Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many allegations of abuse have been made at Werrington Young Offender Institution in the last 12 months.

In the period November 2022 to October 2023 – the most recent 12 months for which data are available – HMYOI Werrington made 63 safeguarding referrals relating to allegations of physical or sexual abuse.

The figure represents alleged abuse rather than substantiated findings of abuse. Some referrals could refer to historical abuse and therefore may refer to incidents which have occurred outside of custody. There are a small number of instances where professionals have raised concerns about a child when the child has not reported any concerns.

The YCS takes all allegations of abuse seriously and ensures that safeguarding is at the forefront of what we do. We have published a new policy framework ‘Safeguarding and Child Protection in the Youth Custody Service’, which ensures that everyone involved in the care and management of children in the youth estate understand their safeguarding responsibilities.

All of our Youth Custody Service (YCS) sites have a safety strategy and there are teams of resolution practitioners based in each site who apply the principles of Restorative Practice to resolve conflict between various parties, thereby reducing the need for restrictive interventions and enabling a child’s engagement in all other opportunities available whilst in our care. YCS staff also receive specialist training while they do their job of keeping young people safe and giving them better life chances.

Where we have concerns about high levels of violence at a specific site, we take further action with the central safety team in the YCS, who provide additional support and independent scrutiny to aid improvement. In this period, the YCS have supported Werrington YOI in improving their performance outcomes around safety, and due to positive signs of improvement, the need to provide this extra layer of support will be stood down in the near future.