A report out this morning finds that educational opportunities for children in Young Offenders Institutions have been steadily declining for the last decade.
The report by the regulator OFSTED found that the Institutions are struggling to manage challenging behaviour, which is seeing children increasingly kept in isolation.
Some children are allowed as little as half an hour a day outside their cell.
The review makes a number of recommendations for youth custody service leaders, including that the amount of time that children are kept in isolation or locked up should be significantly reduced.
Children’s and young people’s attendance at education must be prioritised, so they can access a comprehensive and purposeful day of educational activity, training opportunities and work that best meet their needs and career goals.
Appropriately qualified and competent teaching staff should be recruited, who know how to support children to make good progress.
Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver said:
I am deeply concerned by these findings. The children in these institutions are entitled to a high-quality education that supports them to turn their lives around. The system is failing them.
I am especially concerned that children are spending extended periods in isolation, further compromising their opportunity to become successful and productive citizens upon their release.
HMIP’s Chief Inspector, Charlie Taylor said:
Children in custody are among the most troubled and challenging in society, often with experience of being in care and having had very disrupted education in the community. Their time in custody ought to represent a golden opportunity to address that through consistent interventions and support, but we continue to report on very poor provision, particularly for those children separated from their peers in response to conflict. Education in our YOIs needs to be prioritised and its delivery transformed if we want to see less youth crime and more children going on to lead successful lives.
The review finds that both the quality and quantity of education have reduced over 10 years, and children have access to far too few work experience opportunities. It identifies YOI staff’s inability to manage children’s complex behaviours as one of the main reasons for the poor quality of education. Effective behaviour management strategies are not put in place, which means children are often kept in isolation, apart from their peers and unable to access enough hours of education. Combined with staff shortages, it is harder for staff to build relationships with children.
The review also finds that the time children spend out of their cells has reduced sharply, with some children allowed as little as half an hour a day outside their cell.
Inspectors from Ofsted and HMIP found that poor leadership and a lack of cooperation between education providers and YOI leaders mean that leaders and managers have established very few effective sustainable measures to deal with rapidly declining standards at YOIs.
