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Juvenile Detention

I congratulate the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Oaten) on securing this debate on an issue that is important to all Members of the House. At the start of his speech, he raised the wider issue of the prison population, and referred particularly to self-harm and reoffending. I give him an assurance that I take self-harm and suicide in prison very seriously. Work is ongoing with the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle) on looking into a suicide prevention group, and into how we can reduce self-harm in prison. One of the Government's key objectives is to ensure that we reduce reoffending. That means looking at employment, housing, drug abuse and mental health issues. It means considering how we can prevent offending and ensure that when prisoners are reintegrated into society, they have support mechanisms. There is much more work to be done, but I am confident that we are moving in the right direction, and I do not accept the criticism that the hon. Gentleman made at the start of his speech. However, he raised a number of important issues and I will try to respond to them. Before I do so, I pay tribute to the work done by the hon. Gentleman, the Children's Commissioner and the many charities who do strong work on the subject, and who give the Government advice on such issues. I will try to take the issues that the hon. Gentleman mentioned in turn, starting with the age of criminal responsibility. He is right that I cannot change Government policy today, but it is important that we reflect on the issue at all times. I do not think that it is in anybody's interests to prosecute children who are unable to differentiate between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing, but my view is that children aged 10 and over are able to understand that difference. It is not in the interests of justice, victims or the young people concerned if there is no possibility of addressing serious lawbreaking by children of that age. Of course, as the hon. Gentleman said, we need to make sure that we prevent offending. A large part of youth offending teams' role is to work with young people who are beginning to display offending behaviour and to prevent it from escalating—and to work with their parents. I visited Coventry youth offending team recently, and saw excellent work, both with children who display signs of truancy at school, and have perhaps even been excluded from school, and with parents who have severe difficulties. That work aims to prevent reoffending, but we need an age of criminal responsibility, and we cannot change it at the moment. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the importance of child-centred services, and I can give him an assurance that great support is provided for young people in custody, as their offences should not obscure the need to care for them as children. The Youth Justice Board has a strategy on the secure estate for children and young people, and it has set out clearly the principles to which it wishes to adhere to achieve the goal of ensuring that children are cared for as children. Indeed, establishments should have a culture centred on the child; be run by staff committed to working with children and young people who are adequately trained; provide accommodation for young people that is separate from adult accommodation; minimise the likelihood of harm through integrated and rigorous safeguarding; provide high-quality health care; and ensure that regimes are geared to children's education, training and, importantly, play, which was mentioned by the hon. Gentleman. If the hon. Gentleman reflects, as I have done, on what has happened over the past 10 years, he would immediately recognise that that range of principles represents a radical departure from previous practice. He will accept that we are dealing with individuals who often have very severe difficulties—not just those such as drug or alcohol abuse that are visible when they go into youth custody but the difficulties with literacy and numeracy that he mentioned. Recent studies show that nearly half of them have literacy and numeracy abilities below those of the average 11-year-old, and a quarter of them had abilities below those expected of a seven-year-old. We must therefore consider the need to prevent reoffending by securing school attendance, because 87 per cent. of young people entering secure accommodation have missed significant periods—often years—of schooling. Many of them have mental health problems, including depression and a tendency to self-harm. Their health is often affected by substance misuse, and more than half of them have reported dependence on drugs in the year prior to custody. We must therefore consider very strongly how we deal with individuals as children, as well as dealing with their challenging behaviour and deep-seated problems. The challenge is how we meet those objectives. If we look at the positive things achieved by the Youth Justice Board—and I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman has done so—we can see that there have been great improvements. The education of young people in custody, in particular, has improved. Spending and investment in education has increased fourfold since 2000, and the amount of time during which young people in custody receive education has risen dramatically. In 2000, they received an average of seven hours of education a week, but in the Youth Justice Board facilities, they receive an average of 28 hours a week. That is a big change, and I hope that we can build on it, following the announcement by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister of the joint responsibility of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Ministry of Justice for managing the Youth Justice Board in future. The hon. Gentleman asked about that joint responsibility, and we are going to produce a memorandum of understanding. We will ensure that there is joint operation and examination of the board's focus, because secure establishments are still required, so justice is part of that responsibility. However, it is important to look at the underlying causes of social exclusion, as well as poor literacy and numeracy, both outside the secure training estate and, indeed, inside it. Recently, the Department for Children, Schools and Families led a project to improve the education of school-age offenders in custody. A consultation exercise in the summer was very fruitful in gathering suggestions about how we can develop that policy. We are also undertaking investment in health by transferring responsibility for provision to primary care trusts. The level of provision should be equivalent to that which a young person with the same difficult and complex needs would get in the community. As we have seen, mental health provision, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned, is particularly important. There are a number of programmes, not least the resettlement and after-care provision programmes, which are designed to be particularly innovative. The work of the youth offending team which engages with young people after their sentence has ended is equally important. The provision of mental health in-reach services to custodial establishments has been greatly improved. Training and consultation by forensic nurses to health professionals is now provided in residential, custodial and community settings. A range of extra NHS secure forensic mental health units for young people has been expanded. I do not deny that more can be done, and we are considering that investment in a positive light. