Official Statistics

Guide to Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate

Published 31 October 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Introduction

Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate statistics cover assault, self-harm, use of force and separation incidents and deaths across the Children and Young People Secure Estate in England and Wales. This document provides more detail on those statistics and is intended to be used as a guide to concepts, definitions and interpretation of trends.

The key areas covered are:

• An overview of Children and Young People Secure Estate statistics detailing the frequency and timings of the bulletin
• Links to other related publications
• Statistical notes on the publication, including revisions and disclosure policies
• Details of the data sources and any associated data quality issues as well as an overview of the production process of the bulletin.
• A glossary of the main terms used within the publication.

Related Publications

Information on safety incidents in the Children and Young People Secure Estate are covered in two other related statistical publications.

Safety in Custody: Covers deaths, self-harm and assaults in HM Prison Service establishments in England and Wales. Young Offender Institutions accommodating under 18s, but not the other sectors of the Children and Young People Secure Estate, were covered in this publication until April 2022. Since the July 2022 edition, the Children and Young People Secure Estate has been excluded completely.

The latest Safety in Custody statistics bulletin can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics and earlier editions at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130315183909/http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/safety-in-custody/safety-in-custody-earlier-editions

Youth Justice Statistics: This publication provides an overview of the flow of children aged 10-17 years through the justice system in England and Wales. It covers non-custodial as well as custodial episodes and includes information on safety incidents in the Children and Young People Secure Estate. The latest release can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics

Youth Custody Report: This monthly report provides information on the youth custody population and operational capacity in England and Wales.

Youth Justice Statistics and the Youth Custody Report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics#youth-secure-estate-statistics-

Overview of Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Statistics

This section describes the background to the bulletin and the timing and frequency of publication.

Background to the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin

The Youth Custody Service (YCS) was established in September 2017 as a distinct arm of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). YCS has operational responsibility for the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate (CYPSE)^{[footnote 1]}, which accommodates all children and young people aged 17 years and under in custody across England and Wales. As of August 2021, children and young people in custody are accommodated in one of five Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), one Secure Training Centre (STC) and eight Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs). Within this accommodation are a number of 18+ year-olds who are either completing their sentences within the Children and Young People Secure Estate or remaining in the estate for a short period before transitioning to the adult estate.

It was announced on 21st March 2024 that children and young people located in Cookham Wood YOI would be transferred to other establishments and the site repurposed as an adult prison.

Incidents of assaults, self-harm, use of force, separations in SCHs and STCs and deaths of children and young people in custody in England and Wales have been published in two statistical releases for several years. Incidents of separations in YOIs is published for the first time in this bulletin.

Information relating to assaults and self-harm in YOIs was included in Safety in Custody statistics until April 2022, published quarterly by the Ministry of Justice. To note, this was not representative of the whole Children and Young People Secure Estate as information for STCs and SCHs was not included.

Incidents information is also published in the annual Youth Justice Statistics, published by the Youth Justice Board. This publication covers children and young people in the Children and Young People Secure Estate in England and Wales.

The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate was introduced to provide a holistic view of safety incidents across the Children and Young People Secure Estate and to provide a more frequent and consistent measure of the level of incidents within the Children and Young People Secure Estate.

The first Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin was published in April 2021 covering the period to December 2020 with assaults and self-harm incidents and deaths. From July 2023, covering the period to March 2023, separations and use of force incidents have been included in the publication as an annual update, including separations in YOIs for the first time.

Information relating to Wetherby main site and Wetherby Keppel unit, which is a specialist facility within the establishment that is designed to hold particularly vulnerable children, is reported separately up until April 2024, covering the period to December 2023. From July 2024, covering the period to March 2024, Wetherby YOI is reported as a single establishment.

Frequency and Timeframe of Publishing

This bulletin of official statistics is published quarterly in January, April, July and October, covering the twelve months ending September, December, March and June respectively. Headline figures are also presented for each financial year back to 2014/15, or as far back as possible, whichever is later.

To improve our public transparency, we commenced publication of separations and use of force statistics within the Children and Young People Secure Estate. These statistics are published annually as an enhanced publication in July iterations from July 2023. Assaults, self-harm and deaths statistics continue to be shared quarterly.

Information is provisional until the July release when the finalised data for the financial year will be presented.

Statistical Notes

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics and comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics in that they:

• meet identified user needs;

• are well explained and readily accessible;

• are produced according to sound methods; and

• are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

Revisions

In accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, the Ministry of Justice is required to publish transparent guidance on its policy for revisions. A copy of this statement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/182363/statistics-revisions-policy.pdf

The three reasons specified for statistics needing to be revised are changes in sources of administrative systems or methodology changes, receipt of subsequent information, and errors in statistical systems and processes. Each of these points, and its specific relevance to the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin, are addressed below:

1. Changes in source of administrative systems/methodology changes

Assaults and Self-Harm:

The administrative source used to provide information on assaults and self-harm – the Incident Reporting System (IRS) within the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS) – has remained largely stable over the period being reported (from 2014/15).

