THE Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales has welcomed “significant improvements” in the handling and restraint of children in custody following the death of a Burnley teenager in 2004.

Nick Hardwick said the newly-introduced system, known as minimising and managing physical restraint (MMPR), was a positive step but warned it “is not yet being consistently implemented or achieving the intended outcomes”.

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His comments come following the death of Adam Rickwood, 14, who hanged himself at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre, near Medomsley, County Durham, after a “pain compliance” technique was applied to him.

In January 2011, an inquest jury ruled that prison staff acted unlawfully before Adam took his own life. Jurors found that the controversial nose distraction technique used to subdue the Burnley youngster was “unreasonable and disproportionate”.

Adam’s death came months after Gareth Myatt, 15, from Stoke-on-Trent, became the first child to die while being restrained in custody when he choked to death at the Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre near Daventry, Northamptonshire.

There have been delays in the roll-out of MMPR, which is now scheduled to be completed in July 2016, while beds are being decommissioned across YOIs and STCs in the midst of staffing shortages, according to an HM Inspectorate of Prisons report. The number of children in custody is falling, the report adds.

Mr Hardwick said MMPR had brought “significant improvements” to ‘the national oversight of restraint and the greater focus on communication and de-escalation as part of a wider approach to behaviour management”.

Mr Hardwick said: “Further progress is necessary to give staff the tools to better manage the behaviour of some of our most troubled and challenging children.”