He never thought he’d “work for the man”, he said, but added “this is where the real challenge is; these are the children who have been failed by everyone and my job is to help them begin their upward climb”. I thought Chris was outstanding.
Oakhill had been in special measures for months due to multiple failings as a secure establishment. A new broom, G4S, had been brought in to clear out a failing regime and, using their experience of running children’s homes, to recruit a different workforce, motivated to working with children in trouble.
Initially, it appeared that Oakhill was on an improving trajectory. This was certainly the view of Ofsted up to 2017. But an “urgent notification” to improve issued by inspectorates this year suggests Oakhill has gone backwards. Rainhill Secure Training Centre followed this course a year before and now sits empty, it’s future uncertain.
The Youth Custody Service (YCS) has launched an independent safeguarding review, led by a respected former director of children’s services, to examine up to nine potential weaknesses in safeguarding. Let’s not rush to prejudge the conclusions. However, it is clear from the urgency of the review that the inspectors and the YCS believe there may have been serious failings.
The nine areas chosen by the YCS all suggest a common problem; that children in custody are not seen as vulnerable and perhaps are not seen as having rights to be safeguarded.
Normally such reviews are carried out under the provision of Working Together guidance. I can think of no similar high-profile safeguarding review that circumvented this process. For some reason the Oakhill review is judged to be different. Among other things this risks that the report, and lessons in it, will not be made public.
Being subject to a Working Together review, like all other 11 million children in the nation, is surely an entitlement for children in custody too.
My fear is that this review will show, for those privileged to see it, that once more we have failed to see children in custody as children first. Will the safeguarding failures be shown to include behaviour that we would not tolerate in schools, in youth clubs, and in all other places where there is a duty to keep children safe?
Is it too late to incorporate this review within the umbrella of Working Together? Is it too late to ask that the Department for Education’s national safeguarding panel is given ultimate responsibility for the report?
If we are to spark much-needed energy and progress in safeguarding for children in custody, the Oakhill review must be published, just like other learning reviews under Working Together. It can then help shape a comprehensive, long-term strategy for the children’s secure estate.
- John Drew, senior associate, the Prison Reform Trust and former chief executive, the Youth Justice Board