Information within the bulletin for establishments that do not use IRS is derived from data collection returns submitted monthly by establishments. These data collections were amended and updated in April 2019, which resulted in a break in time series for assaults and this is reflected in the tables where sequences are not presented across the period of the break.

The change in data collection system for self-harm did not change the definition and therefore did not result in a break in the time series. It is possible however that the new system changed the accuracy or completeness of the data provided. Any effect of the changes is not considered significant in terms of the counts of incidents but may be greater in the designation of injuries and hospital attendance related to incidents. Caution should therefore be used in interpreting changes in the level of injuries and hospital attendance before and after these dates.

Due to extremely small numbers causing data suppression issues, the individual breakdown of assault incidents where a CYP has assaulted someone other than another CYP or a staff member (Category: CYP on Other) will only be included in this publication until July 2024, covering the period to March 2024. These incidents will continue to be counted in the overall number of assault incidents.

Use of Force:

A new framework for the use of force, restraint and restrictive practices in the Children and Young People Secure Estate was issued in August 2023 and was implemented from February 2024 starting with Wetherby YOI. The remaining establishments will implement the new framework on a phased rollout basis. One of the changes brought about by this new framework is the use of soft velcro wrist restraints instead of metal ratchet handcuffs. From July 2024, with information up to and including March 2024, wrist restraints as a whole are reported to reflect the varied use across the youth secure estate.

Separations:

Information for separations within Secure Children’s Homes and Secure Training Centres have been reported annually by the YJB since 2014/15. Data is derived from data collection returns submitted monthly by establishments. These data collections were amended and updated in April 2019. As part of the work to improve our transparency and timeliness of these statistics, from July 2023 separations within Secure Children’s Homes and Secure Training Centres are reported within this bulletin. The counting method for separations was amended for this bulletin which resulted in a break in time series and this is reflected in the tables where sequences are not presented across the period of the break (from April 2019).

The ‘regime restriction’ element of the ‘YOI Separations for other reason’ category will be removed from the 2023/24 annual publication due to concerns around data quality. YCS are reviewing associated data collection tools and will continue to monitor data and process quality and ensure that statistical publications are as accurate and informative as possible.

Deaths:

Information on deaths is sourced from records held within YCS. Due to the small number of cases it is not expected that the counts will change due to any changes in reported practices and that all deaths of children and young people will be picked up.

2. Receipt of subsequent information

Assaults, Self-harm, Separation and Use of Force:

Information on assaults, self-harm, separation and use of force both from the central administrative system (IRS) and the data returns from establishments are extracted on a two-month rolling basis. They are reviewed quarterly and amendments are reflected in the bulletin until the finalised data included in the July release. Before that release, figures should be considered provisional and revisions from previous bulletins will not be specifically identified. After the finalised release, figures will only be amended if they have a major impact on the statistics. In which case revisions will be clearly identified.

Deaths:

Figures for deaths during previous years may change due to late notifications and changes in classification following an inquest, which may not be concluded for several years after the death. The changes tend to be small and do not affect reported trends.

3. Errors in statistical systems and processes

Occasionally errors can occur in statistical processes although procedures are constantly reviewed to minimise this risk. Should a significant error be found, the publication on the website will be updated and an errata slip published documenting the revision.

4. Secure School Sector

Following the opening of a Secure School in 2024, which will be a new CYPSE sector type, additional statistics will be included in this publication from January 2025, subject to data quality standards being met.

Disclosure

The disclosure policy used in the bulletin is designed to assess the risk of disclosure of sensitive information about identifiable individuals and the consequent harm that disclosure could cause. This risk is then balanced against the loss of utility of statistics that have been suppressed.

Sensitive information includes protected characteristics such as race, disability, sexuality or religion of the individuals, or incidents that could cause distress to the individual or their family if they were disclosed.

The low numbers of children and young people accommodated at some establishments means that the risk of identification of individuals is greater than for reporting of adults in custody. Any count of four or fewer incidents associated with a particular establishment will therefore be suppressed and not be reported. Where the suppressed number could be deduced by subtraction from a total, another data item will also be suppressed. Similar suppression will be carried out for tables containing counts split by protected characteristics.

Where rates of incidents are calculated, these will not be displayed where the base population is ten or fewer since rates based on such small populations can be excessively volatile and misleading due to the influence of a single or small number of individuals.

