Section three The NPM in 2015–16 Independent Custody Visitors Scotland (ICVS) continued to visit Police Scotland custody estates, with the volunteers completing nearly 1,500 unannounced visits in the period. ICVS welcomed an increase in both the number of detainees to whom it was able to offer visits (up 6.13%) and detainees accepting visits (up 1.09%) on the previous year. ICVS gained the new responsibility of monitoring legalised police cells (LPCs) from August 2015. LPCs are police cells which have been ‘legalised’ to hold prisoners either awaiting trial locally, returning from prison for sentencing, or pending transfer to prison following conviction. They derive from the inaccessibility of the Scottish courts in outlying districts and islands. The National Manager and Regional Coordinators have developed bespoke training in preparation for the implementation of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. This will be delivered to all volunteer custody visitors prior to the Act coming into force. Independent Monitoring Boards Northern Ireland (IMBNI) continued to work as voluntary independent observers for all aspects of the prison regime in Northern Ireland. Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWCS) undertook visits to all of the intensive psychiatric care units in Scotland, and all of the learning disability inpatient assessment units, with a focus on solitary confinement and isolation. This resulted in two national reports and MWCS now expects all psychiatric units where seclusion may be used to have seclusion policies in place. A joint report by the MWCS and the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Human rights in mental health care in Scotland, was published in September.47 MWCS also completed a piece of work called Emergency detention certificates without mental health officer consent, which analyses the use of emergency detention certificates that have been granted without the consent of a mental health officer (a specially trained social worker in Scotland), and which allow the detention of people in hospital for up to 72 hours.48 Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) published a revised framework for the joint inspection of secure training centres (STC) which introduced two new separate judgements on the health of young people and the effectiveness of leaders and managers. Since publication two STC inspections have been undertaken and additional bespoke unannounced inspections were carried out in all three secure training centres in light of concerns about Medway STC. The implementation of new Children’s Homes Regulations on 1 April 2015, which included new quality standards, has strengthened Ofsted’s capacity to drive improvement in children’s homes. This complemented the simultaneous launch of a new Ofsted inspection framework for children’s homes. The methodology for inspecting England’s secure children’s homes (SCH) is incorporated within this wider framework, making it clear that establishments are primarily homes for children and young people, regardless of their secure nature. 47. MWCS and SHRC (September 2015) Human rights in mental health care in Scotland, available at: www.mwcscot.org.uk/ about-us/latest-news/human-rights-in-mental-health-care-in-scotland/ [accessed 01/11/16]. 48. MWCS ( June 2016) Emergency detention certificates without mental health officer consent, available at: http://www. mwcscot.org.uk/about-us/latest-news/new-report-scotlands-use-of-emergency-detention-without-the-consent-of-mentalhealth-officers/ [accessed 01/11/16]. 31