Children in secure children’s home are doing twice as well with their education progress than expected, a study has found.

self-governing research into secure children’s homes has found that young people spending between four and eight weeks in a home achieve a national curriculum points increase of 2.05 in English and mathematics, compared to the government expectation of 0.6.

Over a year and a half, it was calculated that, on average, young people achieved an increase of 8.96 points, compared to the government’s expectation of 5.4.

Mean while, the average reading age was found to increase from 11 to 12 during a young person’s stay.

Although secure children’s homes are facing an uncertain future, with closures in recent years reflecting a declining number of young people in custody.