Girls in custody: Government response lacks long-term ambition

We strongly welcomed the recommendations in Susannah Hancock’s review of girls in custody when it was published, calling for the government to implement them in full. The government’s response, published today [11 November 2025], marks an initial step forward but lacks the long-term ambition and plan needed to fully ensure a more humane, safe, and supportive approach to meeting the needs of girls in custody.

Strategic Oversight

We welcome the government’s acceptance of the review’s recommendations on appointing a strategic lead for girls and the creation of a strategic board to oversee the development and delivery of a strategy for girls across the youth justice system.

We are pleased to have been invited to sit as an independent advisor on the government’s Girls in Youth Justice Advisory Board. Through this role, we will work to ensure effective engagement across the Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) membership, including with specialist and gender-specific voluntary sector organisations and those delivered ‘by-and-for’ the communities they support. These organisations understand, and are often best placed, to address the multiple needs of girls and young women.

We hope to support the implementation of the government’s initial commitments, set out in the response, and use the learning from their implementation, and the knowledge and expertise from across our alliance, to steer further progress and advocate for bolder action in the future. 

Placements

Central to the Hancock Review’s recommendations was the issue of where girls who are sentenced to custody are placed. The review found that Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) were not able to provide girls with the therapeutic and trauma-informed environment and services that they need. We therefore very much welcomed the government’s immediate response when the review was published, committing to ending the placement of girls in YOIs.

The review also found that Secure Training Centres (STCs) were not best placed to meet girls’ needs, especially those who are extremely vulnerable, and that Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs) were the most appropriate placements for girls in custody. It is therefore extremely disappointing that the government has felt unable to accept recommendations two and three of the review, which set out that by 2029, girls should not be placed in the STC and that the government should move to a policy whereby all girls in custody are placed in SCHs. Though we recognise the challenges in implementing these recommendations in full immediately, the government’s response lacks the long-term vision and ambition we had hoped to see.

A key challenge in ensuring girls are placed in establishments able to meet their needs is that SCHs are able to refuse placements based on whether they are able to meet the child’s needs or whether the placement would impact their ability to meet other children’s needs. The review found that a majority of girls refused a placement in one SCH went on to be placed in another that was able to accommodate those girls’ needs and therefore recommended that the government work with SCHs in a coordinated way to ensure placements for all girls. We therefore welcome the government’s planned pilot of an enhanced placement protocol to facilitate peer support, information sharing, and collective problem-solving amongst SCHs to support the placement of children identified as suitable for an SCH placement but whose referral has initially been declined. We look forward to reviewing the success of this pilot as part of the advisory group and considering how it might support the government to go further than its current response and implement recommendations two and three in the future.

Alternatives to custody

Susannah Hancock also made recommendations relating to how the government might explore innovative options for alternative places of detention for girls, including ‘community secure’ provision enabled by the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bills, the designation of alternative provision as approved places of detention, and supported accommodation provision in the community. It’s disappointing that the government’s response in relation to these potential opportunities isn’t stronger. AYJ will continue to advocate for custody to only be used as a last resort for all children, and especially extremely vulnerable girls, and to explore and support opportunities to ensure that more children can be supported in the community.

Jess Mullen, Chief Executive Officer of AYJ, said,
"The government has missed a critical opportunity to demonstrate long-term ambition for girls in custody. We are deeply disappointed by the lack of commitment to end placements in Secure Training Centres and designate Secure Children’s Homes as the only appropriate setting, as well as the limited focus on alternatives to custody. Initial steps to improve strategic oversight, services, and support for girls, and placement facilitation with SCHs are welcome, but the government could have gone much further. As an independent advisor, we will use our position on the Girls in Youth Justice Advisory Board to steer further progress and push for bold action towards full implementation of the review’s recommendations to ensure every girl is safe and supported."