Figure 1 – Symbols Used

[x]	suppressed values of 4 or fewer to prevent disclosure in accordance with data protection principles. Where a suppressed value could be calculated from other values, secondary suppression will also apply
[p]	provisional data which may be revised in future publications
[r]	data has been revised from previous publications
[u]	rate has not been calculated because the base data is 10 or fewer which, if calculated, would lead to unreliable results,
[z]	data that is not applicable or available

Data Sources and Quality

This section outlines the data sources used to compile the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin and contains assessments of their quality. The main sources the statistics are compiled from are:

• HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody Database (for deaths)
• HMPPS Incident Reporting System (for assaults and self-harm in YOIs)
• Assaults, Self-Harm and Behaviour Management reporting templates (for self-harm, assaults, separations in the STC and SCHs, and use of force in SCHs)
• YOI Separations collection template (for separations in YOIs)
• MMPR Reporting template (for use of force in the STC and YOIs)
• Youth Justice Applications Framework (for population)
• Behaviour Management Monthly Returns (for use of force in SCHs, separations in SCHs and STCs, and assaults and self-harm before April 2019)

Data sources and extraction:

Assaults, Self-Harm, Separation and Use of Force

Development

The data sources used within YCS to obtain information on assaults and self-harm were developed or adopted in April 2019 and subsequently adjusted to allow for collection of separation and use of force information in March 2020, with further refinements being made in March 2022. The YCS Information Team and the Information Development Project was formed in 2018 with a principle aim of reviewing the data systems in place across the Children and Young People Secure Estate and implementing more coherent processes to reflect the formation of the YCS as a single organisation with operational responsibility for all children and young people in custody.

Prior to April 2019 the YCS, and previously the Youth Justice Board (YJB), reported incidents of use of force in SCHs, separations in SCHs and STCs and assaults and self-harm based on information submitted monthly by establishments using ‘Behaviour Management Returns’. YOIs, STCs and SCHs reported aggregate numbers of incidents on these returns along with the protected characteristics of the children and young people involved and some details of the incidents. Collection of use of force information from YOIs and STCs has not changed since its inception in 2014/15. Separations within YOIs are reported for the first time from April 2022 as part of this bulletin.

At the same time, information on incidents in YOIs was reported in the HMPPS ‘Safety in Custody’ publication using information from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System (IRS). This is an administrative system which records detailed information on incidents and is used across all HM Prisons and HMYOIs in England and Wales. It is linked to the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS).

In the case of assaults, the counting methodology differed between the two systems and publications, leading to a potentially confused picture of assaults in the Children and Young People Secure Estate.

The YCS decided in 2019 to adopt the counting rules used on IRS and to develop new reporting templates mirroring IRS for use in the parts of the Children and Young People Secure Estate that did not have access to IRS (the STCs^{[footnote 2][footnote 3]} and SCHs). This arrangement came into operation in April 2019.

Break in Time Series of Assaults

The way that assault incidents are counted in the Children and Young People Secure Estate changed with the implementation of the new reporting systems in April 2019. This has resulted in a break in the time series and comparisons of assault numbers before and after the change should not be made. Within this Bulletin the pre and post change figures are reported separately. The two systems are described in figure 2.

Figure 2 – Change in Assault Incident Counting Rules

Pre April 2019 – YOIs, STCs and SCHs	IRS – YOIs and Medway STC
An assault followed by retaliation, which is not purely self-defence and where the victim strikes back with unnecessary force is reported as two assaults	An incident involving any assault is recorded as an incident, irrespective of the number of and role of participants
Where the initial perpetrator cannot be determined, and blows are exchanged the incident is recorded as a ‘fight’	Roles and participants are reported separately
Only ‘proven assaults’ to be recorded	All incidents reported

IRS counting rules were adopted to increase consistency with the rest of HMPPS and to avoid the overall count of incidents being influenced by local interpretation of intent and blame. Investigations also revealed different interpretations of what constitutes a ‘proven’ assault across establishments. Fights were not included in the figures published in ‘Youth Justice Statistics’ and therefore a number of violent incidents were going unreported. For these reasons and since the IRS counting rules were already in place within YOIs, it was decided to report the 2018/19 assault numbers for YOIs under the new counting rules in ‘Youth Justice Annual Statistics – 2018/19’ with the rest of the Children and Young People Secure Estate adopting the new counting rules from April 2019.

As well as the change in counting rules, a new definition of assault was adopted from April 2019 to be used across the Children and Young People Secure Estate. The categorisation of injuries resulting from assaults also changed at the same time. These definitions and categorisations are set out in the Glossary within this guide.

