Oakhill offender centre: "All contractual options" available, minister says

A minister has said "all contractual options" at a failing young offenders institution are being looked at.

Prisons Minister Victoria Atkins said young offenders at Oakhill Secure Training Centre in Milton Keynes need to be given "hope when they leave".

The justice committee meeting also discussed Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in Northamptonshire.

G4S, which runs Oakhill, said it is focused on delivering an "action plan" following a critical Ofsted report.

The report said children's experiences in the summer at Oakhill, which currently looks after 32 boys, "barely met minimum standards of human decency".

On Wednesday, Mrs Atkins told the committee: "The reputational damage to that business is significant if this goes wrong.

"The deputy prime minister and I are looking at all contractual options."

She said boys at the unit have to be looked after not just physically, but need to be given "something to do with their lives and given hope when they leave".

Mrs Atkins said without that hope there would be "ramifications for their behaviour across the youth and adult estate".

Speaking to BBC Look East, Ofsted's director of regulation and social care, Yvette Stanley, said the inspectors had spoken to children at Oakhill "who described their situation as chaotic".

She said they had felt "less safe" in the unit than in the outside world.

"It was absolutely doing the reverse of what we would expect from a secure training centre," she added.

Carolyne Willow, director of Article 39 which advocates for children's rights in institutional settings, said: "A PFI (private finance initiative) contract, which is not due to end until 2029, is getting in the way of ministers taking robust action against G4S in order to protect children.

"In a contest between financial contracts and penalties versus protecting children, the latter must always come first."

A spokesperson for G4S said: "We are focused on delivering our action plan."

The plan, formulated following Ofsted's inspection, includes a refurbishment of the Oakhill centre and staff training.

The justice committee meeting also heard an update on the centre at Rainsbrook.

All children were removed from the unit in June over concerns for their safety.

Chief executive for the prison service, Jo Farrar, told the hearing the centre was still closed.

She said the service was "in the middle of complex negotiations" with operator MTC.

Ms Farrar said 84 staff who had been employed at the centre have been moved on to immigration contracts, resulting in savings of around £200,000 per month for the prison service.

MTC has previously said it will "vigorously challenge" the report's findings.

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