Official Statistics

Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate: Update to December 2020

Published 29 April 2021

Applies to England and Wales

Main Points

588 assault incidents Oct to Dec 2020, of which 35 were serious 376 different children and young people involved as assailants or fighters	The annualised rate of assault incidents per 100 children and young people per year was 380 in the 3 months to Dec 2020, a fall of 19% compared to the same period last year and before the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of individual children and young people involved in incidents as assailants or fighters fell 32% in Oct to Dec 2020 compared to the same period last year, from 552 to 376. This is in the context of average population falling 27% over the same period.
314 assault incidents on staff Oct to Dec 2020, of which 21 were serious	The annualised rate of assault incidents on staff per 100 children and young people per year was 203 in the 3 months to Dec 2020, a fall of 1% compared to the same period last year and before the Covid-19 pandemic.
227 Self-harm incidents Oct to Dec 2020 89 different children and young people self-harmed Oct to Dec 2020	The annualised rate of self-harming per 100 children and young people per year was 147 in the 3 months to Dec 2020, a fall of 56% compared to the same period last year. The number of individual children and young people self-harming fell 40% in Oct to Dec 2020 compared to the same period last year, from 149 to 89. This is in the context of average population falling 27% over the same period.
No deaths reported in the year to 31 Dec 2020	The last death in the Children and Young People Secure Estate was in June 2019

The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin reports assault and self-harm incidents and deaths from April 2014 to December 2020. The latest information covers the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, which must be considered and accounted for in every aspect of the information presented and when comparing time periods.

1. Statistician’s Comment

This is the first iteration of ‘Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin’, a new experimental statistics bulletin from the Youth Custody Service. These statistics present data up until December 2020 on assaults, self-harm and deaths across each sector of the Children and Young People Secure Estate. The Children and Young People Secure Estate has seen both a reduction in the number of incidents of assaults and number of individuals involved as assailants or fighters in comparison to the previous year from April 2020 onwards, resulting from the Youth Custody Service’s response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is reflected across all sectors apart from Secure Training Centres. Secure Training Centres continue to have the highest rate of assaults in comparison to other sectors. Young Offender Institutions account for the majority of the Children and Young People Secure Estate population, there has been a large reduction in incidents of assaults, in the 3 months to 31st December 2020 the rate was 245 per 100 CYP in comparison to 354 for the same period last year.

It is shown that the following groups have a higher rate of involvement in assaults, as an assailant or fighter; females, younger age groups, Black ethnic groups and children of no religion.

There has been a 56% decrease in the rate of self-harm incidents in comparison to the same period last year. For the reporting period there was a reduction in both the number of incidents of self-harm and the number of self-harmers in comparison to the previous year. The decrease was most marked in Secure Children’s Homes. Secure Children’s Homes hold the most complex Children and Young People within the Youth Secure Estate including several prolific self-harmers who significantly impact the overall rate of self-harm. Secure Training Centres have the highest rate of self-harm for the 3 months to 31 December 2020. Young Offender Institutions continue to have the lowest rate of self-harm and saw a large reduction in self-harm, in the 3 months to 31 December 2020, the rate was 57 per 100 CYP which is a large decrease in comparison to the same period in 2019 at 214.

It is shown that the following groups have a high rate of self-harm: females, younger age groups, White ethnic groups and children of no religion.

Incidents of both assaults and self-harm are high for girls in the Children and Young Persons (CYPSE). The number of girls in the CYPSE is low and they are some of the most vulnerable young people in our care.

No deaths of Children and Young People have been reported since June 2019.

2. Assaults: April 2014 to December 2020

Assault incidents decreased compared to same period last year.

In the 3 months to December 2020, there were 588 assault incidents in the Children and Young People Secure Estate (CYPSE) involving 376 different children and young people (CYP) as assailants or fighters. The annualised rate of assault incidents was 380 per 100 CYP per year, a fall of 19% compared to the same period in 2019 when the rate was 466.

