Recommendation 18: Joint MoJ/DfE policy for children in custody
From Sexual Abuse of Children in Custodial Institutions: 2009-2017 Investigation Report, published 28 February 2019.
Recommendation
The Chair and Panel recommend that the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education share policy responsibility for managing and safeguarding children in custodial institutions. This is to ensure that standards applied in relation to children in custody are jointly focussed on discipline and securing child welfare.
In brief (written by this site)
The recommendation asks the Ministry of Justice to share policy responsibility for children in custody. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, summarising a response of July 2019 on a web page archived in October 2022, reported that the department accepted the principle behind the recommendation (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). According to the Inquiry, the department stated its ambition was to replace all Youth Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres with secure schools and Secure Children’s Homes, for which the Department for Education has policy responsibility, while interim work was being conducted to ensure a child-focused ethos (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 5 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Ministry of Justice has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 October 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (20 October 2022)
On 23 July 2019, the Ministry of Justice accepted the principle behind this recommendation. It stated its ambition was to replace all Youth Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres with secure schools and Secure Children’s Homes, which the Department for Education has policy responsibility for. In the interim, work was being conducted to ensure a child-focused ethos.
From: Recommendations - Children in Custodial Institutions: 2009-2017 investigation report
Site note: These are the Inquiry's own words, from its recommendations page for the Sexual Abuse of Children in Custodial Institutions investigation report, captured by the Internet Archive on 20 October 2022. They are the Inquiry's account of what the body told it, not the body's own words.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
Finding