The head of the prisons watchdog has described a young offenders institute in Wales as ‘the best’ in the country according to a new inspection report.
The HM Inspectorate of Prisons published the results of the March inspection on Tuesday, identifying ‘good outcomes for children across all four healthy prison tests’. Leadership at HMYOI Parc was praised for curating an environment where children felt safe, workers are sufficiently qualified to meet the individual needs of offenders, and the standard of care sets an exemplary benchmark for other YOI’s to strive for.
Since the YOI’s last inspection in 2023, staff had increased routine cell-searching by 869% and mandatory drug-testing was commonplace. However, the report also found that in the past year, 9 strip searches had been conducted on children with inspectors saying they ‘were not convinced that all other alternatives had been exhausted’ before resorting to this measure.
Findings on the quality of healthcare at HMYOI Parc also raised concerns with inspectors discovered inadequacies in incident reporting and record keeping, a lack of confidential examinations for new arrivals, and stalled advancement in the extent of therapy services offered to offenders. Of particular concern was the finding that the medicines administration room used for clinical assessment may be inappropriate for its purpose, including the issue of the room’s temperature having the potential to affect ‘the efficacy of medicines held there’.
The report did demonstrate a significant increase in offenders’ engagement with purposeful activity such as weekly sports play and library visits. Further improvements in teaching quality and curriculum flexibility were also noted, though children separated from their peers during learning time experienced weaker academic progress.
This report comes as HMP Parc faces pressure to resolve a history of problematic safety and wellbeing conditions for their adult inmates. A review of the prison in February 2026 showed what the ‘continuing failings’ of leadership to reduce prisoners’ access to drugs and improve purposeful activity opportunities.
The quality of HMP Parc oversight has also been cause for concern, with an inspection report on the seventeen men who died in prison during 2024 yet to be produced due to Monitoring Board shortages.
The HMYOI Parc report establishes four priority concerns for future improvements, encouraging prison leadership to resolve issues with health services and advance professional development for child offenders. Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, took an approving stance on the report’s findings, arguing that ‘leaders and staff should be congratulated for what they are achieving’.
