Secure 16 to 19 Academies Bill

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 17th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I start by congratulating the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) on securing this Bill and on her speech? Like others, I have a long-standing interest in youth justice, having served on the Justice Committee, but also because I have a young offenders institution in my constituency, which I have visited on many occasions.

Reforms to youth justice are essential, and we support the measures in the Bill. The hon. Member is right that secure schools—schools with security rather than prisons with education—are an innovative form of custody for children and young people. The 2016 Taylor report laid out why we need to reimagine how we care for children who commit offences serious enough to warrant their detention in custody. The Government committed that year to phase out young offender institutions and secure training centres, and to replace them with a network of secure schools, since renamed secure 16 to 19 academies.

Media reports today reference the first secure school being set to open in Medway on the site of the Medway secure training centre, which is set to house 49 children aged 12 to 18 who were sentenced or remanded to custody by the courts. However, as the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham knows, the journey has been beset by delays. The Public Accounts Committee report in 2022 said that the first secure school had not yet opened more than six years after it was recommended, and costs had indeed spiralled—from an estimated original £4.9 million, I think, to £40 million—because of unexpected additional requirements that had not been factored in. The first secure school was originally set to open by autumn 2020, as the Public Accounts Committee identified; the former Medway STC site was then to open by November 2023, but was again delayed to February 2024, and it is still yet to open. The main point, with which I am sure the hon. Lady will agree, is that we need effective planning and risk management to be much better than we have seen to date in the history of the secure schools implementation. I will make a couple of further comments in that regard, but will first make our comments on the proposed changes, which we support.

We support the reduction of the minimum notice period; as has been mentioned, the seven-year termination period was clearly intended for continuity of education provision for those who might be in year 7 who might expect to be able to go on to year 13 in their school. It is also right to say that secure schools are not competing with other schools in their area.

On the third amendment, on consultation with appropriate persons on how the school will work with local partners, the hon. Lady made an important distinction between where there might be new developments to go through a full planning process and where an existing facility may be adapted or refurbished. On the latter, I hope that the hon. Lady will agree that we want people to be confident in these schools and to feel engaged in what is happening in their community. It is important that we have learning and best practice from the implementation of the first secure school as well, and that we keep under review the way in which communities are being engaged.

I hope the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham will also agree—perhaps she will comment on this—that it is important to keep under review the continuity and quality of the education being provided. As she says, the children going into these secure schools may be there for a period of months, or they may be there for longer. Bearing in mind there has to be an assessment of their education on entry, what consideration is there for the continuity and quality of that education, as well as the maintenance of relationships with family? Children as young as 12 are being cared for in these secure schools—that is very young. How will visiting arrangements and temporary release arrangements be determined? It is important that risk assessments are followed so that families and communities continue to have confidence in the reforms as they are rolled out.

I will also make a point on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby), who would have spoken in this debate, about levels of violence. How would they be considered on the youth estate, and how would they be managed in secure schools to ensure confidence?

I want to raise two important matters. The first is around capacity and the implications of a lack of capacity on the quality of provision. Based on analysis of data from the Department for Education, Article 39 says:

“At any one time, around 25 children each day are waiting for a secure children’s home place and around 20 are placed by…local authorities in Scottish secure units due to the lack of available places. The…number of secure children’s homes places means that, even when children get a place,”

they are likely to end up living far away from home. Given the severe shortage of places in secure homes, and although the first secure 16-to-19 academy is set to be run by Oasis, there is no guarantee that, with the growing pressure to create places as we see the reforms continue, other quality education providers with the necessary expertise across both education and justice, youth justice in particular, will come forward.

I hope the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham will agree that we need to monitor how we build capacity, otherwise the outcome will be to sacrifice the quality of provision for children against the pressure to create places. I would be grateful for her comments on that.

The second challenge is about rehabilitation, to which the hon. Lady referred, and prevention. At the moment, there is no cohesive plan to stop young people picking up knives, which is why Labour has announced a Young Futures programme that would require new local partnerships to identify the young people most at risk of knife crime and to build a package of support to prevent them from ever offending. This will draw on up to £100 million a year, based on combining existing commitments to fund new youth mentors and mental health hubs in every community, youth workers in pupil referral units and A&E, and a programme of public sector reform to deliver a targeted programme in every area. She may have broadly considered this in relation to her amendment on community engagement, but the community engagement of secure academy providers may be important to wider community youth crime prevention.

I congratulate the hon. Lady on this important Bill, which I wish every success as it continues its passage through the House.