Assault incidents on staff at similar level to same period last year

In the 3 months to December 2020, there were 314 incidents in the CYPSE where staff were assaulted. The annualised rate of assault incidents on staff was 203 per 100 CYP per year, a fall of 1% compared to the same period in 2019 when the rate was 205 per 100 CYP per year.

Figure 1: Rate of assaults and fights by quarter - Apr 2014 to Mar 2018

Figure 2: Rate of assault incidents per 100 CYP per year Apr 2019 to Dec 2020

The definition and counting rules of assaults changed from April 2019 (April 2018 for Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)) and hence no long-term trends are available and there was no estate-wide figure in 2018/19. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the trends before and after the break respectively.

The rate of assault incidents fell substantially during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last full quarter prior to the pandemic (Oct to Dec 19), there were 995 assault incidents. For the reporting quarter April to June 2020 incidents were at their lowest point and there has since been an increase quarter on quarter. The rate of assaults per 100 CYP per year in the latest 3-months ending 31 December 2020 was 380 per 100 CYP per year, a fall of 19% compared to the same period in 2019.

The rate of incidents involving a staff assault also fell during the pandemic but is now close to the previous rate. In the latest 3-months to 31 December 2020 there were 314 assault incidents on staff at a rate of 203 per 100 CYP per year, marginally lower than the rate of 205 per CYP per year in the same period last year.

The rate of serious assaults fell 18% across the CYPSE for the 3 months to December 2020 (23 per 100 CYP per year) compared to the same period a year earlier (28 per 100 CYP per year). For serious assault incidents on staff the fall was 26%, to 14 per 100 CYP per year in the 3 months to December 2020 compared to 18 per 100 CYP per year in the 3 months to December 2019.

Over the 12 months to 31 December 2020 there were 939 unique CYP involved in an incident as either an assailant or fighter and over the final 3 months of the year there were 376 unique assailants / fighters compared to 552 over the same period in 2019.

The number of unique victims among the children and young people was 444 in the 12 months to 31 December 2020 and 123 over the latest 3 months, down from 217 in the same 3 months last year.

Figure 3: Rate of assault incidents per 100 CYP per year - Oct to Dec 19 and Oct to Dec 20

Although the overall rate of assault incidents over the 3-months to December 2020 fell compared to a year earlier, this was not repeated in every sector of the CYPSE. While the rate fell in comparison to the same period in the previous year in YOIs (by 31%) and SCHs (by 46%) there was an increase in STCs of 38%. In the 3-months to December 2020 STCs had a rate of 995 assault incidents per 100 CYP per year, compared to 477 per 100 CYP per year in STCs and 245 per 100 CYP per year in YOIs.

The rate of assaults on staff was also highest within STCs at 703 per 100 CYP per year between October and December 2020. SCHs had a rate of 361 per 100 CYP per year, while YOIs had a substantially lower rate of 84 per 100 CYP per year.

In terms of protected characteristics the rates of involvement as an assailant or fighter over the 12 months to December 2020 were higher than other groups for girls, at 1,268 per 100 CYP per year, for younger children; 880 per 100 CYP for 10-14-year olds and 737 per 100 CYP for 15-year olds; for CYP from a Black background; 537 per 100 CYP, and CYP with no religion; 539 per 100 CYP.

The groups with the highest rate of involvement as a victim were boys; 89 per 100 CYP per year, and for 10-14-year-olds; 148 per 100 CYP per year.

Figure 4: Rate of assailant / fighters by protected characteristic – Oct 19 to Dec 20

3. Self-Harm: April 2014 to December 2020

Self-harm incidents fell substantially compared to the same period last year.

In the 3 months to December 2020 there were 227 incidents of self-harm involving 89 different CYP. The annualised rate was 147 incidents per 100 CYP per year, a fall of 56% compared to the same period last year.

Figure 5: Annualised rate of self-harm incidents per 100 children and young people in custody

The rate of self-harm incidents has fallen substantially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate of self-harm reached a peak of 331 per 100 CYP per year in the 3 months to December 2019 but fell in each subsequent quarter to 147 in the latest quarter ending December 2020. Across the entire year to 31 December 2020 the rate was 248 per 100 CYP, a fall of 10% compared to the rate of 275 in the preceding 12 months.

