Youth Custody: Coronavirus

(asked on 10th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many calls have been made using the Purple Visits app in youth custodial settings since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 15th December 2020

As of 14 December the information available shows that there have been 657 video calls made using the Purple Visits app at Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby Young Offender Institutions and Oakhill and Rainsbrook Secure Training Centres since the start of May. There have also been 491 calls for the entirety of HMYOI Feltham (A and B sites, for children and young adults respectively). 241 calls were also made at HMYOI Parc (which includes a specific young people’s unit), however, it is not currently practical to break down how many of these were made by children and young people.

This has supplemented access to regular phone calls (with young people having been allocated additional free phone credits) as well as ‘face to face’ social visits, which re-commenced across public sector under 18 Young Offender Institutions from mid-July. Furthermore, ‘SECURE STAIRS - the integrated framework of care jointly led by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and which provides the foundations as to how the YCS works with children - has adapted its approach during this period to underline the importance of connectivity, whilst adhering to the guidance on physical distancing.

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