Prison
Cat YOI
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Wetherby
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 10 January 2025
The IMB report for HMYOI Wetherby covers a year of accelerated change and leadership transition. The Board acknowledges some improvements, particularly in staff morale, healthcare provision, and initial efforts to improve the regime. However, significant concerns persist regarding violence, limited time out of cell, and a disappointing education provision. Staffing issues, including redeployment of specialist teams and high sickness, also remain a challenge alongside ongoing concerns about support for vulnerable young people.
Positive Findings
The Board acknowledges the significant efforts made by the establishment to facilitate visits for young people with critically ill family members, commending this as exemplary. Healthcare provision offers reliable 24-hour cover, and staff morale appears to have improved since the previous year. The Board welcomes ongoing site investment, recent improvements to the regime on Keppel, and an increase in staff diversity. Additionally, the regular use of body-worn video cameras is increasing, and the Board commends the practice of re-using clothing for young people upon release.
Key Concerns
Safety
violence continues to present a challenge, with young people carrying improvised weapons.
Safety
The Board is concerned about the number of injuries sustained by both young people and staff during restraints.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The absence of a predictable regime causes frustration and uncertainty for the young people. Lack of consistency and the persistent poor communication of information to them unfortunately exacerbated the situation.
Food/Catering
The daily food allowance (DFA), although recently increased to £3.45 per person, is still, in the view of the Board, inadequate.
Estate/Conditions
many areas, such as the Keppel unit, remain in need of refurbishment.
Mental Health
Lack of suitable rooms in which to see the young people on the wings, however, remains a problem. This impacts, in particular, on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services’ (CAMHS) ability to deliver interventions.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Time out of room (TOOR) generally and, in particular, at weekends continues to be unacceptable. Separated young people remain in their rooms for up to 22 hours or more.
Education/Purposeful Activity
This has been a very disappointing year for the education department, with recruitment and retention of suitable staff the overriding factor.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Over 12,500 hours of education were lost due to cancellations, often poorly communicated to the young people, sometimes minutes before they were due to attend lessons.
Resettlement/Release
The ever-increasing number of young people who are serving very long sentences presents an irrefutable challenge. They enter custody as teenagers and may be in their forties when released. How does the Minister plan to support this specific category of offender through their custodial journey?
Equality/Diversity
What changes will the Minister make to the care system to reduce the disproportionate number of looked-after children in custody?
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
What decision, if any, has the Minister made regarding the provision for young women who require a secure setting?
Regime/Time Out of Cell
At the end of our reporting year, there were 43 remanded young people at the establishment. Unfortunately, for legal reasons, they are apparently not able to access any interventions.
Resettlement/Release
Local authorities frequently leave the provision of suitable accommodation until the very last minute. What can be done to improve the position?
Other
Many of the procedures in the youth custodial setting appear to be based on the adult model. Has the time come to review the systems such as adjudications, assessment, care in custody and teamwork (ACCT) plans and good order or discipline (GOoD) reviews, to make them more relevant to young people?
Other
The Board is concerned about the lack of communication, whether between or within departments.
Staffing
How can you ensure that the staff required for interventions, such as conflict resolution, minimising and managing physical restraint (MMPR) or custody support plan (CuSP), will be available and not, as happens at present, frequently redeployed?
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Numerous young people rely on social video calls to keep in contact with family and friends. They tell us that, due to lack of staff, the video call often does not last as long as scheduled.
Healthcare
Many agencies report that they struggle to see young people for wing-based interventions, due to the lack of suitable rooms.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Keppel, the unit has become increasingly unsettled.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The Board was very concerned at the lack of TOOR and the limited regime on Keppel, the only certainty being cancellations. With the lack of both teaching staff and officers available to facilitate the educational offer, day-to-day life was, in the Board’s view, bleak.
Segregation
The Board remains of the opinion that the area used to hold the GOoD reviews is unsuitable. It offers little in the way of privacy and is frequently so busy, with people walking through to access other areas, that the young people who attend their reviews become distracted.
