17/06/2021
Police Oracle
Work with offenders examines the decision to move all children out of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre
Last night Justice Secretary Robert Buckland announced that every child is being transferred from the privately-run Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre amid serious ongoing concerns about safety and performance. This is a drastic measure which is just the latest in a long line of problems at the STC.
History
Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC), which is located near Rugby in Warwickshire, was founded in 2005 and is one of three purpose-built centres designed to accommodate up to 76 male and female children and young people between the ages of 12 and 18 who are either serving a custodial sentence or are remanded to a secure facility. Typically, these children have very complex needs and have often experienced very traumatic starts to their lives.
Operated by MTC in partnership with Novus and Barnados, the centre claims to provide services including trauma-informed approaches and education schemes to ensure the children and young people access opportunities to move forwards once they leave the centre. “We particularly focus on providing education opportunities, with each child and young person given access to electronic tablets with an online education portal”.
There have been numerous failings expressed about Rainsbrook STC over the years, with the most recent concerns surfacing in February 2020 when inspectors found poor education provision, with many children refusing to attend lessons, high staff turnover and low levels of staff experience. The inspectors made 19 recommendations but, the report says, these were largely ignored.
In October 2020, the inspectors (from Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission and HM Inspectorate of Prisons) returned to Rainsbrook and found new and serious concerns which they communicated to the Ministry of Justice.
In December 2020, the inspectors went to Rainsbrook again, unannounced. They found that only limited progress had been made so they took the unusual step of invoking an ‘Urgent Notification’ which requires the Secretary of State to formally respond with an action plan for improvement within 28 days.
In March this year, the House of Commons Justice Committee dedicated a whole report to the operation of Rainsbrook. Members of the Committee said they were “shocked and appalled” by the treatment of children at the STC and called on the Ministry of Justice to consider taking back direct control of Rainsbrook unless the private company currently in charge, MTC, made substantial improvements.
The Committee also questioned why the Ministry of Justice had given MTC two more years to run the centre despite the poor performance by the company in managing the 5-year, £50.4 million contract.
Safety a major concern
In January this year, a comprehensive action plan was issued as a result of the Urgent Notification to MTC, which set out the vital and urgent measures necessary to ensure all young people at Rainsbrook were properly cared for.
Despite addressing the most urgent concerns around children’s time out of their room, issuing two improvement notices and introducing robust monitoring, the government says it does not believe that the action taken by the provider over the last 6 months has done enough to resolve wider long-standing issues. As a result, the Justice Secretary has announced that he will move all children from Rainsbrook and explore alternative options for the site.
The announcement expressly states that one of the options is to bring the STC back under public sector control and repurposing the site for alternative use (perhaps as one of the new secure schools?).
Parallels
When the same situation occurred at HMP Birmingham in 2018 which was being run by private contractor G4S, the MoJ decided to take the prison into public control for a period of six months and subsequently took the decision to make that situation permanent even though G4S’ 15-year contract to run the prison had only started in 2011. G4S were also required to pay £9.9 million as part of the deal to end the contract.
Work with Offenders will keep you informed of what happens next in the chequered history of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre.
All young people at Rainsbrook will be placed in safe and secure centres across the estate.