Legal Update: Education for children in custody

The Ministry of Justice recently published a consultation aimed at preventing reoffending among young people released from custody by improving educational provision in the secure estate. The consultation document, Transforming Youth Custody: Putting Education at the Heart of Detention, sets out a vision for establishing “secure colleges” for young people in custody.

The case for change
While the number of young people given a custodial sentence in the UK has dropped, in the 12 months up until June 2012, 3,645 young people were nevertheless given a custodial sentence, and even more children were placed in custody on remand. Seven in 10 young people released from detention reoffend within 12 months. Clearly, custody is not having a rehabilitative effect on young people. Education is a key element to rehabilitation.

Receiving quality, suitable education can ensure that children who offend have opportunities once they leave the criminal justice system, and that they learn valuable life skills, confidence and self-esteem. This is particularly important for children in conflict with the law, who typically have low levels of engagement in education and very poor educational outcomes.

The provision of education for children in custody is severely lacking. For instance, young offender institutions, which are used to detain 15- to 17-year-old boys and some 17-year-old girls, only provide 15 hours of education a week (plus 10 hours of “purposeful activity”). The quality of education is also patchy, and provision is not adequately tailored to the needs of each young person.

The proposals
The government proposes introducing a youth estate of “secure colleges”, made up of a diverse range of providers and offering an intensive education for young people in custody. The secure college model would, according to the proposals, offer tailored, flexible and innovative programmes of education. The government proposes basing educational provision in secure colleges on the academies and free school model, including alternative provision free schools.

Unfortunately, the consultation document does not set out the structure, standards and programmes of secure colleges, nor how the development of secure colleges would help to achieve the government’s aims. Also, the proposals do not make provision for children in detention to receive education equivalent to that provided to children in the community, and do not create a statutory right to education for children in detention. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended in its periodic review of the UK government in 2008 that the government should provide a statutory right to education for all children in custody.

In addition, the proposals do not require the establishment of links with community schools, so that children would be able to attend community schools while serving a period of detention. International standards require that education be provided to young offenders outside detention facilities, wherever possible. Yet the proposals prioritise educating children inside detention facilities. This appears to be based on the false premise that all children in the secure estate are serious offenders who require detention for public protection. However, this is not the case.

Around 19 per cent of children in the secure estate have been detained for breaching a court order, including a Criminal Justice Order or Asbo. This can include where children have failed to comply with some or all of the conditions of their relevant order, such as attending appointments or meeting curfews. Education inside a detention facility further separates a young person from their community, peers, and classmates, and makes reintegration all the more difficult on release. The government should prioritise providing education in the community for children, where appropriate, when they are sentenced to detention.



Legal Update is produced in association with experts at Coram Children’s Legal Centre

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