Break in Time Series of Separations in SCHs and the STC

The way that separation incidents are counted in the Children and Young People Secure Estate changed with the publication of this bulletin in July 2023, with the separation incidents dating back to the change of collection template in April 2019 being recalculated. This has resulted in a break in the time series and comparisons of separation numbers before and after the change should not be made. Within this bulletin, the pre- and post- change figures are reported separately. The two systems are described in figure 3.

Figure 3 – Change in Separation Incident Counting Rules (SCHs and STCs only)

Pre-April 2019	Post-April 2019
Where it is reported by an establishment that a child or young person has been separated multiple times during a day, each individual reported incident is recorded as a separate period of separation, even if those separations are contiguous.	When a child or young person has been separated multiple times during a day, that shall count as a single separation incident.

The new counting rules were adopted to increase consistency across SCH and STC establishments within the YCS and to avoid unfair comparisons to be made between the establishments. Investigations revealed different interpretations of what constitutes a single period of separation across establishments. For these reasons it was decided to report separation figures from April 2019 onwards using these new counting rules.

Differences in separation rules and incident counting

Children and young people must only be separated from their peers as a last resort to manage risk to the child or young person or others and only when alternative interventions have been exhausted. Any separation must be regularly reviewed and only be in place for as long as they are necessary to manage the risk to the child or young person or others.

Where there are no alternatives to the use of separation as an intervention, each sector applies different rules and regulations in the application of separation as follows:

• Young Offender Institutions: The Young Offender Institution Rules (2000) – Rule 49 (Removal from association); Rule 51 (Temporary confinement) and Rule 58 (Disciplinary charges). Single separations and elected separations are counted.
• Secure Training Centre: The Secure Training Centre Rules (1998) – Rule 36 (Removal from association). Only single separations are counted. Where a child or young person has elected to separate themselves, or where a child or young person is with a member of staff but not with their peers, the separation will not be counted.
• Secure Children’s Homes: The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations (2015) – Regulation 2 (interpretation), Regulation 12 (The protection of children standard), Regulation 20 (Restraint and deprivation of liberty) and Regulation 35 (Behaviour management policies and records). Only single separations are counted. Where a child or young person has elected to separate themselves, or where a child or young person is with a member of staff but not with their peers, the separation will not be counted.

Because of the different rules and regulations used across the sectors, comparisons between the sectors should not be drawn. Further information on the use of separation can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1066121/2022-04-01_Managing_and_Minimising_Separation_in_the_CYPSE.pdf

Use of Force Incidents

The count of use of force incidents refers to an application of use of force on a single child or young person. The incident may involve more than one restraint technique carried out on a single individual within a short period of time. For a second use of force to be recorded there would have to have been a period of time where the child or young person was not restrained. Staff judgement may be required to determine when one incident ends and another begins.

Restraining action involving more than one child or young person, such as separating two individuals who are fighting, would be recorded as multiple incidents of use of force. One for each child or young person involved.

Current Systems

In establishments using the HMPPS Incident Reporting System (IRS), which for the Children and Young People Secure Estates are the YOIs, detailed information on each assault and self-harm incident is recorded on IRS. Monthly extracts and subsequent updates are taken from the live incident reporting system and compiled into a database from which the statistics are derived. The extract used is the same as that used to produce the ‘Safety in Custody’ publication.

In the parts of the Children and Young People Secure Estate that do not use IRS, i.e. STCs and SCHs, or where IRS is not used to collect information, i.e. use of force and separations, information is submitted centrally using bespoke templates on a monthly basis. For assaults and self-harm, the templates mirror the information on IRS and the data submitted is added to the central YCS database.

Information from both IRS and the bespoke templates is extracted on a two monthly rolling basis. Each month the last two months of data is extracted and information from the earlier of the months replaces what was originally submitted. This provides a second chance to correct errors. At the end of the year, IRS data is extracted for a final time and non-IRS sites are also asked to review and correct entries for the preceding year.

On both IRS and the bespoke systems, the participants in incidents are matched back to a central population file from which details of their protected characteristics are derived.

Assault, self-harm and use of force incidents that occur when a child or young person is in the custody of an escort contractor, for example when being transported between court and an establishment or between establishments, are not included in the ‘Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin’.

Incidents that occur when a child or young person is released on temporary licence are not included in the ‘Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin’.

