Werrington independent review of progress 2022
Summary
We found an institution still struggling to manage behaviour and provide a purposeful regime for children. Progress had been insufficient or poor in eight areas and reasonable or good in just four areas. 1.4 It was clear that, despite support from the Youth Custody Service (YCS), local leaders were unable to prevent outcomes deteriorating further in the months following our inspection. Werrington had become an establishment in difficulty. It was a very violent place where conflict and poor behaviour management led to children being locked up for far too long and often unable to access education or other interventions. Morale among staff was also understandably low as they experienced very high levels of assaults and their role was reduced to keeping children apart to prevent violence. It was this drift and decline that was largely responsible for the insufficient progress noted in this report. 1.5 Three months before our visit, the YCS appointed a new governor and deputy governor. Since then, leaders had halted the decline and Report of an independent review of progress at HMYOI Werrington 3 regained some of the lost ground. Staff morale was starting to improve and progress had been made in areas such as living conditions, health care and provision of offending behaviour interventions.