Factors for Werrington YOI failures
Derren Hayes
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Staffing issues, offender management and insufficient activities behind rise in violence at once good YOI.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, described the recent inspection on Werrington young offender institution (YOI) as “one of the most horrifying reports” that the organisation has seen.
The report, which details soaring levels of violence and a breakdown in relationships between staff and young people at the Staffordshire YOI, represents a worrying decline in an establishment once considered the best in England.
In 2018, inspectors lauded the strong youth work and education provision at Werrington and said staff “deserved much credit” for delivering a culture that was “in stark contrast to what we see all too often at other establishments”.
However, the latest report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons makes for grim reading. During the six months prior to a visit from HM Inspectorate of Prisons in January more than 30 boys, all under the age of 18, had been taken to hospital following assaults. In addition, more than 400 weapons had been found in the YOI during 2021, with 40 per cent of children saying they felt unsafe during their stay at Werrington.
Violence levels
Youth justice experts say the rise in levels of violence could be the result of operational factors, many of which were exacerbated during the pandemic.
At the time of the inspection, children were spending 4.5 hours out of their cells during the week and just two hours at the weekend. At a 2020 inspection, the figure was 11.5 hours. While recognising the impact of Covid-19 restrictions, inspectors concluded that the amount of time spent out of cell “had fallen far short of our expectations over the previous six months”.
John Drew, senior associate at the Prison Reform Trust and a former chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, says that “locking children away for long periods creates pent-up anger” and highlights how purposeful activities is a crucial tool for reducing the risk of violence.
The report explains that access to educational lessons was affected by staff shortages and how allocation of courses was based on which children could mix together and not a child’s needs. “This resulted in children becoming frustrated and disengaged,” the report states.
Staffing issues
There are around 400 staff at Werrington looking after 64 young people, roughly half the number the establishment can hold. In the inspectorate’s survey of children only 60 per cent said that staff treated them with respect and 42 per cent felt staff cared for them. Many staff members said they wanted to provide good care but inspectors observed interactions with young people that were often “transactional”. “Anxiety about safety and time spent managing ‘keep-apart’ issues hindered the development of effective relationships,” it states.
Gess Aird, director of Kinetic Youth, which provides youth work services in Werrington and other YOIs, says there are issues related to the workforce.
“There are, in general, not enough establishment staff to facilitate day-to-day activities. In addition, young people do say that sometimes, the staff they do have, lack cultural awareness relating to their needs,” she says.
Coomber says the Howard League has received calls to its helpline from young people at Werrington complaining about staffing problems and education courses being cancelled.
She says the shortage of staff across the whole secure estate means that recruitment is about “getting bums on seats” with little chance to consider diversity.
“Werrington shows that even with a small number of children you can still have a bad outcome when the prison is poorly managed,” says Coomber.
Keep-apart issues
According to Coomber, a key problem at Werrington is how it manages conflict among young people.
The inspection report found that most children in the setting have to be kept apart from at least one other person, and that time spent managing the 263 non-associations “negatively affected all areas of life at Werrington”.
Managing this is a “complex matrix” that, according to Coomber, has resulted in the YOI “tying itself up in knots”.
“It’s impossible to keep on top of that,” she adds. “It has become a high-secure environment that is focused on containing children, not supporting them.”
The high number of keep-apart lists is resulting in children missing out education and leisure opportunities and compounding behaviour problems, she adds.
Coomber and Aird point to recent improvements at Feltham A YOI, which in 2019, was criticised for high levels of violence among young people many with gang affiliation. Investment in conflict resolution and reducing keep-apart lists has reduced violent incidents and seen its safety record improve.
Tackling the problems
The inspectorate makes a raft of recommendations on what needs to change, including action to urgently reduce levels of violence and improve relationships between staff and children.
Drew says senior managers must act quickly to improve the behaviour culture at the YOI and convince staff that they have the right plans to tackle the problems.
“You can then turn to the children and ask them how they want to improve things,” he adds.
Aird backs plans to make changes to the education contract from September reducing the amount of formal education to 15 hours a week and providing more holistic informal education opportunities.
“Formal education has not worked for this group historically,” she says. “Providing them with more skills and preparation for life is more valuable for them.”
The experts warn improvement will take time, but Coomber adds: “Feltham A shows you can turn things around.”