Children are missing weeks of school because a youth detention centre is failing to provide enough lessons, new reports have found.

Key points: The NT Children's Commissioner has delivered a monitoring report on the region's youth detention centres

The NT Children's Commissioner has delivered a monitoring report on the region's youth detention centres It was the first one since a Royal Commission handed down its recommendations on child protection and youth detention

It was the first one since a Royal Commission handed down its recommendations on child protection and youth detention The Commissioner found some improvements at Darwin's Don Dale but not at the Alice Springs facility

The Northern Territory Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne has delivered her first monitoring reports on the region's youth detention centre since a Royal Commission recommended more independent oversight.

The reports, which cover February and March this year, found a whopping 48 per cent of classes scheduled over 25 days were unavailable at the Alice Springs facility.

They said a significant number of these lessons were not delivered due to security or operation reasons and many children missed full weeks of school.

The report also said no efforts were made to offer alternative lesson arrangements in many cases.

Yet education was a key recommendation from the Royal Commission.

While Commissioner Gwynne found some improvements at Darwin's Don Dale facility, she called for urgent action to improve conditions at the Alice Springs detention centre.

She said staff at Alice Springs routinely breached laws and policies around youth detention.

"It is not fit for purpose. It's not serving the cohort well and it's not serving the staff well within that centre," she said.

The Territory Families — who have oversight over youth detention in the Territory — Chief Executive Ken Davies agreed the facility was substandard.

"We've done a lot of work inside to try and improve the amenities inside the facility," he said.

"When we first took over three years ago, it was just a small dirt quadrangle. It's still not adequate and I think the Children's Commissioners report confirms that."

Records provided by Territory Families to the Commissioner indicated staff at the Alice Springs facility broke their obligation to monitor detainees every 15 minutes when they were separated from the general centre population, and sometimes youth were separated for over 24 hours.

"Unfortunately, often separation is extended because of staffing shortages or rostering or the lack of flexibility in a centre to be able to separate groups of children where there is heightened stress," Commissioner Gwynne said.

The report said this method of behaviour management was so harmful, it should only be used as a last resort to protect other individuals or property.

But the Commissioner found no records that any therapeutic or behavioural measures were attempted before the decision was made to separate detainees, which is required by law.

One detainee in Alice Springs was seen to be at risk of self-harm during the Commissioner's monitoring and the report found their "at-risk" status was cancelled by centre staff without a doctor's recommendation.

She said the department responded to these findings very quickly, but she highlighted some staff continue to be undertrained.

Government acknowledged its faults

Mr Davies said the Northern Territory Government had committed $10 million dollars to expand the centre and programs offered inside.

"We've got the funding to do that and now there's a really robust planning process to get those facilities in place as quickly as possible," he said.

These plans included improving housing for youth and creating facilities for recreational activities, he said.

Yet Commissioner Gwynne said she was "deeply concerned" it would be a year before the Alice Springs Facility would be up to standard, and said an alternative should be investigated urgently as there were rising numbers of Central Australian youth in detention.

"It needs to happen today, and I guess if works cannot be undertaken, then we need to find an alternative," she said.

"If you also look at how many from Don Dale are [originally] from Alice Springs — it's about half of them — so already we're using Don Dale for detaining young people."

"The urgency around this is pretty significant if we are having more young people detained, we have to make this a priority."

However, she acknowledged many of the children spoke positively about their experience in the Alice Spring Detention Centre's school and she praised the presentation of classrooms, which included the young people's achievements and work.

Government's courage questioned

Numerous legal experts have been alarmed many of the 227 recommendations from the Royal Commission are yet to be implemented, despite a commitment by the Territory Government to do so.

Improving oversight and accountability in the youth detention was one, but Commissioner Gwynne said there was no legislation permitting her office to visit detention centres for monitoring without permission.

The Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory has printed advertisements in local newspapers urging Territorians to contact their local members of parliament and demand answers as to why the youth justice system is still ineffective.

Speaking on ABC Darwin, Marty Aust said the current system was creating a cycle of troubled youth entering and re-entering incarceration.

"What we would ask the Territorian public to do is engage with their members and say 'We don't care about political games, we don't care about politics, we care about our future, we care about our children and we've had enough'," he said.

The Law Council of Australia president, Arthur Moses SC, said there is concern the Government has been dragging its feet.

"Questions are now being asked as to whether the Government in fact is committed to implementing these reforms or whether it lacks the courage to implement these recommendations," he said.

"I would hope electoral prospects are never the concern of a minister of the crown who takes an oath to act in the best interest in the Territory … politics should never be part of the equation when it comes to doing what is right."