Estate/Conditions
The rooms [on Benbow] are extremely small, grim and not fit for purpose.
Equality/Diversity
racism continues although the situation is not getting worse.
Complaints/Property
Many young people are aware of the systems in place for reporting discrimination but seem to have little confidence in the process.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The delivery of a CuSP has been poor throughout the year, with disparity in the number of CuSP sessions undertaken by different units.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Young people complain that there is little difference between the gold and silver levels and there has been no addition to the gold level benefits in the reporting year.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
There are insufficient places [on C wing/gold wing], which can be frustrating for those who are eligible to be housed there.
Education/Purposeful Activity
It is frustrating to see education staff, at times, in attendance on the unit, yet unable to gain access to the young people.
Estate/Conditions
The Board receives countless applications from young people unhappy about the room temperature.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
This reporting year, it has been an even greater problem [shortage of kit].
Complaints/Property
Property lost by the establishment in the laundry is not under the control of the young person.
Staffing
The distribution of property to the young person on the wing is sometimes delayed, due to staffing shortages in reception.
Safety
Officers seemed to have lost confidence in their ability to use restraint effectively... combination of new and inexperienced officers, has perhaps been a contributing fact in the increased number of injuries.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The senior leadership team underwent significant reorganisation, with a new Governor bringing a different leadership style, though concerns exist about the speed of change and staff support. While staffing levels for officers and administrative posts improved, the education department suffered from recruitment and retention issues. High sickness and absence rates were noted, with some officers reporting severe mental health problems and feeling unsupported. There are concerns about the redeployment of specialist staff from conflict resolution, MMPR, and CuSP teams, impacting intervention delivery. The Board noted some inappropriate conversations among younger staff and a predominately white senior leadership team, despite an overall increase in staff diversity.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision at Wetherby is reliable and consistently good, with a skilled multidisciplinary team providing 24-hour cover for both mental and physical health. Recruitment and retention in CAMHS improved, with the department almost fully staffed, supporting 70% of young people directly or indirectly. However, the lack of suitable rooms on wings remains a persistent problem, impacting CAMHS's ability to deliver interventions and causing young people to miss appointments. YPDASS also struggles due to room availability. Social workers, employed by Leeds City Council, spend significant time chasing local authorities for financial support for looked-after children.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime is frequently unpredictable, causing frustration and uncertainty for young people due to lack of consistency and poor communication. Separated young people experience unacceptable time out of cell, sometimes remaining in their rooms for 22 hours or more, particularly on weekends and units like Keppel and Benbow. Education provision was disappointing, with over 12,500 hours lost to cancellations, often poorly communicated. While some regime improvements were welcomed on Keppel and Benbow towards the end of the reporting year, the Board noted that systems based on adult models, such as ACCT and GOoD reviews, are not always suitable for young people.
Applications to the IMB
Prisoners can apply to their IMB about any aspect of their treatment. This table shows application counts by category.
| Category | Current | Previous | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access to healthcare | 21 | 24 | |
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 41 | 46 | |
| Complaints | 6 | 7 | |
| Food | 15 | 17 | |
| General welfare | 33 | 37 | |
| Legal | 19 | 21 | |
| Other | 12 | 13 | |
| Property | 9 | 10 | |
| Remand/sentenced status | 3 | 3 | — |
| Rule 45/49 | 0 | 0 | |
| Safety and wellbeing | 18 | 20 | |
| Segregation | 5 | 6 | |
| Staff care and behaviour | 27 | 29 | |
| Total applications | 225 | 251 | |
| Work/education/training | 16 | 18 |
Recommendations (2)
HMPPS: 1
Governor / Director: 1
Recommendation 1
The IMB recommends that the YCS reconsiders the appropriateness of the ACCT format.
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 2
The Board recommends that this is addressed as a matter of urgency.
Governor / Director
Mental Health