D.40 The SEU heard a great deal of concern about the rise in short-term DTOs, which were felt to be of questionable value in terms of punishment or rehabilitation. For instance, at Rainsbrook STC the number of sentences for six months or less in March 2000 was 42 per cent. By December it was 63 per cent. Some at secure establishments felt that the short time in which a juvenile would be in custody was insufficient to do anything of value – an argument strikingly similar to that employed for short-term adult prisoners elsewhere in this report.
D.41 Many establishment staff also expressed frustration at their inability to add days to the custodial phase of a DTO. This, they felt, left them without a key method of maintaining discipline. Equally importantly, there was also evidence that for this reason some establishments had found problems in attempting to move on juveniles coming to the end of their DTO.
Education
“I don’t want you in my school. You will do nothing for my league table results.”
Headteacher to a 15-year-old leaving a YOI
“Young people are contacting secure units and asking whether they can come back in. They are talking about breaching because there is no provision for them outside.”
Education manager
“There’s no provision for these kids in the community. I end up teaching most of them myself.”
Education YOT worker
D.42 Many juvenile prisoners will still be of compulsory school age, and even those who are older are likely to have had an interrupted or incomplete experience of school. Adequate provision of education is therefore paramount for this group.
D.43 A recent report, however, found that a broad, balanced curriculum is not on offer to juvenile prisoners in YOIs.389In particular, it found that ‘special educational needs are an area of major
weakness, with insufficient support and an extremely low level of transmission of important evidence from and to the community. Literacy and numeracy do not permeate the curriculum sufficiently. Other areas needing improvement are accreditation, awards ceremonies, homework, lesson planning and National Records of Achievement (NRA).’
D.44 The report also criticised the current funding regime for education across the secure estate. Nearly as much is spent on education for the 300 bed spaces in LASUs as on the 2,900 bed spaces in YOIs. The cost of education per bed space on average is 8–10 times greater in LASUs and STCs than in YOIs. There is a marked variation in costs across LASUs, and for the larger ones education is significantly more expensive than in STCs. Others have also noted that the use of unqualified teachers is much higher in juvenile YOIs than STCs.390
D.45 As noted above, the YJB has set secure facilities a target of increasing by 15 per cent the proportion of young people held for three months or more who achieve Level 2 in literacy and numeracy by 2004. However, recent research calls into question how realistic this target is. It makes clear that only a very few young people are in a position actually to reach this level with many below Level 1 in terms of academic attainment.391
D.46 During its visits, the SEU heard of a range of other problems, including:
● appropriateness of provision while in custody: a YOT worker reported that a prisoner for whom she
was responsible had spent three hours a day in art classes during the year he was in a YOI;
● difficulties in making links back into the mainstream: many of the more vulnerable children, for
whom LASUs and STCs are felt to be the most appropriate environment, have to be placed far from home. As a result, effective work in reintegrating them back into mainstream education (as well as the broader community and their family upon release) is made more difficult; and
● lack of access to suitable mainstream provision: while children entering custody are routinely
taken off their school’s roll after 6–8 weeks’ absence, the money paid to the school for the young person – withheld by the local education authority (LEA) once they are removed from the roll – does not follow them into custody nor, in many instances, does it seem available once the child returns to the community. And – particularly important for this group – statemented funding does not follow young people into institutions. The SEU heard examples of LEAs
refusing to accept responsibility for a young person returning to their area, often seeing them as likely to push down academic performance. On occasion, this reluctance to accept responsibility goes so far as refusing to provide small amounts of funding in order for someone to finish their course, or take an exam.
D.47 All of the above combine to produce a situation where reintroducing juvenile prisoners into mainstream provision post-release requires a great deal of effort. At Rainsbrook STC, 24 per cent of juvenile offenders do not enter any education on release at all.
