Section one Context The CCE also highlighted issues with the continued restrictions to regimes in YOIs and secure training centres. This reporting year, a series of unannounced visits to establishments on weekend days by the CCE uncovered the common practice in some YOIs for children to spend more than 22 hours in their cells over the weekend. The CCE continued to state concern about the increasing use of restrictive physical interventions (RPIs). The number of RPIs increased by 16% in the last year, to around 6,300 incidents.164 HMI Prisons found children in YOIs in England and Wales were more negative about their treatment by staff, time out of cell and access to everyday essentials than those held in secure training centres (STCs), according to an analysis of the perceptions of their experiences in 2018–19. In the latest annual Children in Custody report, published in February 2020, HMI Prisons reported on an analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences in custody. Nearly 80% of all children aged 12 to 18 who are held in custody are in YOIs: 712 out of a total of 920 at the end of March 2019. YOIs are designed to hold 15–18-year-olds and the majority are 16 and 17. However, as in previous years, the most pressing issues for children were the increasing levels of bullying and violence across both YOIs and STCs. Forty-eight per cent of children reported having experienced victimisation by other children in their current establishment. The rising levels of violence led to increasing use of restraint and separation. Nearly two-thirds of children reported being subject to restraint and 59% reported having been kept locked up and stopped from mixing with other children as a punishment.165 Three STCs were operational during 2019–20 in England, with inspections led by Ofsted alongside HMI Prisons and CQC. Inspections of Oakhill and Rainsbrook delivered judgements of ‘requires improvement to be good’. Medway was judged ‘inadequate’ in October 2019. Following this judgement, Ofsted, on behalf of the joint inspectorates, wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice to raise concerns about significant failures leaving children unsafe. Ofsted and partner inspectorates carried out a further visit to Medway in December 2019 to assess what action it had taken to ensure children were safer. The inspection found that some progress had been made in some areas to improve practice; however, little progress had been made in those areas that significantly impact on children’s experiences, well-being and safety, and senior managers were too slow to accept this and respond. Medway was closed on 31 March 2020 as part of the government’s plans to develop the first secure school (see ‘Secure schools’, p.29). Medway was run by G4S until June 2016, from which point it was then managed by HMPPS until its closure. Inspections of STCs continue to reflect concerns about levels of violence, use of force and physical restraint, the safety of children and staff and the levels of staff skill and knowledge to care appropriately for children. However, emotional health provision is being strengthened through commissioning with NHS England and the introduction of the ‘secure stairs’ model. 164 MoJ, January 2020, Youth Justice Statistics 2018/19, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/file/862078/youth-justice-statistics-bulletin-march-2019.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 165 HMI Prisons, February 2020, Children in Custody 2018–19, https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/ inspections/children-in-custody-2018-19/ [accessed 24/08/2020] 53