Cookham Wood: Rise in staff exits and isolation at youth prison

There were an average of 13 isolations a day at Cookham Wood in October

Councillors have raised concern over the speed of improvement at a troubled male youth offenders institution (YOI).

An update report on HMP YOI Cookham Wood shows its staff resignation rate in November was 20%, while isolations continued to rise.

It follows an inspection last April, which rated the facility inadequate.

But Cookham Wood has warned it would take time to make improvements, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The 2023 inspection exposed issues including widespread weapon making and that a quarter of the children were locked away almost 24 hours a day.

An update report on the facility submitted to Medway Council last week, shows it had made slow progress towards improvement.

Its staff resignation rate peaked in September of 23%, dropping to 20% in November - compared to 13% in December 2022.

Instances of isolation among inmates also rose after an initial fall from 20 a day for an average length of eight days in April.

An inspection found issues including widespread weapon making at the facility

In October, there were 13 separations per day and the average time was four days.

Opposition spokesperson for Medway children's services, councillor George Perfect, described the report as "appalling".

"I don't have the confidence from the report that things are changing at pace".

Cassandra Chapman, the YOI's deputy governor, said it was "working towards" an urgent action plan, but emphasised issues had not "happened overnight".

"We're currently at the stage of trying to unpick those things and get them back to basics before we can truly move forward," she added.

Dr Lee-Anne Farach, Medway Council's director of people and deputy chief executive, said it would "take time" to improve the facility.