Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics show that Werrington, Wetherby and Feltham YOIs have consistently failed to deliver enough purposeful activity during the week, with children spending even longer in their cells at weekends.
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Analysis: Factors for Werrington YOI failings
The figures, which show monthly averages for time out of cell and education provision in each YOI between January 2024 and February 2025, were given in response to parliamentary questions and Freedom of Information Act requests from the Howard League.
It is a legal requirement that YOIs must deliver at least 15 hours of education per week to children of statutory school age – but the charity says this is the bare minimum and that the government expects prisons to provide more.
In fact, it said the monthly averages recorded in each establishment indicate that the hours of education actually delivered fail to meet the standards expected.
There was not a single month when Werrington YOI got children out of their cells for more than five hours per day on weekdays. The most time out of cell on average was recorded in August 2024 (four hours and 44 minutes) and the least was in February 2025 (three hours and 23 minutes). At weekends, monthly averages ranged from three hours and 36 minutes in May 2024 to two hours and eight minutes in August 2024.
Time out of cell on weekdays for children in Wetherby YOI was at its highest in February 2024 (six hours and 25 minutes per day on average) and lowest in December 2024 (three hours and 56 minutes). At weekends, monthly averages ranged from four hours and 46 minutes in July 2024 to two hours and 19 minutes in January 2025.
On weekdays in January 2024, children in Feltham were allowed out of their cells for five hours and five minutes on average – and this was the most time out of cell that the establishment would record all year. It dipped lowest in August 2024, with averages of two hours and 54 minutes on weekdays and two hours and 24 minutes at weekend.
Education delivery in Feltham fell to only 1.5 hours on average in August 2024 and 2.4 hours on average in September 2024. From July 2024 onwards, the number of hours delivered per week on average never reached double figures.
At Werrington it was highest in July 2024 (14.7 hours per week on average) and lowest in February 2025 (7.8 hours) and at no time reached a monthly average above the 15 hours mandated by law for children of statutory school age.
During the 14-month period, Wetherby prison rarely delivered more than 10 hours of education per week on average.
Meanwhile, figures for Parc YOI in Wales show that it typically provided about double the hours of education given in English settings – and consistently above the 15 hours per week that must be delivered to children of statutory school age. Children in Parc also received on average between seven and nine hours on weekdays, and between five and eight hours at weekends.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League, said: “Children need fresh air, exercise, education and contact with others if they are to grow up to lead healthy lives. But this isn't happening in the three prisons holding children in England, and the figures we have collected underline the need for the government to act.
"Unlike adult prisons, prisons that hold children are not overcrowded and are relatively well resourced. Regimes ought to be much better, but time and again we find that they are not, with children locked up for hours on end in their cells and routinely without even the minimum amount of education that they are entitled to receive.
"Many of the children trapped in this failing system should not be in custody at all, and certainly not in prisons like these.”
In February 2025, the Children’s Commissioner for England called for an overhaul of the youth justice system, with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment, putting education at its core.
