NYAS have joined with 35 other influential voices concerned with the safeguarding of vulnerable children and young people to call for the closure of Medway secure training centre in Kent.
In a joint letter sent to the Justice and Children’s Ministers by Article 39, a charity that fights for the rights of children living in institutional settings in England, NYAS joined fellow signatories in urging for Medway secure training centre to be closed and for plans to make it the country’s first experimental secure school to be discontinued.
The action comes in response to the publication of a serious case review into the centre, along with a new inspection report from Ofsted which revealed that children are being unlawfully restrained there.
In their letter to the Justice and Children’s Ministers, the concerned parties, including NYAS, expressed how appalled they were, ‘to read of the litany of failures to protect children in Medway secure training centre, set out in the serious case review published by Medway Safeguarding Children Board.’ The letter goes on to state that ‘the information published within the serious case review, together with other very serious matters left out of scope (including sexual abuse allegations), categorically show that this institution (Medway) is irredeemable.’
Commenting on the demands for the Medway secure training centre’s closure, Rita Waters NYAS Chief Executive said, “We fully support the action that Article 39 has taken in sending this letter to Government. Meeting the passive resistance of children with violence is wrong, both morally and legally. It is a breach of children’s right to protection under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
This institution and its treatment of children does not belong in the 21st century. NYAS will not stop campaigning until such treatment is relegated to the past.”
To see Article 39’s feature on the joint letter click here