Deaths

Deaths in custody across the Children and Young People Secure Estate are compiled from data held in the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody Database. This database contains summary details of deaths in prison custody since 1978. These records would not cover the entirety of the Children and Young People Secure Estate which was not considered part of the prison estate until the formation of the YCS in 2017. Information on deaths within the Children and Young People Secure Estate since 2010 are being added to the database from records held within YCS and YJB. The database draws on data from a number of sources:

• Historical archives (Death registers)
• Prisons
• Prisoner records
• HMPPS strategic IT systems including;
• HMPPS Incident Reporting System (IRS),
• NOMIS (which replaced the Local Inmate Database System (LIDS)),
• Accommodation and Occupancy (A&O) database and
• Inmate Information System (IIS)
• Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) fatal incident investigations
• Coroners
• YCS Head of Safety

Initial data is based on reports from establishments where deaths occurred and is appended with further details from strategic IT systems. Once available, PPO fatal incident investigations and Coroner’s inquest findings are used to cross check data held on the database and confirm classification as either natural cause, self-inflicted, homicide or other.

Population

Case level information on all children and young people in custody is held on the Youth Justice Application Framework (YJAF). The information is submitted from Youth Offending Teams case management systems. The system records the needs and safety information on the children and young people, their protected characteristics, details of their offences and sentence, and provides a record of movements in, out and between establishments.

The information on establishment movements is used to calculate the average population within each establishment at the end of each day. The population can be broken down by protected characteristics and can be averaged over months, quarters or years. It is this daily average population that is used in this Bulletin to calculate the rate at which incidents occur.

Data quality

As well as local verification exercises a number of processes are completed to check and correct for invalid entries. These check for:

1. Duplicate incidents
2. Individual children and young people recorded as having more than one role in an incident (each individual can only be attached once to an incident)
3. Assault incidents that have an illogical combination of participant roles i.e. 2 victims but no assailants or fighters
4. Incidents which match to the wrong individual in the population data
5. Incidents which do not match to any population record live on the day of the incident
6. Incidents that match to multiple individuals in the population due to duplicate population records
7. Incidents that have an unrealistic duration i.e. a use of force recorded as having a duration of hours rather than minutes

Once highlighted these errors are corrected either using automated processes or by referring back to establishments for correct information. These validation checks reduce the number of invalid or unmatched incidents to a minimum. A small number will remain where no details of the individual was added to the incident record or the individual cannot be traced on the population file.

All incidents are recorded on the basis of observable behaviour rather than intent. It is not therefore possible to determine the objective of an act of self-harm to any degree of accuracy. For this reason, terms such as ‘attempted suicide’ are not reported, since by its nature, that classification would attribute a level of intent to the act. Similarly, it is not always possible to attribute intent to an assault incident and to allocate roles such as assailant or victim. If two children and young people are observed to be exchanging blows, they would both be reported as fighters rather than allocated roles based on who instigated the incident. The definitions used for incidents and participants used in this bulletin are set out in the Glossary.

It is accepted that there is a degree of interpretation required in recording all incidents, which by their nature can be chaotic. For example, it is a matter of staff judgement as to whether two confrontations constitute separate assault incidents or are part of a single incident. While some incidents are overt and obvious, others are more subtle or could be de-escalated by staff before they reach the threshold where they are recorded as an incident under the terms of the definitions. Such behaviour will be recorded locally in order to enhance the support offered to children and young people but may not form part of the central count of incidents.

In the secure estate, as in the community, it is not possible to count self-harm incidents with absolute accuracy. Those who self-harm often do so covertly. In the general population, such self-harm will often go undetected. In secure settings, such incidents are more likely to be detected and counted although there will still be incidents that are not detected. Within the Children and Young People Secure Estate, where staffing levels are higher than the adult estate, assault incidents are unlikely to go unnoticed although as for self-harm it is possible that a small number of incidents will not be seen.

Assigning the correct role (assailant, victim, fighter etc.) to individuals involved in an assault incident is a potential source of error. IRS includes the option to assign an involvement as ‘active participant’ and investigations have shown that this participant type has been used where it is not otherwise clear which role to assign. Doing this would reduce the count of assailants and victims.

The IRS contains details of the children and young people in custody but not the staff involved. While it is recorded whether a member of staff or other person was assaulted during an incident, the number of staff or other individuals involved is not. It is therefore not possible to report on the number of staff assaulted but rather the number of assaults incidents where a member of staff was assaulted.

The IRS records injuries relating to assaults in terms of the most serious injury resulting from the incident. Further details are recorded of whether a member of staff was injured and whether injuries were serious or minor. This means that it is not possible to report the total number of injuries sustained but just the number of incidents where a serious, minor, child or young person or staff injury was sustained. For the purposes of determining trends this is considered satisfactory.

In addition to incidents, the bulletin also reports the number of unique individuals involved in incidents. Determining the number of unique individuals relies on a consistent method of identifying the same individual over time and between establishments. Records are checked to ensure that as far as possible an individual is assigned the same identifier across incidents. This was not possible prior to April 2019 (April 2018 for YOI assault incidents) where counts of individuals were only maintained on a monthly basis.

