We heard this week that Alan Wood was appointed Independent Advisor to the Chair and to the Separation Taskforce. This followed one of the most critical reports in recent times from the prisons inspectorate about the scandalous mistreatment of children. The appointment and 1/10
work of the task force was news to us. So what, you may be thinking. But this matters. The taskforce is developing government policy. A full critique of the report needs more than a series of tweets. Suffice to say Wood observes "the disparity is stark" between secure 2/10
children's homes and young offender institutions (prisons). We've known this for decades: in 1997, the then Chief Inspector of Prisons said children must be removed from prisons because they cannot meet their needs. However, instead of recommending the expansion of secure 3/10
children's homes, Wood calls for investment in prisons and for these to become secure schools with academy-like autonomy. You'll recall secure schools are to be registered as secure children's homes and they'll have to follow the children's homes quality standards (unless 4/10
further deregulation is on the way - always a possibility). Why not propose an expansion of secure children's homes? That would stop local authorities having to send extremely vulnerable children to secure units in Scotland. It would reduce the emergency use of caravans and 5/10
holiday cottages. An answer to that may be found in the review of residential care conducted by Martin Narey in 2016. This recommended new voluntary and private providers be encouraged "to enter the secure care market". LAs run all (except one) secure children's homes. 6/10
Despite this expertise, they were not allowed to apply to run the first experimental secure school (at Medway - which is presently, due to COVID-19, an adult prison). So while calls to close child prisons and invest in secure children's homes grow louder and stronger, plans 7/10
are developing to transfer more child prisons to non-state providers. As if this - and giving freedom to charismatic leaders (alarm bells for those with long memories of children's residential care) - will bring the transformation needed for children. There's not a hint of 8/10
acknowledgement of the severe harms caused to children through the last failed experiment of prisons pretending to be child welfare settings - secure training centres run by G4S & Serco. All these reviews happen in silos (though crossover of individuals). It would be an 9/10
enormous service to the children of this country who, for a variety of reasons, need time (sometimes considerable time) in a residential setting if Ministers could transparently and inclusively develop a national plan and strategy for children's residential care, inc secure. /END
