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HMYOI Cookham Wood – some progress but violence levels remain high

Published:

Inspectors returning to HMYOI Cookham Wood, a young offender institution in Kent, found that progress had been inconsistent since their last full inspection in August 2021. At the 2021 inspection, inspectors been concerned about the high levels of violence, lack of purposeful activity, and poor behaviour going unchallenged by staff.

Inspectors visited Cookham Wood in April 2022 for an independent review of progress (IRP) and followed up 10 recommendations. Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, described the results as “mixed”.

The governor and his team were starting to deliver some meaningful progress driven by investment from the Youth Custody Service. However, the new regime needs to be implemented properly and then further improved to demonstrate to all children that resolving conflict and making progress will be rewarded with more productive time out of cell.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

The number of violent incidents had reduced by 20% since the previous inspection, but levels were still higher than in similar facilities. A serious, violent incident had occurred shortly before the visit which had damaged staff confidence and morale. Inspectors found no evidence of a credible violence reduction strategy and violence data was not being used effectively. Staff shortages compounded this problem.

Children displayed widespread low-level poor behaviour and were not challenged by staff. Many cell observation panels were blocked and basic standards, such as graffiti and dirty, unkempt cells, remained unchallenged by many staff. The rewarding positive behaviour policy was ineffective and only 19% of children described it as fair. There was little to reward children on the highest level and so there was no motivation to behave well.

Resettlement provision had improved significantly. Release on temporary licence had been bolstered by additional checks when determining a child’s suitability. The use of multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) was effective.

Mr Taylor said:

“Ultimately, success will depend on leaders’ ability to create a culture where staff expect consistently high standards and support children to achieve them.”

Notes to editors

  1. Read the HMYOI Cookham Wood independent review of progress report, published on 7 June 2022.
  2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
  3. Cookham Wood in Kent is a young offender institution holding boys between the ages of 15 and 18. The institution can hold up to 188, although because of reductions in the population of children in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic, at the time of this independent review of progress just over 80 children were held.
  4. Independent Reviews of Progress (IRPs) began in April 2019. They were developed because Ministers wanted an independent assessment of how far prisons had implemented HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ recommendations following particularly concerning prison inspections. IRPs are not inspections and do not result in new judgements against our healthy prison tests. Rather they judge progress being made against the key recommendations made at the previous inspection. The visits are announced and happen eight to 12 months after the original inspection. They last two and a half days and involve a comparatively small team. Reports are published within 25 working days of the end of the visit. We conduct 15 to 20 IRPs each year. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons selects sites for IRPs based on previous healthy prison test assessments and a range of other factors.
  5. At this Cookham Wood IRP we followed up 10 of the recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up four themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in one recommendation, reasonable progress in three, insufficient progress in six, and no meaningful progress in one. Ofsted found reasonable progress in three themes and insufficient progress in one.
  6. This IRP visit at HMYOI Cookham Wood took place between 25 and 27 April 2022.