Data relating to deaths in custody are closely scrutinised and are considered to be of high quality. However, it is possible for classifications to change over time as new information emerges, in particular following inquests, which can occur after several years.

Overview of data accuracy

A full review of quality is beyond the scope of this guide.

The relatively small size of the Children and Young People Secure Estate and the staffing ratios employed mean that there can be confidence in the data quality. The processes in place to check IRS data from the YOIs and the automated processes in place, mean that most issues with YOI data can be controlled. The relatively small populations in the STC and SCH sectors and the local systems already in place to safeguard the children and young people accommodated enable most incidents to be captured accurately.

The data presented in this report are considered satisfactory for analysing levels and determining trends in the level of incidents across the Children and Young People Secure Estate although in common with any relatively large-scale reporting process there will continue to be a small number of inaccuracies and numbers should not be relied upon to be precise.

Differences from Safety in Custody

The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin was conceived to mirror ‘Safety in Custody’ statistics for assaults and self-harm published by the Ministry of Justice. Separations and use of force was conceived to mirror the YJB annual statistics. The information contained in the bulletin is largely consistent with that contained in Safety in Custody with some changes to ensure a more suitable presentation of youth settings. YOIs within the Children and Young People Secure Estate were still included in Safety in Custody until April 2022.

There are a few differences in the presentation of data between Safety in Custody and the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin, which are listed below:

• The population reported and used to calculate rates is derived from YJAF rather than NOMIS as is the case for Safety in Custody. The rationale for this is that YJAF covers the whole of the Children and Young People Secure Estate whereas NOMIS is only used in YOIs. The impact of using YJAF for YOIs rather than NOMIS is thought to be low since both systems report population in the same way.
• The daily average population is used in the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin as opposed to the average of month-end snapshots used in Safety in Custody. The daily average is used as it better reflects the day-to-day experiences of children and young people in custody and reports every child or young person in proportion to their time in custody. The difference in terms of calculated rates is small, especially where overall population levels are relatively stable over the period being reported.
• Rates of incidents in the Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin are stated per 100 children and young people (CYP) per year. Where rates refer to shorter durations the rate is extrapolated to report in annual terms based on a standard year of 365.25 days. Safety in Custody reports per 1000 prisoners. The different expression of rates reflects the smaller population within the Children and Young People Secure Estate which is currently below 1000 in total.
• The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin reports rates based on both three and twelve-month periods whereas all rates in Safety in Custody are based on rolling twelve-month periods. This difference allows changes in rates to be detected more quickly although does increase the volatility in the figures reported.

Users and Uses of These Statistics

The statistics included in this publication are expected to be used extensively and meet a broad spectrum of user needs as shown below.

User	Summary of main statistical needs
MOJ Ministers	Use the statistics to monitor the safety and wellbeing of the population of under 18s in custody and to assess policy impacts
MPs and House of Lords	Statistics are frequently used to answer parliamentary questions
Monitoring and Accountability	As an example, the Justice Select Committee use safety statistics as a primary data source for monitoring and public accountability.
Policy teams	Statistics are used to inform policy development, to monitor impact of changes over time and to model future changes and their impact on the system
Agencies responsible for offender management	Current and historical robust administrative data are used to support performance management information at national and local levels to complement their understanding of the current picture and trends over time
Academia, students and businesses	Used as a source of statistics for research purposes and to support lectures, presentations and conferences
Journalists	Used as a compendium of robust data on safety in custody so that an accurate and coherent story can be told on the safety of the prison environment.
Voluntary sector	Data are used to monitor trends of the safety and well being of children and young people in custody, to reuse the data in their own briefing and research papers and to inform policy work and responses to consultations.
General public	Data are used to respond to ad-hoc requests and requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Bulletin used by interested members of the public to become better informed on the issues of safety in youth custody.

Glossary

Assailant: An individual who commits an assault as defined in this guide on other individual(s) and who is not subjected to unnecessary force themselves within the same incident. Assailants will always result in one or more victims if those assaulted do not, or are unable to retaliate with unnecessary force.

Assaults: Unwanted physical contact between two or more individuals, excluding Use of Force or anything of a purely verbal or threatening nature. The degree of force used is immaterial (e.g. spitting, pushing or striking) and physical contact can be by any part of the body or bodily fluid, or by the use of any weapon or missile. To be considered an assault incident it is not necessary for there to be injury of any kind.

Assault Incident: An incident including at least one interaction which meets the definition of assault. It may not always be clear where the boundary of one incident ends and another starts. How incidents that occur closely together in time or area are counted is a matter of judgement for staff at the scene.

