Official Statistics

Safety in the Children and Young People Secure Estate: Update to March 2021

Published 29 July 2021

Applies to England and Wales

Main Points

648 assault incidents Jan to Mar 2021, of which 53 were serious 432 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 432 in the 3 months to 31 March 2021, an increase of 11% compared to the same period last year, just as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. The number of individual children and young people involved in incidents as assailants or fighters fell 13% in the 3 months to 31 March 2021 compared to the same period last year, from 499 to 432. This is in the context of average population falling 27% over the same period.
351 assault incidents on staff Jan to Mar 2021, of which 29 were serious	The annualised rate of assault incidents on staff per 100 children and young people per year was 234 in the 3 months to 31 March 2021, an increase of 56% compared to the same period last year, just before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
309 Self-harm incidents Jan to Mar 2021 97 different children and young people self-harmed Jan to Mar 2021	The annualised rate of self-harming per 100 children and young people per year was 206 in the 3 months to 31 March 2021, a fall of 30% compared to the same period last year. The number of individual children and young people self-harming fell 38% in January to March 2021 compared to the same period last year, from 157 to 97. This is in the context of average population falling 27% over the same period.
No deaths reported in the year to 31 Mar 2021	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 March 2021. 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

These experimental statistics present data up until 31 March 2021 on incidents of assault, self-harm and death across each sector of the Children and Young People Secure Estate. From the outset of the pandemic the Youth Custody Service’s focus has been on meeting the needs of the children and young people in custody whilst protecting them and our staff from COVID-19 infection spread.

The Children and Young People Secure Estate has seen an increase in the rate of assault in comparison to the same period last year. It is noteworthy that the same period last year marked the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic which undoubtedly had significant impact on custodial delivery and on incident rates. The increase is primarily due to Secure Training Centres who continue to have the highest rate of incidents of assaults in comparison to the other sectors. The Secure Training Centres rate of assault was 1,123 per 100 CYP per year for the 3 months to 31 March 2021. Youth Offender Institutions and Secure Children’s Home have seen a decrease in the rate of incidents of assault. Youth Offender Institutions account for the majority of the Children and Young People Secure Estate population, they had the lowest rate of assault incidents in the 3 months to 31 March 2021 at 286 per 100 CYP per year, this was a 2% reduction in comparison to the same period last year. Secure Children’s Homes hold some of the most complex Children and Young People within the Children and Young Peoples Secure Estate, and for the 3 months up to 31 March 2021 their rate incidents of assault was 539 per 100 CYP per year which was a 16% reduction in comparison to 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.

The rate of self-harm incidents across the whole of the Children and Young People Secure Estate has increased in the 3 months to 31 March 2021 when compared to the previous 3 months but is still showing a fall of 30% compared to the same 3 months last year. Youth Offender Institutions have the lowest rate of self-harm in comparison to the other sectors in the Children and Young People’s Secure Estate and showed the largest percentage decrease in this reporting period. The rate of self-harm incidents at Youth Offender Institutions was 108 incidents per 100 CYP per year over the 3 months to 31 March 2021, which showed a 39% reduction in comparison to the previous year. Secure Children’s Homes had the highest rate of self-harm at 558 per 100 CYP per year, this is an 8% reduction in comparison to the previous year. Secure Training Centres had a rate of 468 self-harm incidents per 100 CYP per year for this reporting period, which is a 29% reduction in comparison to the previous year.

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.

For the reporting period there was a reduction in the number children and young people involved in incidents of assault and self-harm in comparison to the previous year. There has been a decrease of population in the Children and Young People Secure Estate, there has been a 24% reduction in comparison to the 3 months to 31 March 2021 and the same reporting period for the previous year.

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

2. Assaults: April 2014 to March 2021

Assault incident rate increased compared to same period last year.

In the 3 months to 31 March 2021, there were 648 assault incidents in the Children and Young People Secure Estate (CYPSE) involving 432 different children and young people (CYP) as assailants or fighters. The annualised rate of assault incidents was 432 per 100 CYP per year, an increase of 11% compared to the same period in 2020 when the rate was 390.

Assault incidents on staff rate increased compared to same period last year

In the 3 months to 31 March 2021, there were 351 incidents in the CYPSE where staff were assaulted. The annualised rate of assault incidents on staff was 234 per 100 CYP per year, an increase of 56% compared to the same period in 2020 when the rate was 150 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 Mar 2021

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 at the outset 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 fell to their lowest since the current assaults definition was introduced followed by quarter on quarter increases until the latest quarter, where the rate of assault incidents has increased above the level recorded in the Jan to Mar 2020 quarter just as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

The rate of incidents involving a staff assault also fell during the pandemic but is now above the pre-pandemic level. In the latest 3-months to 31 March 2021 there were 351 assault incidents on staff at a rate of 234 per 100 CYP per year, compared to a rate of 205 in the last quarter before the pandemic.

The rate of serious assaults in the 3-months to 31 March 2021 was 35 per 100 CYP per year, an increase of 63% compared to the same period a year earlier (22 per 100 CYP per year). For serious assault incidents on staff the increase was 43%, to 19 per 100 CYP per year in the 3 months to 31 March 2021 compared to 13 per 100 CYP per year in the 3 months to 31 March 2020.

