Section 4. Outcomes for children proper conversation with them while they were separated. One said of a particular governor, ‘he is my favourite, he’s helpful… he listens’. 4.97 One child told us: It’s just the little things, when you’re locked up 23 hours a day, the little things can make you crazy. Another said he had an ‘emotional breakdown’ some days previously because he became really bored on rule 49 as there was nothing to do all day. He described how a custodial manager from another residential unit spoke to him and was ‘really helpful and nice’, and said since that attitudes of other wing staff towards him had improved. Another child made a direct link between spending time out of cell and well-being, saying it would improve the experiences of separated children like him by giving more time out of cell ‘for my mental health’. 40 4.98 Several of the children interviewed described sleeping most of the day when separated and then staying awake at night talking to other children or playing games like I-Spy. One child on a specialist unit said he tried to sleep all day to make the time go faster. None of this promoted good mental or physical well-being and was not being addressed by staff or managers. However, at the Cookham Wood Phoenix unit, children were expected to be awake and dressed at morning unlock to collect their breakfast and request any applications for a shower, telephone call or exercise they wanted during the day. This at least established the time they were expected to be awake and engaging with staff at the start of the day. 4.99 Unsurprisingly, separated children were often not receptive to morning visits from health care professionals, chaplains or caseworkers to check on their welfare, telling us they got annoyed when staff tried to talk to them in in morning. One was explicit that this was because he was always tired after staying up all night. Separation of children in young offender institutions