Inspections of Wetherby and the Keppel Unit

The prison inspectors carried out an inspection at Wetherby and the Keppel unit in December 2023.  In their report they said:

This complex young offender institution (YOI) in Yorkshire holds children with a range of needs, including those in the Keppel Unit, a national resource for the most vulnerable children; provision for a small number of girls; boys on short sentences or remand; and a small number of children who are embarking on very long or life sentences.

Wetherby is one of three different types of institution that hold the seven currently imprisoned girls in England and Wales. Nationally there is not a coherent plan for caring for these girls and what was originally only temporary accommodation at Wetherby after the closure of Rainsbrook secure training centre (STC), has now become the destination for those who STCs and secure children’s homes will not, or cannot accommodate. The result has been pressure on staff who, while doing their best, have not had the training or do not possess the expertise to care for these girls, most of whom require specialist provision. As a result, we came across two incidents where a girl was using her clothes to make ligatures and had had her clothing removed by male officers. This is simply not acceptable.

The care for these and for other vulnerable and challenging children was also not good enough. While there was some good provision in the Keppel and Napier units and the segregation unit was better run, some children were being separated on the wing for too long before they were reintegrated. Although some boys chose to self-isolate because they wanted to avoid conflict before moving to the adult estate, some were spending long periods of time away from their peers and receiving little time out of their cells. There had been laudable efforts by leaders to reduce keep-apart lists and integrate children into larger groups. Although there had been some effective conflict resolution by trained officers, too often they were cross-deployed to other duties. Leaders told us that formal schemes to promote relationships with children through frequent structured contact for every child was barely functioning because there was often a shortage of frontline officers. Given the size of the leadership team, with 24 senior managers and 67 other managers, this was scarcely credible when the jail held just 165 children. In our last report we criticised the size of leadership team that meant lines of responsibility and accountability were opaque, so it was disappointing this had not been rectified.

While there was an impressive breadth in enrichment activities and access to the gym and refurbished library were good, children still spent too much time locked in their cells. Although those on the enhanced Drake unit received around seven hours unlocked per day, separated children could spend up to 23.5 hours a day behind their doors. Overall, it was disappointing to see that time out of cell had not improved since our last inspection and was nowhere near the levels we reported on before the pandemic with evening association and dining out now rare.

There had been some improvements in the provision of education, but English and maths provision remained poor, with too few children having access to high quality teaching. While there was a rudimentary reading strategy in place, the teaching and encouraging of reading was not good enough with the most need receiving the least support.

The atmosphere in the jail was generally good and most of the children we spoke to described good relationships with staff. Levels of violence had remained too high and the extensive number of meetings which were due to address it were not well coordinated. The use of incentives to motivate good behaviour were, apart from in education, not being used enough to improve behaviour.

Work had been done to improve the accommodation on the Keppel and Napier units, in-cell showers had been fitted in most cells and the exercise yards looked better and had a wider range of activities for children. The living units were showing their age and were not a suitable design or layout to provide for the children at Wetherby.

The dedicated governor has presided over a jail that has become more stable in recent years and in the most part, the prison feels settled. Staff were understandably disappointed with the reduction in our safety score to not sufficiently good, but it was unavoidable given our findings about girls. There will need to be some creative thinking within the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and the prison service to support this particularly vulnerable group.

Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
December 2023

 

The inspectors provide a list of the significant findings

What needs to improve at HMYOI Wetherby

During this inspection we identified 11 key concerns, of which seven should be treated as priorities. Priority concerns are those that are most important to improving outcomes for children. They require immediate attention by leaders and managers.

Leaders should make sure that all concerns identified here are addressed and that progress is tracked through a plan which sets out how and when the concerns will be resolved. The plan should be provided to HMI Prisons.

Priority concerns

  1. The level of self-harm among girls was extremely high and thisresulted in very high levels of use of force and assaults on staff.There was still no effective model of custody for these very vulnerablechildren and, despite the best efforts of staff, the YOI was not able tomeet their needs. (To Youth Custody Service)
  1. Too many children were separated for too long. Children who wereseparated in their own cells on the main wings experienced very littletime out of their cell, particularly at weekends.
  1. There was a high number of pain-inducing restraint techniques andstrip-searches under restraint. Many of these incidents were not inaccordance with national policy and were not properly authorised.Scrutiny of video footage and support on the scene by leaders werepoor.
  1. The implementation of custody support plans was weak. Many sessions did not take place and those that did were opportunistic orcursory in nature.
  1. Residential units required continuing maintenance. Some cells werecold and in poor repair.
  1. Children spent too much time alone locked in their cells,particularly at weekends.
  1. The teaching of English, including reading and mathematics, wasnot good enough.

Key concerns

  1. Almost half the complaints about discrimination were responded tolate, which undermined children’s confidence in the process.
  1. The quality of risk assessment work by resettlement practitionerswas inconsistent. Some assessments lacked depth and not allavailable interventions and management tools were considered.
  1. Leaders and managers had not given sufficient oversight of qualityassurance procedures to make sure that weaknesses, includingthose found at the previous inspection, had been fully addressed.
  1. Waiting times for routine dental treatment were too long and therewas no local orthodontic pathway for new referrals.

 Return to Wetherby

 The full reports can be read at the Ministry of Justice web site, just follow the links below: