The findings have emerged in a Freedom of Information Act request, around abuse in institutional settings, sent to councils with a secure training centre (STC) or young offender institution (YOI) in their area.
During 2020/21 there were 355 allegations, including one council that said it had received 184 allegations against youth custody staff.
Article 39 said that one council with a YOI did not provide any data for the last year, which indicates its figures could underestimate the scale of abuse in youth prisons.
Among settings to concern Article 39 is the GS4 run Oakhill secure training centre (STC), in Milton Keynes.
An urgent notification of improvement was issued to the STC in October after an inspection uncovered “unlawful” levels of force being used on children.
Inspectors found that conditions at the centre, “barely met minimum standards of human decency” and that “staff lack the skill to carry out restraint safely, while oversight of the use of force is inadequate”.
Meanwhile, an inspection into Rainsbrook STC, in Warwickshire, earlier this year found poor practice that was placing children and staff at risk of harm.
In June the government ordered the removal of all children from Rainsbrook due to child safety concerns. Private provider MTC was stripped of its contract to run the facility earlier this month.
NEW: our report on allegations against adults working with children in institutional settings is out today. This is the second time we have collected data from local authorities in England. Child prisons continue to have highest proportion of allegations: https://t.co/2chY2AX1TW
— Article 39 (@article_39) December 15, 2021
Article 39 is calling on the government to bring in guidance for all institutional settings to better protect children.
This guidance should also cover boarding and residential schools, children’s homes, mental health inpatient units and immigration detention centres.
“Children in closed institutions often have limited or no contact with family members, and it is vital that there is sufficient oversight of how they are treated,” said Article 39 head of policy and advocacy Kamena Dorling.
“Yet, Article 39’s research has found that there is still no uniform process for local authorities recording and reporting data on institutional abuse and neglect allegations and outcomes.
“Without this, it is impossible to gather the vital local intelligence needed about individual establishments to ensure the safety of children living there.”
The charity’s research, based on data from 64 councils, found there were 6,106 allegations against staff at children’s institutional settings between 2018 and 2021. This is an average of 32 for each local authority.
However, Article 39 found gaps in many council data, including on unregulated care settings and abuse allegations in semi-independent and independent accommodation.