The number of individuals self-harming over the 12 months ending 31 December 2020 was 297. Reporting at individual CYP level began in April 2019 so there is no comparable whole year figure for the preceding 12 months. The number of individual children and young people self-harming in the latest 3 months was 89, a fall of 40% on the 149 individual children and young people who self-harmed in the same period in 2019.

Figure 6: Rate of Self-Harm incidents per 100 children and young people in custody – Oct to Dec 19 and Oct to Dec 20

The large overall year-on-year reduction in the rate of self-harm incidents was not seen across all sectors of the CYPSE. Large falls were reported in YOIs, down 73% from 214 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2019 to 57 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2020 and also in SCHs, down 85% from 953 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2019 to 145 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2020. In both cases both the number of individuals self-harming and the average number of incidents per individual fell. The rate of self-harm incidents reported is influenced by a few individuals self-harming multiple times.

The falls in self-harm in YOIs and SCHs were not seen in STCs, where the rate increased by 16% from 509 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2019 to 593 per 100 CYP per year in the 3-months to December 2020. Over this latest 3-months, STCs have reported the highest level of self-harm of the three sectors.

Over the 12 months to 31 December 2020, a total of 522 self-harm incidents, 30% of the total, resulted in an injury requiring some treatment and 79, 5% required hospital attendance.

The number of girls in the CYPSE is low (an average of 21 over the 12 months to 31 December 2020), but they do include some of the most vulnerable young people. The rate of self-harm among girls was 2,359 incidents per 100 per year, compared to 181 per 100 boys per year. Each of the girls who self-harmed also did so on average 19 times per year.

Self-harm was more common among 10-14-year-olds (490 incidents per 100) and 15-year-olds (395 incidents per 100). White children had a higher rate of self-harm (375 per 100 compared to 125 in all other groups). Children who declared they have no religion also self-harmed at a higher rate (379 per 100) than all other groups (183 per 100).

Figure 7: Rate of self-harm incidents by protected characteristic – Oct 19 to Dec 20

4. Deaths: April 2014 to December 2020

No deaths were reported in the Youth Children and Young People Secure Estate in the 12 months ending 31 December 2020 and one in the preceding 12 months

Deaths of children and young people are fortunately rare and there were no deaths in the 12 months ending 31 December 2020. Since April 2014 there have been three deaths of children and young people within the CYPSE.

• Two at Cookham Wood YOI in July 2015 and June 2019
• One at Hillside SCH in February 2017
• Each of these deaths was due to natural causes

Further Information

Accompanying files

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• A guide providing further information on how the data are collected and processed, as well as an assessment of data quality. The revisions policy, other statistical issues and a glossary of terms used are also covered in the guide.
• A set of summary tables covering both the latest quarter and annual summaries of the data back to 2014/15.

Experimental Statistics status

These statistics are designated as Experimental Statistics. This is because they are a development from Safety in Custody Statistics with the statistics mirroring the information presented in Safety in Custody and reflecting the requirements of the entire Children and Young People Secure Estate. They are undergoing evaluation and may be subject to further development based on user feedback.

Safety in Custody have been designated as National Statistics by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority signifying that they comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate Bulletin does not have that designation but nevertheless complies with the Code of Practice whenever possible.

It is the intention to seek feedback from users of the statistics and groups with an interest in youth custody to assess whether the presentation and breadth of the information presented is sufficient and useful. This feedback will inform how and when to remove the experimental statistics designation.

Contact points

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536

Email: newsdesk@justice.gov.uk

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:

Katherine Tatlock

Youth Custody Service
HM Prison and Probation Service
Southern House
Wellesley Grove
Croydon
CR0 1XG

Email: statistics.enquiries@justice.gov.uk

Next update: 29 July 2021

URL: <www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics#youth-secure-estate-statistics>

Alternative formats are available on request from statistics.enquiries@justice.gov.uk

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