Secure Accommodation: Young Offenders

(asked on 8th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report, Out of sight: Girls in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate, published by Centre for Mental Health on 5 October 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of capacity in secure children’s homes to meet demand.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 15th November 2021

This report raises a number of important issues of concern to all those who are responsible for the care and provision of accommodation for girls within the secure estate.

The responsibility to ensure there is adequate secure welfare provision rests with local authorities as they have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient provision in their area to meet the needs of all children in their care.

The department has taken a number of steps to support local authorities in fulfilling this duty. The department established the Secure Welfare Coordination Unit in 2016 and continue to fund its work to help plan and coordinate welfare placements and to highlight capacity issues.

The department understands that local authorities sometimes find themselves in a position where the most appropriate placement is difficult to access, particularly for children with the most complex needs. That is why the government announced £24 million of investment to start a programme of work to support local authorities to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure children’s homes and will mean children can live closer to their families and support networks, addressing geographic disparities, in provision that meets their needs.

In addition, as part of this year’s Spending Review (SR), the government announced £259 million over the SR period to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open residential children’s homes. The department will announce more details on this funding shortly and the findings of the Centre for Mental Health’s report will be useful to inform the future design of the secure welfare estate.

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