Speeches by Slade.

“You accept 15-plus. We all know some very famous cases where crimes happened at a very young age. Those children, how do you bring that together?”

“In terms of physical buildings or in terms of the way it operates?”

“We are running out of time, but could each of you in one sentence say either what is the biggest barrier, or what is the change you would want to see in terms of the youth estate?”

“In terms of the secure children’s homes and the training centre, what sort of mental health provisions do you have? I am talking about some of those severe mental illnesses that my colleague has referred to. What level of access do you have to those very highly skilled professionals that you might have in a mental heal…”

“It is not an imminent reopening?”

“Can I challenge then; if they are doing well what is the added value—given that you have to spend a whole load of money—in segregating those children further? I am assuming, as with Feltham, they are in small groups of living anyway.”

“It does, because I will talk briefly to mental health and then move on to transition. When we visited Feltham in January we learned that the enhanced support unit only had six beds available for children with mental health needs. First, in regard to YOIs, is the ESU at Wetherby still closed and when is it expected to r…”

“That is helpful, thank you.”

“There is obviously that—”

“I am Vikki Slade, Member of Parliament for Mid Dorset and North Poole. My interests are as per the register, but none is relevant to this Committee.”

“If 60% will not get a custodial sentence that presumes that there is a significant number of young people who are guilty, are deemed to have served their sentence because they have been on remand for up to 230 days; they are the ones at risk presumably of reoffending behaviours. I suppose my question is: if you cannot …”

“They have not been found guilty, okay, but—”

“Offending behaviour, yes.”

“That is very helpful, thank you, Sarah.”

“It was in our papers for this brief, apologies. If I search 12% we might find it.”

“De-escalation processes.”

“From the Prisons Inspectorate, no less.”

“Can I just ask a quick question on that, which just struck me? If we had schools where the roll was falling, the funding would fall with it. How does your funding work? Is there a risk of reduced funding if you have reduced numbers in your establishments?”

“From the paperwork we have.”

“As I understand it, that is to do with education and training. If no meaningful work is being done with those young people, and we heard young people telling us, “Well, I don’t know how long I will be here for, it’s not worth starting something you will not finish”. That is a completely understandable mindset, but thes…”