Read the report: HMYOI Feltham A independent review of progress

Inspectors returning to Feltham A were pleased to find that decent outcomes for children had been maintained since the last full inspection earlier this year. At this independent review of progress, inspectors followed up nine recommendations, and judged that good or reasonable progress had been made against eight.

Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said:

“Since the inspection, a new governor had been appointed. The transition had been managed well by the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and progress had continued at the establishment. The governor and her team had started to address our recommendations at the earliest opportunity, placing leaders in a good position to demonstrate improvements at the time of this IRP.”

Children were getting more time out of cell and better access to purposeful activity. In the weeks before the inspection, a new core day had been introduced which increased access to education and vocational training. Leaders had begun to implement a more rigorous approach to identifying weaknesses in teaching, and senior staff frequently visited classrooms to offer tailored support to teachers. Children had a personal learning plan which identified skills to develop, but the targets were not always specific enough.

The collection of equality and diversity data had improved, meaning that managers were better able to identify unequal treatment of minority groups. Strategic meetings discussed equality and diversity outcomes and concerns were reviewed. Complaints of unequal treatment by children were now almost always answered within prescribed timescales. Children were involved in the investigation of their complaints and informed of the outcomes in person.

Mr Taylor concluded:

“This is the third positive report in succession about Feltham A. The governor and her team have worked well to consolidate previous improvements and build on them. This leaves the establishment well placed to address the challenges that remain.”

Notes to editors

1. Read the HMYOI Feltham A independent review of progress report, published on 25 November 2022.
2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
3. The original Feltham was built in 1854 as an industrial school and was taken over in 1910 by the Prison Commissioners as their second Borstal institution. The existing building opened as a remand centre in March 1988. The current HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Feltham was formed by the amalgamation of Ashford Remand Centre and Feltham Borstal in 1990/1991.
4. Independent Reviews of Progress (IRPs) began in April 2019. They were developed because Ministers wanted an independent assessment of how far prisons had implemented HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ recommendations following particularly concerning prison inspections. IRPs are not inspections and do not result in new judgements against our healthy prison tests. Rather they judge progress being made against the key recommendations made at the previous inspection. The visits are announced and happen eight to 12 months after the original inspection. They last two and a half days and involve a comparatively small team. Reports are published within 25 working days of the end of the visit. We conduct 15 to 20 IRPs each year. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons selects sites for IRPs based on previous healthy prison test assessments and a range of other factors.
5. At this Feltham IRP we followed up five of the recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up four themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in one recommendation, reasonable progress in three recommendations, and insufficient progress in one recommendation. Ofsted found reasonable progress in four themes.
6. A report of the most recent full inspection of HMYOI Feltham is available on our website, as is the accompanying media release.
7. This inspection took place between 10–19 October 2022.
8. Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.