In the space of just two weeks, a succession of reports has laid bare, once again, the appalling treatment of children in the secure estate.
Today [22/09/2026], HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ annual Children in custody report sets out that standards across the children’s estate remain “woeful”. Children at Feltham and Werrington Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) are spending less than four hours a day out of their cells on average. Education is inadequate in every YOI other than Parc. Violence remains a regular feature of daily life, and over half of children report they have been separated from their peers as a punishment. A third of children said they had no member of staff to turn to for help.
Particularly disturbing is the continued use of force and pain against children. More than two-thirds of children surveyed said they had been restrained by staff and inspectors found that pain-inducing restraint techniques were still being used in incidents where there was no threat of serious harm.
This comes after a recent Ofsted report on Oasis Secure School identified restraints which were neither necessary nor proportionate, where the legal criteria were not met. Meanwhile an inspectorate report published yesterday on Oakhill Secure Training Centre (STC) revealed serious continuing failures in safeguarding practice and highlighted pain and distress being unnecessarily inflicted on a child.
At the same time, new data obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform shows that Black children have been disproportionately subjected to PAVA spray since its introduction into child prisons: of the 33 children and young people who had PAVA spray used against them in Feltham A and Werrington up to the end of March 2026, 55% were Black, despite making up only around 30% of the population.
These findings should trouble us deeply. The deliberate infliction of pain has no place in the care of children. Yet children in custody continue to be hurt by the staff and institutions that are supposed to keep them safe. And this harm continues to fall disproportionately on Black children.
None of this is new. Children have endured violence, isolation, inadequate education, excessive restraint and desperately limited time out of their cells for years, violating their rights and entitlements, while successive governments have promised transformation.
Enough is enough. The government’s recent white paper pledged to move away from large custodial institutions towards smaller, more rehabilitative settings. Its forthcoming Youth Custody Transformation Plan must finally turn these words into action. It must set out a clear, time-bound plan to close YOIs and the remaining STC. In doing so, the Ministry of Justice must work with colleagues across the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care to create an integrated cross-government strategy to restore and expand small, homely and therapeutic provision for children across health, social care and criminal justice.
Children cannot afford another plan which simply manages the failure of institutions that have repeatedly been shown to be incapable of meeting children’s needs and upholding their rights.