Average Population: The average number of children and young people accommodated within the Children and Young People Secure Estate at the end of each day including those temporarily absent from the establishment but still under the care of the establishment. Children and young people on welfare placements in SCHs are not included in the population count.

Child or young person/Children and young people: In the context of this bulletin children and young people refer to people between the ages of 10 and 17 held in custody and those aged over 17 who remain within the Children and Young People Secure Estate to complete their sentence. Children and young people on ‘welfare’ placements within SCHs are not included in counts of children and young people for the purposes of this bulletin.

Coroner: An independent judicial office-holder, appointed by and paid by the relevant local authority. A coroner must be either an experienced lawyer, doctor or both. Coroners inquire into violent and unnatural deaths, sudden deaths of unknown cause, and deaths that have occurred in prison and certain other categories specified in the Coroners Act 1988.

Death in custody: Any death of a child and young person in custody arising from an incident occurring during (or, on rare occasions, immediately prior to) custody. It would include deaths of children and young people who were temporarily released from custody for medical reasons but not who were on any other type of temporary release.

Fighter: An individual who commits an assault as defined in this guide on another individual and is then also subjected to unnecessary force themselves within the same incident. Where two or more young people are ‘exchanging blows’, they would typically both be recorded as fighters irrespective of who struck first.

Fights (prior to Apr 19): The Behaviour Management returns in use prior to April 2019 recorded fights separately from assaults. A fight was recorded where the perpetrator of an incident could not be established.

Homicide: Any death of a person at the hands of another. This includes murder and manslaughter.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS): The agency responsible for prisons and probation and including the Youth Custody Service. Up to 1 April 2017, this agency was known as the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

Incident reporting System (IRS): A system first introduced in the late 1980s to record a range of incidents in prisons and YOIs including escapes, absconds, fire, drugs, damage to property, assaults etc.

Injury: An incident is reported as resulting in an injury if any participant sustains an injury that requires any kind of treatment, whether on site or in hospital. Minor injuries requiring no treatment are not included.

Inquest: A fact-finding inquiry to establish who has died, how, when and where the death occurred.

Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint (MMPR): The framework used within YOIs and the STC for when force is required to be used on a child or young person. See also Use of Force

Ministry of Justice (MoJ): The Ministry with responsibility for HMPPS.

Minor Injury (Assaults data prior to Apr 19): The Behaviour Management returns in use prior to April 2019 defined minor injuries as those that required treatment but on-site only.

Natural cause death: Any death of a person as a result of a naturally occurring disease process.

National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS): The HMPPS prisoner record system used in both public and private sector YOIs.

Other death: Any death of a person whose death cannot easily be classified as natural causes, self-inflicted or homicide. The ‘other’ category includes two sub categories ‘other/non-natural deaths’ and deaths ‘awaiting further information’.

Other/non-natural death: This category includes accidents arising from external causes, accidental overdose/ poisoning and deaths where taking a drug contributed to a death but not in fatal amounts. It also includes a small proportion of deaths which even after all investigations have been concluded the cause remains unknown. The category is one of two sub categories of ‘other’ deaths.

Secure Children’s Home (SCH): An accommodation type within the Children and Young People Secure Estate run by Local Authorities in conjunction with the Department for Education in England. There is one Secure Children’s Home in Wales run by the local authority in conjunction with the Welsh Government. SCHs are utilised for the placement of the youngest, most ‘at risk’ children and young people within the estate and those with the most complex / holistic needs. Secure Children’s Homes have high staff to children and young people ratios allowing focus on the emotional, physical and mental health needs of the children and young people they accommodate. SCHs generally accommodate remanded or sentenced children and young people but can also accommodate children and young people placed by Local Authorities on welfare matters. When referring to SCHs within statistics on the youth justice system, only those children and young people held on remand to youth detention accommodation or those sentenced to custody are counted. SCH’s are governed by Children’s Regulations and inspected by Ofsted in England and Care Inspectorate Wales.

Secure Training Centre (STC): An accommodation type within the Children and Young People Secure Estate offering secure provision to sentenced or remanded children aged 12 to 17. STCs are available to place those children and young people who are a little older and perhaps more independent and more motivated to attend school or have risk factors which would make a placement in a YOI inappropriate. They provide a secure environment where children and young people can be educated and rehabilitated. STCs are governed by The Secure Training Centre Rules 1998 and inspected by Ofsted, HMIP and the CQC.

Self-harm: Any act by which a child or young person deliberately harms themselves irrespective of the method, intent, or severity of injury.

Separation (Single): Single separation applies to those scenarios where a child or young person is requested to return to their room or another location (or is returned by staff if it is the only option to keep themselves or others safe), where they remain on their own and are not permitted to mix with their peers. Although a member of staff will not constantly be with the child or young person throughout this time, they must routinely engage with the child or young person to understand needs and wellbeing and use this to inform the child or young person’s ongoing formulation15 and care planning. In the YOI sector, if a period of single separation begins within 5 calendar days of another period ending for the same reason, then it is counted as a single period of separation.

