Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to increase prison officer (a) recruitment and (b) retention rates across the youth secure estate.

All young offender institutions in the youth secure estate have live recruitment campaigns. Projections for all these are positive, and two establishments (HMYOI Werrington and HMYOI Wetherby) have already recruited enough staff to achieve their target staffing levels.

As part of the HMPPS retention oversight process, all establishments have a Retention Action Plan in place. These plans focus improvement on areas identified by staff in exit interviews, when asked to explain their decision to leave the Youth Custody Service (YCS). Additionally, in response to exit interview data, the YCS has reviewed advertising and recruitment material, and the Youth Justice Worker Specialist Qualification route, nationally.