Further cuts to secure children’s home places announced
The number of custodial places in secure children’s homes (SCH) is to be cut again due to falling custody levels, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) has announced.
SCHs are generally used to accommodate young offenders aged 12 to 14, girls up to the age of 16, and 15- to 16-year-old boys who are deemed to be vulnerable.
Frances Done, YJB chair, told CYP Now that there are fewer younger children being sentenced to custody, part of a wider fall in custody levels
In total the move to reduce the number of beds, which cost around £200,000 per year each, will save in the region of £3.4m, although Done did not say how much of this will go towards budget savings.
“The YJB is committed to using secure children’s homes to accommodate the children and young people for whom it is appropriate provision,” she said. “The reduction in commissioned beds is the result of substantial reductions in the number of young people being sentenced to custody by the courts, particularly in the younger age group.
“Secure children’s homes play an important role in the young people’s secure estate to ensure time spent in custody is purposeful, all young people are engaged in education and training, and that they are set on the path to rehabilitation and a future life free from crime.”
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League, said the decision seemed “more in the interest of the YJB’s bank account than the needs of children and their safety”.
“Secure children’s homes are the only appropriate form of custody for the very few children who require a period in a secure environment,” he added.
Penelope Gibbs, deputy chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, said: “It is good that the YJB is continuing to support secure children’s homes but really disappointing that the places they are purchasing in them are being reduced.
“The child custody population is shrinking but if children are to be imprisoned, secure children’s homes are better than the alternatives – offering better-trained staff and a more welfare-oriented approach.”
Source CYP Now