Physical and mental health
D.48 LASUs and STCs report frequent difficulties in accessing basic healthcare services, in particular GPs. Secure Units report that trips to accident and emergency departments are often the only way of ensuring that young people are treated by a qualified practitioner. In response to such difficulties in accessing NHS services, many custodial facilities have bought in private health services. The YJB estimates that it is paying in excess of £12 million per year to supplement provision of healthcare services that should be available from the NHS.
D.49 The level of mental health needs among the juvenile prison population is a constant theme. The previous Chief Inspector of Prisons – in an otherwise positive report on the improvements made in Feltham since the establishment of a separate juvenile facility – noted that it still contained ‘the most seriously disturbed group of young men – the majority of whom should be in medical rather than custodial accommodation’. He also found that only 15 hours purposeful activity per week were being provided, as well as education for only 90 instead of the 200 with identified
D.50 Although there are examples of where community mental health teams provide routine services to secure juvenile facilities, mental health care most commonly takes the form of a child psychiatrist contracted to provide weekly sessions. The SEU saw an example in one of the largest LASUs of where this amounted to half a day per week. This approach can mean that juveniles do not benefit from a multi-agency approach, and in turn reduces their chances of being connected back to community services in their area.
D.51 Most of those the SEU met referred to an acute shortage of appropriate mental health provision for juvenile offenders, both inside and outside prison. The vast majority of those with diagnosable mental health problems, but who do not require mental health admission, do not receive adequate management and care from custodial or community-based services.
D.52 Too many young people remain in custody when they need in-patient mental healthcare. In most areas, there appears to be no alternative/diversionary provision, and no system for identifying or dealing with mental health problems. The YJB estimates that there could be as many as 300 young people in juvenile establishments requiring transfer to specialist secure mental health facilities at any one time. A 2000 report to the Department for Health found that ‘psychiatrists are often trained in adult rather than adolescent psychiatry’ and that ‘there is no formalised route for the transfer of the seriously mentally ill out of YOIs.393Currently there are 23 beds nationally for this
age group, with an additional 20 beds planned, awaiting funding. These beds have recently been redesignated to young people with long-term chronic mental health needs, potentially leaving no NHS provision for acute assessment and treatment in secure Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) beds.
D.53 This significant shortage in secure mental health beds for adolescents and limited community forensic CAMHS services means that young people are being inappropriately placed in custody and returning to the community without adequate assessment or treatment.
D.54 While Regional Specialist Commissioning Groups should consider the needs of all age groups, there is widespread concern that the needs of 16–17-year-olds are neglected. A 1999 report into adolescent mental health highlighted ‘the compelling evidence of the lack of support and help for those children who are deemed to be most challenging … particularly those children/young people who are in young offender institutions/prisons … There is little, if any, provision of mental health services that target their needs.’394
Housing
D.55 The general lack of appropriate housing for homeless young people has been highlighted by some studies.395For juveniles leaving custody, who are likely to have high support needs, the situation
seems to be even worse.
D.56 The National Association for Youth Justice, an umbrella organisation for voluntary groups working with children, told the SEU that they were aware of several cases of 15- and 16-year-old children being released from custody to homelessness. This resulted in part from confusion at a local level as to who was responsible – social services or housing – with children falling between the gaps in local authority departments. The situation for looked-after children seems particularly problematic, with some local authorities automatically considering them homeless on release.
Benefits
“The rules about who can claim are complicated and harsh. Consequently, many young people may be wrongly denied benefit, and many others may not bother claiming at all.”396
D.57 Discharge grants are not paid to juvenile offenders, so many are left to rely on family support or benefits. Yet the limited nature of benefit provision for 16–17-year-olds in particular has been widely discussed.39716–17-year-olds may be entitled to income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or
Income Support on the grounds of severe hardship. However, as the above quote from the authoritative Benefits Guide points out, the system is complex, and without support many young people will not have the necessary skills to navigate it effectively. The advent of the Connexions Service, and of specialist 16/17 advisers in Jobcentre Plus offices is intended to address these problems.
D.58 The SEU found little evidence of relevant expertise either among secure unit staff or among YOT workers to advise on financial matters, nor of Jobcentre Plus liaising effectively with these services.