Some children at HMYOI Werrington stayed in cells for days, inspectors find

Some children at HMYOI Werrington stayed in their cells for several days in a row, according to HM Inspectorate of Prisons. Its report on the Staffordshire young offender institution, published in July 2025, said many of those children were too scared to leave their rooms.

Inspectors found that children spent an average of just three and a half hours a day out of cell. Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, wrote: “This would be poor in any prison but is completely unacceptable in one holding children.”

Werrington, near Stoke-on-Trent, holds sentenced and remanded boys aged 15 to 18. It held 78 children when inspectors visited, ending their fieldwork in May 2025. Its operational capacity is 118.

How Werrington was graded

The inspectorate assesses young offender institutions against four tests: safety, care, purposeful activity and resettlement. Purposeful activity covers education, work and time out of cell. Resettlement covers preparation for release.

Werrington scored poor for purposeful activity, the lowest grade available. It scored not sufficiently good for safety and care, and reasonably good for resettlement.

Safety had improved from poor at the previous full inspection, published in November 2023. The other three grades stayed the same.

The inspectorate visits establishments that hold children more often than adult prisons, because of the risks and vulnerabilities involved. It carried out an independent review of progress at Werrington in July 2024. It published a further review of progress in October 2026, after this report.

This would be poor in any prison but is completely unacceptable in one holding children.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

A culture of control

Only 34% of children told inspectors that they felt cared for by staff. Inspectors said many staff were enthusiastic and wanted to improve things. They simply lacked the time to build relationships with the children.

Behaviour management remained the main challenge. Staff applied incentive schemes inconsistently and rarely delivered rewards, including extra time out of cell. Children therefore had little reason to behave well or take part in activities.

As a result, poor behaviour, bullying and violence were still commonplace. Inspectors summed up the atmosphere bluntly: “the overwhelming culture was one of control and separation”.

There was progress on safety. Leaders had substantially improved safeguarding processes, which inspectors now judged good. A quarterly meeting with the social work team and the local authority reviewed every safeguarding referral, and inspectors highlighted it as positive practice.

Late arrivals remained a problem. Seven children had arrived after 10pm in the previous six months, some from as far away as Norwich and the south coast. Staff then had little chance to engage with them before locking them up on their first night.

Education judged among the worst

Education drew the strongest criticism. Children are entitled to 15 hours of education a week, but 85% did not receive it. Inspectors said managers in education were delivering one of the worst services they had seen.

Teaching in English and maths was weak, and the curriculum lacked ambition and challenge. Staff lacked the training to manage behaviour in classrooms, where disruption was often severe and little learning took place. Leaders had also not promoted reading well enough.

Ofsted gave education at the institution its lowest grade of inadequate for the third consecutive inspection. Inspectors said very few children left having learned anything that would help them stop offending.

The population has high levels of need. According to figures in the report, 48% of children had been excluded from mainstream education before custody. A quarter had been in local authority care, and 64% will turn 18 while serving their current sentence.

Leadership and next steps

Inspectors found a more stable leadership team than in 2023. The governor had stayed in post and had worked to tackle chronic staff shortages. Sickness levels had fallen and staff retention had improved substantially.

Leaders had launched a three-year improvement plan with the Youth Custody Service. However, it had started only the month before the inspection, so inspectors could not yet judge its impact.

Inspectors praised the chaplaincy, describing its leadership as exceptional. They also recorded six examples of positive practice, including peer mentors who greeted new arrivals and a health care welcome pack.

Werrington also continued to hold a substantial number of young adults, despite national efforts to move most 18-year-olds to adult prisons. Inspectors said it lacked the services to meet their needs. Health care leaders worked well with the prison, but getting children escorted to appointments remained difficult.

Release planning on accommodation, education and work remained weak. Inspectors raised eight concerns in total, five of them priorities. Of the 15 concerns from the previous inspection, leaders had addressed only four.