CONCERNS are been raised that plans to create a joint care and juvenile justice campus in Northern Ireland have not been taken forward.
It comes as a new report by Criminal Justice Inspection (CJI) Northern Ireland highlights the "need for greater collaboration" between two specialist children's facilities - the juvenile justice centre at Woodlands and the regional secure care centre at Lakewood, both in Bangor.
While CJI chief inspector Jacqui Durkin found high standards of care at Woodlands JJC, she said it was "difficult to justify the current operating model" at the facility adding that more collaboration was needed with Lakewood Secure Care Centre.
However, the inspection report praised high standards of care and child-centred focus staff provided to children after it looked at how those who were brought to Woodlands JJC by the police as a place of safety, on remand or after being sentenced to custody by a court were treated.
But Ms Durkin expressed concern that the opportunity to create a regional care and justice campus through merging Woodlands with Lakewood was "not being taken forward now, with a shared services model being progressed instead".
"This is disappointing particularly given the uncertainty over budgets and pressures on social worker resources," she said, adding that Woodlands was staffed for 36 children but had an average daily population of 11 in 2020/21.
"With a staff team of 97, excluding teaching, health care and other service providers and average costs of £829,988 for each daily occupant in 2020/21, it is difficult to justify the current operating model," she said.
"There is a need for greater collaboration moving forward and inspectors have recommended that within the next 12 months, the current operating model at Woodlands JJC should be critically reviewed to take account of the decision of the ministers of health and justice on the future of the joint regional care and justice campus."
The chief inspector also expressed concern that Woodlands continued too often to be used as a place of safety, especially for children held under the Police and Criminal Evidence (NI) Order 1989, because there were no available alternatives.
She said some sample records relating to the use of force examined by inspectors revealed some information, such as evidence of support provided to young people after incidents of restraint, was lacking or had not been recorded.
"We recommend that steps be taken at Woodlands JJC to review and improve the governance of the use of single separation - where young people are separated from their peers - to provide assurance and evidence that its use is proportionate, and that it is only used as a last resort after other alternatives have been considered, and for the shortest possible time," she said.
