Section 4. Outcomes for children Oversight of trends 4.8 Local and national data collection was poor. It was not possible for local managers to report accurately how many children had been subject to separation. This lack of accurate data meant that senior managers in the Youth Custody Service (YCS) were unable to effectively monitor its use or address any disproportionality. 4.9 The lack of data collected by establishments meant that it was not possible for us to comment definitively on trends in the use of separation. However, our own data collected during this inspection and our survey results indicated that separation was used frequently across all establishments holding children. Around one in 10 children were separated at the time of this inspection, and 58% of children who responded to our survey in 2018–19 reported that they had been kept locked up and stopped from mixing with other young people as a punishment, including time spent in a segregation unit or in their own room. 2. Children are only separated from others or removed from their normal location with the proper authorisation 4.10 Children should only be separated on the authority of a senior manager, irrespective of where in the establishment they are held. All YOIs use the same authorising paperwork and have the same timescales for completion and review. 4.11 There are two rules that allow prison managers to separate children (see paragraphs 2.3 and 2.4). 4.12 There must be a health care assessment of children once these rules are applied. A registered nurse or doctor should use a safety screening tool within two hours of separation commencing for rule 49, and within four hours for rule 58. A health care professional must see a child subject to these rules every day and a doctor should see them every third day as a minimum. Health care staff must complete a new safety screen in line with the review schedule for rule 49. Authorisation 4.13 We did not find any children separated under prison rule 49 and 58 in specialist units without the required authorisation. However, children separated under these rules on residential wings were not always authorised. Feltham operated a policy in which a child placed on report was locked up until their adjudication was first heard – which could be for up to three days depending on the day they were initially placed on report. The decision to do this was made by an officer, not a senior manager. This policy was contradictory to HMPPS’s rules governing the use of separation, including under rule 58, which state: ‘It must not be used as an automatic measure but only where there is real need, such as the risk of collusion or intimidation relating to the alleged offence which segregation of the accused might prevent’.16 The absence of proper authorisation also meant that these children did not have access to safeguards, including a health care assessment, or systems of redress. 16 24 Prison Service Instruction 47-2011: annex. Available at: <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahUKEwjQx6eUg7rkAhUOhlwKHc_S DGwQFjAAegQIARAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2F uploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F319638%2Fprison-service-instruction-47-2011annex.doc&usg=AOvVaw0YB0spRsG6wnmxiFo4LVDx> accessed 24 October 2019. Separation of children in young offender institutions