Call to roll out Covid style small family ‘bubbles’ across youth custody

Evaluation of the impact of the health crisis on youth custody found that the reorganisation of young people into small residential ‘bubbles’, “allowed more personalised interaction with staff that had helped develop relationships”.

“This smaller set-up had also allowed more children to feel safe enough to engage more generally in the regime, which had allowed also allowed for greater interaction with staff,” the evaluation found.

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This is particular the case in larger populations of young people in youth offender institutions (YOIs). One YOI representative described the use of the groups as “more manageable” and said they helped develop “a more intense and encouraging working relationship with the young people”.

Another said that “when social groups of young people are much smaller, some young people who may have been too worried to leave their cells previously are now associating and engaging with the regime”.  

The evaluation recommends that the YCS “consider whether small ‘family’ groups can work logistically and safely post-pandemic or, alternatively, how the conditions needed to retain their benefits can be replicated”.

It adds: “In relation to victimisation and conflict, children and staff discussed how children were no longer hypervigilant to where a violent provocation might be coming from next, reducing tensions and the risk of incident.

“Smaller groups helped relationships with other children by allowing them to interact more, become closer and increased understanding, also reducing the risk of bullying.

“Similarly, smaller groups helped relationships with staff by allowing more time and space to get to know each other as individuals and adopt more caring roles (and feel cared for).”

Such groups could also be arranged with young people’s views considered. This could meet a challenge for some children who “would become frustrated and misbehave if they felt ‘stuck’ in the ‘wrong’ small group".

Another challenge that would need to be addressed is how many small groups would be out of their rooms at any one time considering current staff numbers, adds the evaluation.

The evaluation collected the views of more than 1,200 staff and almost 400 children between July and November 2020.

More than three quarters of children said they felt protected against Covid-19 and almost nine in ten felt supported by staff and public health measures.

Senior prison staff interviewed “considered that children had been successfully protected during the early months of the pandemic”.

In terms of their mental wellbeing most young inmates said they have coped well. More than half found positives, while 47 per cent said they found lockdown situation “difficult at times”. Almost a third said they often felt alone.