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<p>We are committed to reducing violence in youth custody. Whilst there are fewer
young people in custody than ever before – those in the youth estate are a cohort
with complex needs. Children and young people (including 18-year olds) serving sentences
for violence against the person offences accounted for more than half (55%) of the
youth custody population in 2019/20.</p><p>We are investing in staff, education, psychology
services and mental health support, alongside a package of interventions within the
Behaviour Management Strategy that address the needs of children and young people
through early intervention and multi-agency work. This is underpinned by ‘SECURE STAIRS’
- the framework of integrated care jointly led by the NHS and Youth Custody Service
(YCS), which provides the foundations as to how the YCS works with children – which
has adapted its approach during the COVID-19 pandemic to take into account the vulnerabilities
of children at this time. In addition, the YCS has been progressing work with a focus
on some of the most vulnerable and challenging young people in custody alongside NHS
colleagues through the Critical Case Pathway. This provides a greater level of oversight
and support to professionals working with children who self-harm, and those with the
most complex needs to ensure effective assessment, planning and co-ordination. Additionally
the ‘COVID-19 Support Plan’, a less intensive and physically distanced version of
the Custody Support Plan (which provides children with a named officer to work with
on a weekly basis) is also being delivered, to maintain key relationships between
staff and children.</p><p>The roll out of the youth justice specialist roles has continued
with funding provided for every prison officer to take up a degree level qualification
in youth justice. As of March, there were 201 youth justice specialist officers already
in post. A further 319 staff are currently signed up or undertaking the learning,
with the last cohort due to start in October 2022 with up to 110 more frontline staff
participating.</p><p>We are continuing to look to further open up regime opportunities
in a manner that is safe and sustainable, to provide further support to children.
Given the uncertainty this period has presented, it has been encouraging to see that
levels of self-harm have fallen during the pandemic with - the annualised rate of
self-harming per 100 children falling by 56% in the three months to December 2020.
We are also carrying out work to ensure that lessons learned from the COVID-19 period
are taken into account going forwards, and the YCS has commissioned a programme of
research, in collaboration with academics, to evaluate these lessons with the results
used to further inform recovery planning.</p>
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