What information do the Prison Service and Youth Custody Service hold that may be useful?

Internal intelligence relating to behavioural concerns in custody (e.g. inappropriate conversations about children, suspected grooming or targeting of vulnerable prisoners, attempts to gain access to images or information relating to children).

Applications by individuals in custody for family contact, especially requests to visit or communicate with children, and any safeguarding restrictions relating to this (e.g. court orders, no-contact clauses).

Internal alerts for:

• People held in the secure estate who are subject to restrictions because of child protection risks
• requirements to notify social care or police if child contact is proposed.

Mental health or psychology reports held within the secure estate often contain detailed clinical and psychological information gathered for the purposes of assessment, treatment and risk management. This information may include the person’s history, their cognitive and emotional functioning, their patterns of behaviour, and analysis of factors linked to risk of harm to others or to self, alongside identified needs and strengths.

The reports frequently draw on specialist assessments, clinical interviews, psychometric testing and longitudinal observation, and are written for a professional audience with relevant expertise. As a result, the information they contain can be complex and sensitive, and should be interpreted with care, taking account of the context in which the report was commissioned, its intended purpose, and the professional judgement of the clinician who authored it – particularly when used to inform multi-agency safeguarding assessments relating to child sexual abuse.

The Prison Service will contribute to pre-release planning, and will have information that will help plan where the individual will live, any planned or prohibited contact with children, and MAPPA management. It is also required to share information with the Probation Service with and children’s services, if there is a risk to children.

OASys is the national assessment system used across HM Prison and Probation Service to analyse an adult offender’s risks, behaviours and needs, including factors linked to sexual harm. It is completed in custody as part of sentence planning and risk management, and is then transferred automatically to the Probation Service on release, ensuring continuity of assessment and oversight. Rather than sharing raw scores, probation practitioners provide a professional summary of the relevant risks, helping safeguarding partners understand patterns of behaviour, triggers, protective factors and any concerns which may affect children’s safety.

Information held within the children’s secure estate – including secure children’s homes, secure training centres and young offender institutions – often provides a detailed picture of a child’s developmental, psychological and safeguarding needs.

Records may include assessments of:

• the child’s mental health and emotional wellbeing
• their neurodevelopmental needs
• any trauma or adverse childhood experiences
• their patterns of behaviour within the secure setting
• their responses to boundaries, relationships and interventions.

They may also contain information about any known or suspected harmful sexual behaviour, peer dynamics, additional vulnerabilities, and risks posed to or by the child.

This information is typically gathered by specialist staff over time and documented for the purposes of care, treatment and risk management; when shared to inform multi-agency assessments about concerns of child sexual abuse, it should be interpreted in light of the child’s age, developmental stage, and lived experience, and with careful attention to context, proportionality, and the purpose for which it was originally recorded.

The Youth Justice Service is responsible for sentence planning and release planning. These children will have an AssetPlus assessment.