety
Much work is being undertaken by staff at Wetherby to support violence reduction, which the Board welcomes, including the creation, in April 2025, of the violence reduction officer role. Many young people in Wetherby are remanded or sentenced for violent offences: violent assaults continue to be a cause for concern. Young people say that they carry improvised weapons because they feel unsafe, so it becomes a vicious circle.
Safety
There were 27 in-cell fires recorded during the reporting year. Cell fires are not an uncommon occurrence at Wetherby, and there are a few young people who are known arsonists.
Estate/Conditions
There continue to be areas of the establishment that remain in a poor condition or in need of repair. However, the recent considerable investment in the buildings has undoubtedly improved the whole environment.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
It is the view of the Board that the separation wing, Benbow, has not been fit for purpose for years. The regime...is frequently minimal, with many young people spending up to 23 hours in their room. The size of the rooms only just reaches the basic standard.
Mental Health
Repeated
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) informs us that they continue to experience difficulty in delivering interventions, due to the lack of suitable rooms in which to see the young people on the wings.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The Board remains concerned about the lack of TOoR for young people who choose to self-isolate or who are placed in the care and separation unit, although this is usually for less than two hours.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Challenges in recruiting and retaining teaching staff, combined with a curriculum that did not seem to fully meet the needs or interests of young people and which led to disengagement, resulted in an educational provision that required significant improvement.
Overcrowding
At the end of the reporting year, 42 young people were held on remand in Wetherby. What urgent measures is the Minister implementing to reduce these delays and ensure timely access to justice?
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The Board remains concerned about the lack of suitable pathways available for the increasing number of young people who have very lengthy sentences.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Local authorities are slow to meet their obligations with respect to these young people. What specific steps will the local authority take to guarantee that accommodation is secured and assigned well before release?
Safety
Repeated
Despite many valuable improvements to the conditions of care at Wetherby, violent incidents among young people remain a problem, with the severity of attacks and injuries escalating.
Segregation
Repeated
What specific steps will you take to further reduce the use of separation and self-isolation, while significantly increasing meaningful TOoR?
Mental Health
Repeated
Unacceptable delays continue in securing an appropriate external mental health bed for those few young people who, clearly, are too mentally unwell to be in Wetherby.
Resettlement/Release
Immigration agents often do not communicate clearly with staff at Wetherby.
Staffing
Delays in staff vetting are currently the main reason for the high number of vacancies.
Staffing
During the reporting year, almost 19% of the band 3-5 officers retired, resulting in a huge loss of experience.
Other
There continues to be a lack of clarity amongst some staff and young people alike. Young people tell us that they are uncertain as to who their CuSP officer is and many are unclear about the purpose of CuSP.
Complaints/Property
Many young people remain uncertain about who their wing representative is or how they can contribute to meetings.
Equality/Diversity
Some young people believe that racial abuse towards white young people from other young people and staff frequently goes unchallenged.
Other
We were, therefore, surprised this year to receive applications and verbal requests from young people to say that they have not had a response to queries or applications they have submitted to chaplaincy.
Food/Catering
Young people on Benbow frequently tell members of the Board that they think the portions of food are smaller on the unit.
Complaints/Property
Some young people tell the IMB that they have no confidence in the [complaints] system.
Other
This, in itself, has caused an increase in the number of complaints the establishment received, which totalled 189. This is often due to items missing or to a delay in a young person receiving their item from reception.
Mental Health
CAMHS tells us that their service delivery is severely constrained by the lack of dedicated, private spaces and an outdated physical infrastructure that is not designed for therapeutic work.
Mental Health
Operational challenges, including low numbers of staff, restricted access to movement officers, regime constraints and education-hour restrictions, further limit flexibility and responsiveness, making assessments for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) difficult to complete.
Mental Health
The absence of set review times and variable communication continue to disrupt CAMHS’ scheduling and service delivery.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The Board continues to be concerned about the lack of suitable accommodation for a ‘looked-after child’ to be released. It can be as little as a day or two prior to release that the accommodation is finally secured.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Receiving financial support in a timely manner or, indeed, sometimes not at all, continues to be a problem for some looked-after children. The social work team reports that the situation is getting worse as local authorities struggle financially.