AYJ Comment: Broken trust in YOIs compromising children’s safety and wellbeing

Today [10th June, 2025], HM Inspectorate of Prisons published a thematic report Building trust: the importance of positive relationships in young offenders institutions. This report paints a deeply troubling picture of environments where fundamental relationships between children and staff, crucial for children’s wellbeing and safety, are severely compromised. 

The report highlights a failure to foster positive engagement, with children being locked up for long periods, frequent staff changes, and a lack of opportunities for meaningful interaction. This directly undermines the ability of Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)to meet children’s needs and run safe establishments.

These findings are particularly concerning in light of the decision by the Government in April to introduce PAVA incapacitant spray for use on children in YOIs. As we, and 37 organisations and individuals working to represent the views of, or deliver services to children, warned at the time — this measure will undoubtedly further erode trust between children and staff, exacerbating the very issues of poor relationships and frustration identified in this report. It is a regressive step that moves us further away from creating safe, trauma-informed environments for children in custody.

The report also highlights the poor implementation of the joined-up Framework for Integrated Care and of custody support plans, both of which were introduced to improve support and care for children in custody. These are the latest in a long line of attempts, to fix the culture within YOIs, that have consistently failed to deliver meaningful and lasting change. For too long, the system has struggled to provide the supportive and rehabilitative environments children need to fulfil their potential.

The best way to meet the needs of children and ensure desistance from crime is to ensure children are never sentenced or remanded to custody unless it is an absolute last resort and for the shortest appropriate period. Work with children to support desistance should focus on long-term healthy development, facilitated through caring professional relationships. Youth Justice Services in the community are in a far better position to be able to provide this than the failing custodial estate.

To meet the needs of children for whom custody is deemed necessary, all children must be held in small, welfare-based and rights-respecting establishments close to their home. The closest model we currently have to this are Secure Children's Homes, where staff-to-child ratios are significantly higher than in YOIs, offering the intensive, individualised support and consistent relationships that are so desperately lacking in YOIs. We urge the government to recognise this and reiterate the previous governments commitment to close YOIs and the last remaining Secure Training Centre.

Jess Mullen, Chief Executive of the Alliance for Youth Justice said:

“This report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons is a profound indictment of a system that is failing the most vulnerable children in our care. The fundamental shortcomings in care, interaction and relationship-building described here is deeply concerning. If children in any other institutional setting — be it a school, a hospital, or a care home — were experiencing what this report details from those responsible for their wellbeing and safety, it would undoubtedly prompt serious concern and calls for immediate action.

It is particularly troubling to see these findings released just weeks after the government's decision to introduce PAVA spray into these already challenged environments. This move will undoubtedly exacerbate the breakdown of trust and relationships, and it risks further traumatising children who are already in a highly vulnerable state.

We cannot continue to apply piecemeal solutions and punitive measures to a fundamentally broken system. The evidence is clear: custody must only be a last resort for children, and where it is viewed as necessary, smaller, welfare-based environments with high staff-to-child ratios, like Secure Children's Homes, are the only child-centred and effective path forward. The current trajectory is simply unacceptable."