Separation (Supervised or Managed): the child or young person is also prevented from contact with their peers, but a member of staff will be with them throughout this time. Staff should use this time with the child or young person as an opportunity to actively engage them in a meaningful way. Supervised separation may be referred to as “managing away” in SCH or as “removal from association” in STC.

Separation (Elected or Self): the child or young person has chosen to separate themselves from association with their peers. Within an SCH or STC, this may only be for a matter of minutes or hours. Reported in the YOI sector only.

Serious assault: An assault is classified as serious if:

• it is a sexual assault;
• it results in detention in outside hospital as an in-patient;
• it requires medical treatment for concussion or internal injuries;
• the injury is a fracture, scald or burn, stabbing, crushing, extensive or multiple bruising, black eye, broken nose, lost or broken tooth, cuts requiring suturing, bites or temporary or permanent blindness.

Serious Injury (Assaults data prior to Apr 19): The Behaviour Management returns in use prior to April 2019 defined minor injuries as those that required hospital treatment.

Self-inflicted death: Any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life irrespective of intent. It includes a wider range of deaths than just suicides.

Staff Assault: Any assault incident where a member of staff is subject to an assault by a child or young person as defined in this guide. An assault incident may be both a child or young person on child or young person assault and a staff assault if more than one category of victim is reported.

Use of Force: Any instance where any level of force is used to manoeuvre or restrain a child or young person, including any action that guides a child or young person away from a harmful situation or intentionally blocks his or her path without necessarily overpowering the individual. Routine interaction between staff and children and young people, such as supportively resting a hand on a shoulder during conversation, should not be considered or recorded as use of force.

Victim: An individual who is subjected to an assault as defined in this guide and who does not, or is not able to retaliate in a way that would itself be classified as an assault within the same incident. Within an assault incident an assailant or fighter cannot also be recorded as a victim under these definitions of terms.

Welfare Placement: A child or young person placed in a secure children’s home by the local authority on a welfare matter. Incidents involving welfare children and young people are not included within this bulletin other than when an assault incident also involves a child and young person remanded to custody by the courts or sentenced to custody (a ‘justice’ placement). In these cases, although the incident is reported the ‘welfare’ child or young person is not reported as a participant, irrespective of whether they were an assailant, victim or fighter.

Youth Custody Service (YCS): Established in September 2017 as a distinct arm of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). YCS has operational responsibility for the Children and Young People Secure Estate, which accommodates all children and young people aged 17 years and under in custody across England and Wales. As at April 2021 children and young people in custody are accommodated in one of five Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), two Secure Training Centres (STCs) and eight Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs). Within this accommodation are a number of 18-year-olds who are either completing their sentences within the Children and Young People Secure Estate or remaining in the estate for a short period before transitioning to the adult estate.

Youth Justice Board (YJB): The YJB is a non-departmental public body responsible for overseeing the youth justice system in England and Wales. The YJB is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.

Young Offender Institution (YOI): An accommodation type within the Children and Young People Secure Estate that can accommodate young people aged from 15 to 21. However, the Youth Custody Service (YCS) is only responsible for commissioning YOIs which hold young males aged from 15 to 17. A small number of young people aged 18 will remain in an under 18s YOI before either being released or transitioning to the young adult or adult estate. YOIs tend to be larger than SCHs and STCs with lower ratios of staff to young people. Consequently, Young people who are more resilient and older may be placed in a YOI.

Contact points

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/media-enquiries

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:

Katherine Tatlock

Youth Custody Service
HM Prison and Probation Service
1 Ruskin Square
Croydon
CR0 2WF

Email: ycsinformationandperformance@justice.gov.uk

General information about the official statistics system of the UK is available from https://www.statistics.gov.uk

Ministry of Justice publishes data relating to offender management in England and Wales. Equivalent statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found at:

https://www.gov.scot/collections/crime-and-justice-statistics/

https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/topics/doj-statistics-and-research

Alternative formats are available on request from ycsinformationandperformance@justice.gov.uk

© Crown copyright. Produced by the Ministry of Justice.

1. The YCS is also responsible for the management of Feltham B, which accommodates young adults aged 18 to 21 on the same site as Feltham A, which accommodates 15 to 17-year-olds. Incidents in Feltham B are not included within this bulletin ↩

2. Medway STC and Rainsbrook STC were using IRS at this time ↩

3. Medway STC closed at the end of January 2020 and Rainsbrook STC closed in July 2021 ↩