Writing in the YJB's latest annual report, the organisation's chief executive Colin Allars said: "Sadly, I have to report that a child died in one of our commissioned secure children's home places.
"Our thoughts and attention have been with the family and professionals that cared for the child and we await the outcome of investigations into the circumstances."
There has been one reported death in a secure children's home in 2017. Taylor Alice Williams, who was 17, died on 18 February while at the Aycliffe Secure Centre, which is run by Durham County Council and features a mixture of YJB and local authority commissioned places.
However, the Ministry of Justice has told CYP Now that this is not the incident referred to by Allars. It has refused to release details of the incident or in which secure children's home it happened, but has confirmed that an investigation is taking place.
It is the first death in youth custody since Daniel Adewole, 15, was found dead in his cell at Cookham Wood YOI in 2015. A coroner ruling that he died of natural causes linked to epilepsy.
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