Member Article

G4S wins contract to manage Kent young offender training centre

G4S has secured a contract with The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) to manage a secure training centre for young offenders in Medway, Kent.

The global security services company will operate the 76-bed Medway secure training centre for five years.

As part of the agreement G4S will fund an extension to Medway’s vocational training centre to strengthen education provision and provide the skills which will support some of the UK’s most troubled young people into employment. The education services will be delivered in partnership with the crime reduction charity Nacro.

G4S has operated the centre since 1998 and the most recent independent inspection reported that the centre has some ‘outstanding’ features and that the number of young people moving into education, training or employment on release is high.

The announcement will see the company operate two of the three secure training centres for young offenders in England and Wales from next year. The Oakhill centre near Milton Keynes has been managed by G4S since 2004.

The current G4S contract to manage the third centre in the estate, Rainsbrook near Rugby in Northamptonshire, will be extended for five months until May 2016. Under the bidding arrangements, G4S was not permitted to win both centres being re-tendered but the company has agreed to the YJB’s request to extend the current arrangement in order to support the transition to new management.

Managing director of G4S Children’s Services, Paul Cook, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to operate Medway secure training centre for a further five years. This announcement is testament to many years of hard work, care and commitment colleagues have shown to the young people in their care.

“Our plan builds on the strengths we have developed at Medway in educating, rehabilitating and successfully re-settling young offenders back into their communities. At its heart is a re-built vocational training centre and we look forward to working with the Youth Justice Board, crime reduction charity Nacro and our other partners to continue to help young people to turn their lives around.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .