Delays in building safe schools leave vulnerable young people, especially girls, in unsafe conditions, according to a new report from MPs.
The report found that delays in building safe schools, in addition to the closure of secure education centers, had left children with “substandard care”, amid concerns that highly vulnerable girls were being failed by child custody services.
The House of Commons review Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that girls made up only 3% of children in custody in the year ending March 2021, but were among the “most vulnerable in the estate” as they were more likely to experience sexual or physical violence and relationship problems .
PAC added that delays in building new safe schools put young people at risk in “unsafe” conditions.
The report found that when Rainsbrook Secure Training Center — a secure center rated “inadequate” by Ofsted in 2021 because bad practices endangered children — was closed late last year, the prison service opened a specialized unit to accommodate girls at HMYOI (Her Majesty’s Young Offender Institution) Wetherby at short notice.
The prison service continues to place girls at the Keppel unit in Wetherby, despite the fact that “the facilities there are still maturing”. PAC’s report found.
Although there has been a sustained decline in the number of children in custody, Government and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) also expect that number to more than double by 2024, while the prison service faces “significant delays and increases in costs” in opening its first safe school.
“We are not convinced of the commitment of the Ministry and the HMPPS to realize the safe school vision of small, local, education-oriented institutions,” the PAC report said.
It added that the first such school may now not open until February 2024, more than seven years after the Charlie Taylor review set out the government’s commitments to create safe schools with “ambitious standards” for all students.
The Taylor review planned to keep safe schools small, with 60-70 places, and “close to the communities they serve.”
Oasis Charitable Trust was appointed as the provider of the first such school in 2019, and HMPPS only later realized that legislation would be needed for a charity to run a safe school.
Plans for the second secure school have not been made.
The PAC report said that using a provider to run a safe school was “untested” and that there were “insufficient safeguards”.
HMPPS now plans to work “in partnership” with the provider through a financing agreement, but the PAC report added that it was “still working out the essential details of this arrangement, including how it will encourage the provider to accept the wide range of children. that HMPPS would want it to accept, and how it would deal with underperformance.”
HMPPS also said it “assesses and actively monitors Oakhill STC’s performance,” according to the report, a center in Milton Keynes where Ofsted inspectors found “frequent” violence and excessive use of force in October 2021.
Inspectors found the area to be “derelict” last year, with a report of a surveillance visit showing that in July and August 2021, children were spending up to 23 hours a day in their rooms due to insufficient staffing.
Inspectors described this practice, while it had ended at the time of their visit, as “completely inappropriate”, adding that children’s experiences at the time “were dismal and barely met the minimum standards of human decency”.
It’s time the department got a grip on the program it announced seven years ago
PAC found the estate managed by HMPPS and the Department of Justice to be “totally unfit” to meet the complex needs of children in custody, following the recent MacAlister review which found that both STCs and YOIs were “completely unsuitable” are for housing children in criminal law.
In April 2022, 432 children between the ages of 10 and 17 were held in the UK. PAC found that children from ethnic minorities and children with mental health or learning disabilities were overrepresented.
Lady Meg HillierPAC chairman, said: “The government faces the twin disaster of a growing number of children being held in custody, while delays and rising costs threaten the promised safe facilities.
“Safe schools were heralded as the solution for the youngest and most vulnerable in custody. It’s time the department got to grips with the program it announced support for seven years ago.
“We urge the government to understand the impact that child custody has on children, especially children held in unsafe conditions or receiving substandard care.
“Clearly, the government lacks a coherent juvenile custody strategy, which must have the need to reduce the number of children entering the criminal justice system and provide adequate safeguards to those who do.”
The report recommends that the HMPPS set out how it will measure how it will meet the needs of vulnerable children in custody, set out a clear strategy for how it will improve outcomes through early intervention, and set out how ensuring capacity means children can be placed in centers close to home.
It added that HMPPS, along with the Department of Justice, gave assurances that it had “firm control over the remaining time and costs of delivering the first safe school,” and set out how the funding agreement would provide high-quality care. guarantee at the first safe school, as well as specific plans for the evaluation of the Keppel unit at HMYOI Wetherby.