Section 1. About this report Section 1. About this report 1.1 Every year HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) publishes an annual report on the survey findings from children in custody,1 pulling together and comparing the findings from surveys conducted in young offender institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs). The data for this report is derived from surveys conducted by HMIP at all STCs and YOIs between 2 October 2018 and 2 April 2019. 1.2 All YOIs and STCs are inspected annually and researchers from HMIP carry out a survey of children in advance of every inspection. The primary objective of the survey is to understand children’s perspectives on their treatment and conditions in custody. Survey responses are triangulated with inspectors’ observations, discussions with the children themselves and the staff working with them, and documentation held in the establishment, to inform overall inspection judgements and recommendations. 1.3 In 2018, HMIP carried out a review of our Expectations for children in custody.2 These are the criteria we use during our inspections to assess the treatment of children and the conditions in establishments in which they are held. The Expectations were drafted following extensive consultation and are underpinned by international and regional human rights standards. At the same time as the Expectations review, a new questionnaire was developed for use in all children’s custodial establishments in England and Wales. This was developed by HMIP researchers and inspectors and extensively tested on children in both YOIs and STCs for accessibility and relevance. The new questionnaire has been in use since October 2018 and a copy is included in the online appendices. 1.4 Prior to this, separate questionnaires were used in STCs and YOIs, which meant that it was not possible to fully compare the experiences of children in different types of custody. Following the recent review, HMIP now uses a single questionnaire which enables us to draw comparisons between the experiences of children detained in STCs and those in YOIs about all aspects of their custody for the first time.3 However, we now have only limited capacity to track trends over time as many questions in the new questionnaire are not directly comparable to those in the previous versions. 1.5 It should be noted that the survey findings reported here are based solely on children’s selfreported perceptions and experiences and therefore may differ from administrative data held by STCs and YOIs and data reported by HM Prison and Probation Service. Structure of the report 1.6 This is the sixth annual report to present survey responses from both STCs and YOIs, and the first in which a common questionnaire has been used across all settings. 1.7 Section 2 provides background to and context for the survey findings. Section 3 describes the survey methodology. Section 4 presents the findings from the survey analyses. 1 2 3 For the purposes of this report ‘children in custody’ refers to children held in YOIs and STCs only and may include a small number of 18-year-olds. The current Children’s Expectations (v4, November 2018) can be found on the HMIP website at https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/our-expectations/children-and-young-people-expectations/. To be able to compare responses from children across every STC and YOI, we have not included survey data from the inspection of Oakhill in June 2018, as the old STC survey was still in use at that time. Instead we have used data from a survey conducted at Oakhill on 2 April 2019 using the new questionnaire. Children in Custody 2018–19 13