Over the 12 months to 31 March 2021 there were 847 unique CYP involved in an incident as either an assailant or fighter compared to 1,291 over the previous 12 months. Over the final 3 months of the year there were 432 unique assailants / fighters compared to 499 over the same period in 2020.

The number of unique victims among the children and young people was 362 in the 12 months to 31 March 2021, down from 738 in previous 12 months. Over the final 3 months of the year there were 113 unique children and young people victims compared to 205 over the same period in 2020.

Figure 3: Rate of assault incidents per 100 CYP per year - Jan to Mar 20 and Jan to Mar 21

Although the overall rate of assault incidents over the 3-months to 31 March 2021 increased compared to a year earlier, this was not the case in every sector of the CYPSE. The rate fell in comparison to the same period in the previous year in YOIs (by 2%) and SCHs (by 16%) while there was a substantial rise in the rate of assaults in STCs of 59%. In the 3-months to 31 March 2021 STCs recorded the highest rate of assault incidents at 1,123 assault incidents per 100 CYP per year, compared to 539 per 100 CYP per year in SCHs and 286 per 100 CYP per year in YOIs.

The rate of assaults on staff was also highest within STCs at 819 per 100 CYP per year between January and March 2021. SCHs had a rate of 379 per 100 CYP per year, while YOIs had a substantially lower rate of 103 per 100 CYP per year.

In terms of protected characteristics, the rates of involvement as an assailant or fighter over the 12 months to 31 March 2021 were higher than other groups for girls, at 1,253 per 100 CYP per year, for 15 year-olds; 834 per 100 CYP; for CYP from a Black background; 587 per 100 CYP, and CYP with no religion; 561 per 100 CYP.

The groups with the highest rate of involvement as a victim were 10-14 and 15-year-olds, 102 and 103 per 100 CYP per year respectively and CYP from ‘other’ ethnic groups; 116 per 100 CYP per year.

Figure 4: Rate of assailant / fighters by protected characteristic – Apr 20 to Mar 21

3. Self-Harm: April 2014 to March 2021

Self-harm incidents increased this quarter but down compared to the same period last year

In the 3 months to 31 March 2021 there were 309 incidents of self-harm involving 97 different CYP. The annualised rate was 206 incidents per 100 CYP per year, a fall of 30% compared to the same period last year.

Figure 5: Annualised rate of self-harm incidents per 100 CYP in custody

The rate of self-harm incidents fell substantially during the first 9 months 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 before falling in four subsequent quarters to 146 in the quarter ending December 2020. Since then the rate has increased again to 206 per 100 CYP per year. Across the entire year to 31 March 2021 the rate was 224 per 100 CYP, a fall of 23% compared to the rate of 290 in the preceding 12 months.

The number of individuals self-harming over the 12 months ending 31 March 2021 was 249 compared to 414 over the preceding 12 months. The number of individual children and young people self-harming in the latest 3 months was 97, a fall of 38% on the 157 individual children and young people who self-harmed in the 3 months ending 31 March 2020.

Figure 6: Rate of Self-Harm incidents per 100 CYP per year – Jan to Mar 20 and Jan to Mar 21

The overall year-on-year reduction in the rate of self-harm incidents over was repeated across all three sectors of the CYPSE but to differing degrees. The largest fall in percentage terms was in the YOIs, where rates of self-harm fell 39%. The rate fell in STCs by 29% but in SCHs by only 8% when comparing the quarter ending 31 March 2021 to the same quarter in 2020.

YOIs have the lowest rate of self-harm of the sectors at 108 incidents per 100 CYP per year over the quarter to 31 March 2021. This compares to 468 per 100 CYP per year in STCs and 558 per 100 CYP per year in SCHs. The rate of self-harm incidents can be influenced by a few individuals self-harming multiple times, so it is important to consider the number of different individuals self-harming as well as the overall count of incidents. The highest rate of unique CYP self-harming over the quarter to 31 March 2021 was in STCs (43 different self-harmers from an average population of 87), followed by SCHs (17 different self-harmers from an average population of 63) and then YOIs (39 different self-harmers from an average population of 459)

Over the 12 months to 31 March 2021, a total of 386 self-harm incidents, 27% of the total, resulted in an injury requiring some treatment and 78, 5% required hospital attendance.

The number of girls in the CYPSE is low (an average of 20 over the 12 months to 31 March 2021), but they do include some of the most vulnerable children and young people. The rate of self-harm among girls was 2,362 incidents per 100 per year, compared to 157 per 100 boys per year. Each of the girls who self-harmed also did so on average 15 times per year.

Self-harm was most common among 15-year-olds (492 incidents per 100). White children (327 per 100) in comparison to all other groups combined (125 per 100). Children who declared they have no religion also self-harmed at a higher rate (345 per 100) than all other groups (166 per 100). These differences across protected characteristics are shown in figure 7.

Figure 7: Rate of self-harm incidents by protected characteristic – Apr 20 to Mar 21

4. Deaths: April 2014 to March 2021

No deaths were reported in the Youth Children and Young People Secure Estate in the 12 months ending 31 March 2021 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 March 2021. 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.

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

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: 28 October 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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