Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents relating to safety of children in secure training centres and young offender institutions have been raised by Barnardo’s advocates with (a) Youth Justice Board monitors and (b) local children’s safeguarding boards in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous

Although youth offending is down, reoffending rates are far too high and the care and supervision of young offenders is custody is not good enough.

That is why the Justice Secretary has asked Charlie Taylor to conduct a review of youth justice. He will report back later this year with recommendations on how to improve the treatment of young people in our care.

The Table below is based on quarterly information provided to the Youth Justice Board by Barnardo’s and includes all safeguarding issues raised with a Barnardo’s advocate. When a safeguarding issue is raised with a Barnardo’s advocate, they will make a referral through the establishment’s safeguarding process, which is agreed with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). The YJB monitors continually check whether referrals are being made when they should be. Cases can also be directly referred to the LADO by any member of staff, a Barnardo’s advocate, or a YJB monitor.

Table 1: Number of safeguarding incidents reported to Barnardo’s advocates in STCs and under-18 YOIs: July 2013-June 2015

Notes:

• The July 2014 to June 2015 data include Hassockfield STC and Hindley YOI which were decommissioned part way through this period