Urgent Notification issued for Cookham Wood YOI after behaviour management collapsed

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor formally warned the government in April 2023 that HMYOI Cookham Wood had failed its children. He found a complete breakdown of behaviour management at the young offender institution in Kent.

He set out his concerns in an Urgent Notification letter dated 26 April 2023. The inspectorate published it two days later. The letter went to the Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC MP, then Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

An Urgent Notification is a formal letter in which the Chief Inspector of Prisons tells the Justice Secretary about urgent and significant concerns at a prison. The Justice Secretary must respond publicly within 28 days, setting out how the concerns will be addressed.

Inspectors visited Cookham Wood unannounced between 4 and 20 April 2023. The establishment held 77 children at the time.

Why the Chief Inspector of Prisons acted

The letter described this as the sixth inspection of Cookham Wood since 2016. According to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, reports from those visits chronicled a steady decline in outcomes across all four healthy prison tests. These tests cover safety, care, purposeful activity and resettlement.

He reminded the Justice Secretary of what he had reported in 2021. Then, inspectors found low morale among staff, low standards and low expectations. They also found a lack of energy and creativity to engage children, despite the site holding only half the young people it was resourced to hold.

At that time, the response to problems between children was almost always to keep them apart. That approach placed further restrictions on the regime, the daily timetable of activities and time out of cell.

On his return, the Chief Inspector of Prisons found a failure to address the sustained decline in standards at this high-risk establishment. He wrote that he had “no other option but to issue an urgent notification”. He gave seven reasons.

There was a complete breakdown of behaviour management, this had led to the escalation of poor behaviour to the point where there was widespread weapon making and nearly a quarter of children reported feeling unsafe.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Violence, keep-aparts and isolation

First, the letter said: “There was a complete breakdown of behaviour management.” Poor behaviour had escalated to the point of widespread weapon making. Nearly a quarter of children reported feeling unsafe.

Staff told inspectors they hesitated to search thoroughly or to challenge threatening or intimidating behaviour. They said colleagues and managers did not always support them.

Second, the prison relied on keeping boys apart, or segregating them completely, in the absence of any other measures. At the time of the inspection, 90% of children were subject to keep-apart arrangements. Staff were managing 583 individual conflicts in a population of 77.

Third, the letter found that solitary confinement of children had become normal practice. Over a quarter of the population lived completely apart from the main population. Most of this group spent 23.5 hours a day locked in their cells with no meaningful human interaction.

Records showed that these children often stayed in their cells for days on end. They almost never received education or other interventions. Two boys who needed protection from their peers had lived in these conditions for more than 100 days.

Leadership, standards and education

Fourth, the leadership team lacked cohesion and had failed to drive up standards. Many staff did not have confidence in leaders and managers.

Fifth, the letter described widespread acceptance of low standards. Many staff did not wear the right uniform. Living units were dirty, important equipment was broken and graffiti remained a problem. Inspectors saw intimidating and threatening behaviour go unaddressed, including children insulting staff or pushing past them.

Sixth, education, skills and work provision had declined and was inadequate in all areas. Staff placed children in classes according to whom they could safely mix with, rather than their abilities or needs. As a result, the children were demotivated. Attendance, teaching and behaviour management were poor, and only a small proportion of boys who started a course achieved the qualification.

Seventh, the Chief Inspector of Prisons pointed to the scale of resources at the site. Some areas had significant staffing shortfalls. Yet inspectors heard that Cookham Wood employed 450 staff, including 44 directly employed managers, 24 of them senior leaders. Partners in health care, education and other areas employed several more.

The letter said such rich resources were delivering an unacceptable service for 77 children. Much of that resource, it concluded, was wasted, underused or in need of reorganisation.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons also recorded that inspectors met many staff who cared about the children and wanted to serve them well. However, those staff had lost hope that improvement was possible. He called for a concerted and urgent response from the Youth Custody Service and the prison’s leadership.

Since this report

Inspectors have reported on Cookham Wood again since, with a full inspection published in July 2023 and an independent review of progress published in May 2024. Cookham Wood stopped holding children in 2024 and now holds adult men.