Inspector welcomes significant improvement in child restraint after custody deaths

The Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales has welcomed “significant improvements” in the handling and restraint of children in custody following the deaths of two boys in 2004.

Nick Hardwick (pictured) said the newly-introduced system, known as minimising and managing physical restraint (MMPR), was a positive step, but warned it “is not yet being consistently implemented or achieving the intended outcomes”.

MMPR was created as a new way to manage behaviour in young offender institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs) following the death of Gareth Myatt, 15, who became unconscious during a restraint in an STC.

Another youngster, Adam Rickwood, 14, hanged himself after a “pain compliance” technique was applied to him.

There have been delays in the roll-out of MMPR, which is now scheduled to be completed in July 2016, while beds are being decommissioned across YOIs and STCs in the midst of staffing shortages, according to an HM Inspectorate of Prisons report.

The number of children in custody is falling, the report adds.

Mr Hardwick said MMPR had brought “significant improvements” to “the national oversight of restraint and the greater focus on communication and de-escalation as part of a wider approach to behaviour management”.

Inspectors noted that while it is sometimes necessary to restrain children, there is no such thing as “entirely safe” restraint.

Effective relationships between staff and children were more difficult to establish in YOIs, which are larger than STCs and have lower staffing levels, inspectors found.

They also found many children could not spot any difference between their experience of MMPR and previous behaviour management systems, and while all institutions had introduced behaviour management plans for children with more challenging behaviour, too many of them were of a poor standard.

Mr Hardwick said: “Improved restraint processes, although very necessary, cannot alone reduce their use or make them safer. That depends much more on the structure of the estate, the quality and training of staff, and the culture in the place.

“As our inspection reports on individual establishments repeatedly show, none of these are adequate to meet the needs of the children who are now in custody.

“The Justice Secretary has announced a review of the youth justice system and we hope this will create the opportunity to make the wider improvements to the juvenile custodial estate that are essential if MMPR is to achieve its full potential.

“Further progress is necessary both to ensure that past tragedies are not repeated and to give staff the tools to better manage the behaviour of some of our most troubled and challenging children on a day-to-day basis. MMPR has the potential to deliver those improvements but that potential is not yet realised.”

Gareth Myatt, 15, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was the first child to die while being restrained in custody when he choked to death at the Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre near Daventry, Northamptonshire, in 2004.

Adam Rickwood, 14, of Burnley, Lancashire, was found hanging at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre, near Medomsley, County Durham, the same year.

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