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the importance of young people in custody having good contact with their families and other agencies, particularly if the establishment is a long way from the person's home area. All establishments are required to make arrangements that promote positive contact and involvement with families, and to ensure that information is passed to families or other appropriate adults on significant occasions. The young person must be provided with facilities to write, access to telephones and advances to buy telephone credits or the equivalent, and encouraged to maintain contact with his or her family. Governors and directors have discretion to assist in meeting the costs of visiting a young offender. That happens on a regular basis. The hon. Gentleman mentioned article 37 of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, of which the United Kingdom is a signatory. That makes important stipulations about the treatment of young people in custody. Article 37(c) specifies that children who are in custody should not mix with adult prisoners unless that is in the best interests of the child. When we ratified the convention in 1991, the UK entered a reservation against that provision because at the time there was no separate under-18 estate. The past few years have seen major developments in this respect. In 1999, the then Home Secretary promised that all girls under 17 would be removed from Prison Service establishments, and over the following years steady progress has been made. There has been a programme to build separate units for 17-year-olds. The first of the new units, at Downview in Surrey, was opened in 2004. I am aware of the need for adherence to the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. As I said earlier, children are central to the youth justice system and should be treated as children—but as children with special needs. The hon. Gentleman mentioned an issue of current political and community concern, the safeguarding of young people in custody and the way in which their behaviour is managed. He will know that the recent inquests into the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood have generated a great deal of discussion and, understandably, some very strong feelings, on both topics. He mentioned the current legislation regarding the use of restraint and the modification that we made by amendment in another place and in the House earlier this year for the use of restraint for good order and discipline. The Joint Committee on Human Rights is examining that. I gave evidence to the Committee last Wednesday. I am confident that we have got it right. Like the hon. Gentleman, I wish to see a reduction in the use of restraint, but I recognise that there are many instances where restraint remains essential to protect individuals from self-harm, to protect other young people from attack in secure establishments, and for the protection of staff. We need to examine the operation of that, which is why I instigated in July this year a review, to which the hon. Gentleman graciously referred. The terms of the review were published in a parliamentary answer just before the summer recess, and the hon. Gentleman can refer to that. The answer makes clear the need to establish a review. I have given the two joint Chairs until 4 April to produce a report for me and my right hon. Friend the Minister for Children, Young People and Families. I want a wide ranging review that will examine the current use of restraint, the circumstances in which it is used, what happened in the past and what needs to happen to ensure the safety and security of children and staff in those establishments. The hon. Gentleman will also know that we are keen to learn the lessons of Gareth and Adam's deaths; indeed, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and I are due to meet those boys' mothers either at the end of this week or the beginning of next—certainly within the next fortnight. As I said, many children entering custody have a history of self-harm, and protecting them is no easy task. Like the death of any child, the death of a child in custody is a tragedy that we must do all we can to avoid. The coroner's report has been produced, and we are awaiting my right hon. Friend's response to it. I shall also respond on his behalf, and with him, shortly. Challenging behaviour is an issue for which a rights-based approach, although essential in providing a framework, will never be adequate if we are to attain a full understanding of what is needed and how it can be achieved. I should like to draw attention to the Youth Justice Board's code of practice on managing children and young people in the secure estate. Among its requirements are that physical restraint must not be undertaken except by staff who are trained and competent, and that such staff must be mindful of the particular needs and circumstances of the child. Crucially, restraint must be used as a last resort and only as the result of a risk assessment—not as a punishment or to secure compliance with staff instructions. The hon. Gentleman's point about its use to help secure children to undertake education was raised last week with me in the Joint Committee. I said to the Committee, and I say to the hon. Gentleman, that if there is evidence of such use of restraint, I will take it very seriously and investigate it personally. Through the Youth Justice Board, we are trying to ensure full compliance with the code of practice; we are currently assessing performance in the second year of the code's operation. We are considering a range of measures in a number of secure training centres to help support better use of compliance techniques and to ensure, for example, that we can defuse situations without having to use physical intervention. Hassockfield secure training centre is piloting the use of a technique, known as therapeutic crisis intervention, to make sure that physical intervention does not have to be used for compliance to be secured. We are also evaluating a restorative justice pilot, which has examined similar issues, at Ashfield young offender institute. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising these points; it has been a very wide-ranging debate. I hope that I can assure him that we take these matters very seriously. Safeguarding the rights of all involved in the under-18 custodial estate is a difficult balancing act but one which we must get right. Lord Carlile's report of last year showed us that this is a particularly acute issue as regards matters not only of restraint but of full searches and single separation. The Youth Justice Board is currently considering those issues. High population pressures are with us, as the hon. Gentleman said. We need to consider how we can provide a regime that helps to prevent reoffending, gives young people confidence and skills, and helps them with the problems that they face, at the same time doing so in an establishment that has proper order and discipline within it. I hope that I have given an indication of some of the work that we are doing and how we plan to improve the care of young people in the custodial estate. I contend that whatever the challenges for the future, the estate and its operation is in a better place now than what children faced 10 years ago. I hope that the House will recognise that, in a very difficult area, the Government have shown their commitment to achieve the vision that we set out to pursue. That vision, in summary, is to ensure that children are treated as individuals and that their challenges and difficulties are faced up to. The whole purpose of the investment in the youth justice estate is to secure a prevention of reoffending for those young people and to help them to lead productive and full lives for the future. Question put and agreed to.