Cookham Wood YOI staff 'unaware of closure plans until last minute'

A report by HMI Prisons, published following a visit to Cookham Wood last month (April), states that “it was clear that staff, including the governor, had not been aware of the decision until shortly before it was made”.

“New staff, including teachers and dozens of youth justice workers, had just started or were in training,” it adds.

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Inspectors also highlight that investment in the YOI, including refurbishing residential units and installing new classrooms, was also in progress or had been completed very recently.

They described Cookham Wood as “an establishment in limbo” after the Ministry of Justice announced that the Kent YOI would be repurposed as an adult prison in March.

Despite its closure, which is due to take place at the end of the this month (May), inspectors noted “very little clarity” around the future of the site.

Their report states that “staff had been told nothing about what they would do after this”.

However, they praised staff over “how well staff engaged with the inspection team and their evident care for the children during this period of uncertainty”.

Meanwhile, inspectors noted that for boys still placed at Cookham Wood, their time out of cells and access to education “remained very poor”.

Due to the YOI’s declining population ahead of its closure, staff had been forced to adopt a “carousel” model to education, inspectors found.

This meant boys’ access to vocational programmes was based on if enough people could attend on a particular day.

“As a result, some boys found themselves repeatedly being taught the same things and failing to develop any new knowledge or skills,” states the inspection report.

Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons said: “Cookham Wood has been allowed to fail for years without concerted action to improve the conditions in which children were being held. What is needed is a coherent plan to improve the provision on offer to these children so they can go on to lead crime-free lives when they are released.”

The UK’s first secure school is set to welcome its first pupils in the coming weeks.