The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) has today announced that G4S has been successful in its bid to manage a secure training centre for young offenders in Medway, Kent.

The YJB has awarded the contract to G4S to 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." 

Nacro chief executive, Jacob Tas, said:

"Nacro is committed to delivering the highest level of education and learning opportunities, we have a 'good' Ofsted rating for all our education provision across England and our students continue to succeed and move forward in their lives. We firmly believe that education and employment is at the centre of successful rehabilitation and we look forward to introducing Nacro education to this secure training centre and changing lives for young people in Medway."

Rainsbrook will move to new management at the end of the contract extension. Paul Cook added:

"We could only have won one centre under the procurement process but of course we are disappointed to leave Rainsbrook after managing the centre for more than 16 years.

"It has been a very testing recent period for everyone at the centre and colleagues have risen to the challenge with commitment, care and professionalism.  We will continue to show the same level of commitment through the transition to new management in order to minimise the disruption to young people, our colleagues and everyone connected to the centre." 

ENDS

For further information please contact media manager Michael Baker on 020 7963 3171 / 07711 785 303 or michael.baker@g4s.com.

Notes to Editors:

-           Secure training centres are responsible for detaining and training young people aged from 12 to 17 who meet the criteria for a custodial sentence, or who are remanded to custody

-           The contract is worth £50m over five years

-           Find out more about education in secure training centres

About G4S

G4S is the leading global security company, specialising in the provision of security services and solutions to customers. Our mission is to create material, sustainable value for our customers and shareholders by being the supply partner of choice in all of our markets.

G4S is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has a secondary stock exchange listing in Copenhagen. G4S is active in around 100 countries and has 611,000 employees. For more information on G4S, visit www.g4s.com.