Howard League responds to Urgent Notification for Oakhill secure training centre 

The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded after Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) issued an urgent notification to the Secretary of State for Justice about Oakhill prison, published today (Thursday 31 July).

Inspectors from Ofsted, CQC and HMIP visited the G4S-run centre in Milton Keynes, which holds around 70 children and young people, some as young as 12, in July 2025.

The prison previously received an Urgent Notification in 2021, and a damning inspection report highlighted failings in the treatment of children in December 2024.

In this most recent Urgent Notification, inspectors found “profoundly serious and systemic failures that mean children have been and remain at risk of harm.”

Significant concern was raised about staff conduct. In the nine months to July 2025, 23 staff members were suspended, of which 16 related to allegations about their conduct with children. Since 14 July 2025, seven more staff members have been suspended on the same grounds. Appropriate action was not always taken regarding allegations, meaning staff continued to work with children following grave concerns.

In an anonymous survey of children held at Oakhill prison by HMIP in June 2025, 30% of children reported verbal abuse by staff, while 16% reported threats and intimidation, and 12% reported physical assault at the hands of staff.

Children were reported to have experienced unintentional pain during the use of physical restraint by staff and being separated for lengthy extended periods, sometimes for days at a time. The Howard League has recently issued legal proceedings in relation to an unlawful separation policy in operation at Oakhill.

Inspectors found that children with known mental health concerns did not always receive timely care, with one child reporting suicidal ideation who was not offered mental health support for eight days.

Children at Oakhill were also found to be living in unsanitary conditions, with deterioration in living units and dilapidated, dirty conditions.

Staff themselves shared repeated concerns with inspectors, including leaking of confidential information across the centre, and threats of unauthorised punishments against staff speaking out.

The centre Director and one of the two deputy directors were formally suspended from their duties in July, while the other deputy director was recently dismissed from employment.

Monitors from the Youth Custody Service were found to have failed to identify and/or take sufficient action to help safeguard children and to ensure that children receive good quality care.

Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “This is a truly shocking report and children at Oakhill have been profoundly failed.

“The litany of problems described by inspectors at Oakhill underscores what the Howard League has long said: privately-run secure training centres are a flawed model of child detention. Oakhill should be closed, and it is only the fact that young offender institutions are hardly a welcome alternative that the centre is kept open. The treatment of children in custody desperately needs a root-and-branch review.

“The Youth Custody Service also deserves renewed scrutiny. This agency within the Prison Service was created after a safeguarding scandal at another secure training centre, yet it was found by inspectors to have been sleeping on the job at Oakhill.”

Notes to editors

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
2. The Urgent Notification for Oakhill STC is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/urgent-notification-issued-for-oakhill-stc-after-inspectors-find-profound-and-systemic-failure
3. Further details of our legal action in relation to an unlawful separation policy in operation at Oakhill can be found here: https://howardleague.org/blog/separation-in-oakhill-secure-training-centre/
4. Our response to HM Inspectorate of Prisons report on Oakhill STC in December 2024, can be found here: https://howardleague.org/news/concerns-raised-about-treatment-of-children-in-oakhill-secure-training-centre/
5. The Oakhill Secure Training Centre survey, published July 2025, can be found here: https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/oakhill-secure-training-centre-survey-5/
6. The Youth Custody Service, an agency within HM Prison and Probation Service, was created in 2017, after a BBC Panorama investigation the previous year into another G4S-run secure training centre at Medway in Kent.

Contact

Noor Khan
Press and Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7241 7873
Email: [email protected]