Official Statistics

Guide to Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate

Published 27 January 2022

Applies to England and Wales

Introduction

Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate statistics cover assault and self-harm 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 are covered in this publication but not the other sectors of the Children and Young People Secure Estate. The latest Safety in Custody statistics bulletin can be found at:

Safety in Custody Statistics and earlier editions at National Archives

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 incidents in the Children and Young People Secure Estate. Youth Justice Statistics

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

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 Her 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 at July 2021 children and young people in custody are accommodated in one of five Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)^{[footnote 2]}, two Secure Training Centres (STCs)^{[footnote 3]} 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.

Incidents of assault, self-harm and deaths of children and young people in custody in England and Wales have been published in two statistical releases for several years.

Information relating to Young Offender Institutions continues to be included in Safety in Custody statistics which is published quarterly by the Ministry of Justice. To note, this is not representative of the whole Children and Young People Secure Estate as information for Secure Training Centres and Secure Children’s Homes are not included.

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

Incidents are reported differently across the two publications ‘Safety in Custody’ and ‘Youth Justice Annual Statistics’. This reflects the different focus of the two publications. The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate has been 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 31 December 2020.

Frequency and Timeframe of Publishing

This bulletin of experimental statistics is expected to be published quarterly in January, April, July and October, covering the twelve months ending 30th September, 31st December, 31st March and 30th June respectively. Headline figures are also presented for each financial year back to 2014/15.

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 Experimental Statistics. This is because they are a development from Safety in Custody Statistics with the statistics mirroring the information presented in Safety in Custody and reflecting the requirements of the Children and Young People Secure Estate. This publication will undergo assessment and may be subject to further development based on user feedback.

Safety in Custody has been designated as National Statistics by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority signifying that they comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin does not have that designation but nevertheless complies with the Code of Practice whenever possible 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.

It is the intention to seek feedback from users of the statistics and groups with an interest in youth custody to assess whether the presentation and breadth of the information presented is sufficient and useful. This feedback will inform how and when to remove the experimental statistics designation.

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 here: Code of Practise for Statistics

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

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. The changes 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 April 2019.

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 and Self-harm:

Information on assaults and self-harm, 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.

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 supressed.

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 five or fewer incidents associated with a particular establishment will therefore not be reported precisely. Where the suppressed number could be deduced by subtraction from a total, another data item will be displayed as a range of values (e.g. 156 ± 3) rather than being given precisely. 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.

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

..	Not available
0	Nil or less than half the final digit shown
~	Suppressed numbers of 5 or fewer
-	Not applicable / rate not calculated due to small base population
(p)	Provisional data
(r)	Revised data

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 assaults and self-harm in STCs and SCHs)
• Youth Justice Applications Framework (for population)
• Behaviour Management Monthly Returns (for assaults and self-harm before April 2019)

Data sources and extraction:

Assaults and Self-Harm

Development

The data sources used within YCS to obtain information on assaults and self-harm were developed or adopted in April 2019. The YCS Information Team 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 assault 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.

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 4]} 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[footnote 5] 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.

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. There are two establishments that accommodate both under 18s and adults (HMYOI Feltham and HMP&YOI Parc). Incidents relating to the parts of these establishments within the Children and Young People Secure Estate are identified by referencing the participants in the incidents to individuals within the youth population.

In the parts of the Children and Young People Secure Estate that do not use IRS, i.e. STCs and SCHs, information on assault and self-harm incidents are submitted centrally using bespoke templates on a monthly basis. 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 and self-harm 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’. Such incidents occurring during escorts that are recorded on IRS are included in the ‘Safety in Custody’ bulletin although the total is not disaggregated between adults and children.

Incidents that occur when a child or young person is released on temporary licence are also 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 one 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. For IRS records, each incident is inspected centrally to ensure that the narrative recorded with the incident is consistent with its classification e.g. that injuries are correctly assigned and participants are attached to the incident correctly.

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 and 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 published by the Ministry of Justice. 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 will continue to be included in Safety in Custody.

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 cost of assaults, self-harm and deaths in custody, in both human and financial terms is high and especially so for children and young people in custody. This bulletin, together with ‘Safety in Custody’ adds to the body of learning in this area and supports work to prevent such tragedies in future.

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, 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 wellbeing 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 on welfare placements in SCHs are not included in the population count.

Child and young person: 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 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.

Her 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.

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 within the estate and those with the most complex / holistic needs. Secure Children’s Homes have high staff to children ratios allowing focus on the emotional, physical and mental health needs of the children they accommodate. SCHs generally accommodate remanded or sentenced children but can also accommodate children placed by Local Authorities on welfare matters. When referring to SCHs within statistics on the youth justice system, only those children held on remand to youth detention accommodation or those sentenced to custody are counted.

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 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 can be educated and rehabilitated.

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

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 and young person as defined in this guide. An assault incident may be both a child on child assault and a staff assault if more than one category of victim is reported.

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 placed in a secure children’s home by the local authority on a welfare matter. Incidents involving welfare children 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 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 her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). YCS has operational responsibility for the children and young people’s 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:

Tel: 020 3334 3536

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:

Katherine Tatlock

Youth Custody Service
HM Prison and Probation Service
Southern House
Wellesley Grove
Croydon
CR0 1XG

Email: statistics.enquiries@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 statistics.enquiries@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 is not included within this bulletin. ↩

2. From July 2021 girls have been placed in a dedicated unit within YOI Wetherby/Wetherby Keppel. ↩

3. Through June and July 2021, children and young people were removed from Rainsbrook STC and no new placements were made. ↩

4. Medway STC was managed directly by HMPPS and was also using IRS at this time. ↩

5. Medway STC closed at the end of January 2020. ↩