Section 4. Outcomes for children 4.59 Delays in transfer were experienced when children were due to turn 18, and also because of a severe lack of beds nationally. These problems resulted in HMPPS having to manage acutely unwell children through separation, which in its current form was unable to meet their needs. Meaningful contact with staff and peers 4.60 Children subject to separation did not have daily, meaningful conversations with a sufficient range of staff. We reviewed 57 cases of children who had experienced separation across the estate in the last year. In four cases, recording was so poor that we could not make a judgement. Over half of the remaining 53 children (28) received no daily contact with unit staff, only 13 saw a chaplain every day, and 33 were recorded as having seen a senior manager every day during separation. 4.61 Children who we spoke to reported very limited interactions with staff. They said that some staff came to see them because they were separated but their checks took place through the locked door, rather than a meaningful interaction. We frequently observed this happening in all sites. Too many of the conversations staff had with children were incidental, dictated by prison regimes and took place through the door. This was particularly inappropriate if conversations required a safe and confidential space. One child we interviewed stated that: Some staff just forget about me and ignore me and then give me a yellow card for using my bell. Sometimes I just want to talk to them. 17-year-old child separated on normal location 4.62 Staff from other departments, such as casework, and Barnardo’s advocates and Kinetics workers, sometimes visited children who were separated. However, this did not always happen on a daily basis and recordings of these interactions on rule 49 paperwork was poor. These conversations were subject to prison officers agreeing to unlock the door; competing priorities meant these often took place through the locked door. One member of staff who we interviewed said: Meaningful contact isn’t valued sufficiently. If we cannot access the child for a proper conversation it inhibits the meaningfulness of the conversation… contact through the door makes it difficult to build a relationship with the child. YOI child and adolescent mental health service worker 4.63 Children we spoke to described the lack of meaningful contact while they were separated. One child stated: I get mad bored, there’s nothing to do. Staff literally open your door for two seconds to give you your food… its minimal interaction. I don’t think that’s right… it’s basically seg, but they took away the seg block and just put me in my room seg’d instead – what’s the point? 17-year-old child separated on normal location 4.64 Children subject to separation also did not have regular or sufficient opportunities for meaningful contact with their peers. While some children reported contact with other children, this was minimal and only occurred if they could mix in groups of two or three for exercise or education, which did not happen every day. Most separated children, especially those separated on normal location, could only speak to each other at night by shouting through their doors or windows. One child stated: We try to just ride it out together by talking through our doors and playing I-spy. It makes the time pass, especially at night time. I have a behaviour target to stop shouting through my door to the other boys on the unit, which I think is really unfair ‘cause it is literally my only chance to chat to Separation of children in young offender institutions 33