Hewell Prison: Families and significant others strategy

Our commitment to you

Our vision is to create hope by:

• understanding and meeting the needs of those in our care
• building an environment, culture, and daily regime that enables us to work with prisoners to help them meet those needs

With support from stakeholders, we seek to create an ethos which delivers on our aim of creating One Community. Central to this aim are our values:

• Be Honest
• Be Kind
• Be Fair

We aspire to embed a procedurally just culture, underpinned by being open, honest and transparent with equality of opportunity for all.

The foundation to our prison is effective and visible leadership, and we aim to enable a safe, decent, rehabilitative, and secure environment.

We aim to provide a realistic offer to meet the needs of our differing cohorts and one that is outcome focused. Our regime is influenced by needs analysis and assessment with a targeted care (health and wellbeing) pathway to support the most vulnerable.

Promoting a better understanding and awareness of why people commit crime is vital to our development and effectiveness. Therefore, we believe that our reducing reoffending strategy is central to everything we aim to achieve.

To achieve our vision, we recognise the importance of enabling our colleagues to be of their best. This will be achieved through active personal development plans outlining training, mentoring, coaching and continuous improvement goals.

Our commitment to support those with a protected characteristic is clearly defined in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Support and services offered

When a family member is imprisoned it can affect children and families in many ways. They may experience social isolation, stigma, and embarrassment as well as financial, social, emotional or physical challenges as a result.

Many visitors come to Hewell scared, anxious, unsure of what to expect as well as feeling isolated from the outside community.

Children usually benefit from visiting and seeing their parent or significant other for themselves. (Children’s imaginations can often be worse than the reality.)

The Visits and Children and Families team can support children and families visiting. They will help to make the visit a positive experience which in turn will encourage children to want to return.

At Hewell we work with both PACT and YMCA who have responsibility for working to improve services for children, young people and families of our prisoners.

Services available include:

• social visits with refreshment services
• social video calls
• inter-prison visits
• a visitor’s centre
• family support worker
• family forums
• enrichment activities
• family days
• child contact visits
• one-to-one direct work with prisoners and their families (family engagement work)
• family learning

Visitors’ centre 

The visitors centre aims to give all visitors a safe place to talk about any worries or concerns they may have.

Family support workers can talk to the families and friends of visitors before and after visits (or by telephone).

They can pass on any relevant information or concerns to ensure the safety of a prisoner.

Family support workers also attend the monthly safer custody meetings.

The team take care of all the booking in arrangements. They are there to explain the visiting process, answer any questions and help to alleviate any anxieties that the visitors may have.

The family support workers (FSWs) are always available during the visiting sessions in the visitor’s centre to assist with any problems people may have and to explain the process of a family member coming into custody here at Hewell.

Information such as sending money in, details for a visit, safer custody details and bringing clothing in are an example of the knowledge the FSWs have and explain to visitors. FSWs can also liaise between family members at the prison.

Offenders who know their family members are being well treated will feel more settled and this can contribute to a more settled regime and better communication/respect between officers and offenders.

Family support leaflets are available in the courts for the families of prisoners convicted/remanded to Hewell.

Children’s play facilities 

Play facilities and activities in the visitors’ centre and in the main visits hall. These areas are stocked with age-appropriate toys and games which are regularly maintained.

Family engagement work 

Child contact visits

We offer a separate area for families with children under local authority care if required and can be arranged with a foster carer and/or social worker to bring the child/children to visit dad at Hewell.

We also facilitate ‘goodbye contact’ for children who are to be placed for adoption and follow up support through letterbox contact with dad, where letters can be exchanged between dad and the adoptive parents and child/children. Photographs can be taken during these visits, following approval.

This service can be requested directly with Hewell using the visits email – Visits.HMPHewell@justice.gov.uk 

Parenting/relationship courses 

Bumps to Babies (YMCA)

We offer a new baby bonding course for new and expectant dads and significant others, called ‘Bumps to Babies.’ This will be a 4-week course where men can develop and build on their confidence in becoming a father inside and out.

Parenting Course – Me and My Dad (YMCA)

This course provides an opportunity for men in prison to reflect on being a positive role model to their child/children. Although imprisonment removes their physical presence, they will be given opportunities to look at ways in which they can keep in touch with their child/children where appropriate.

The course aims to:

• enable men to talk about their own experiences of childhood and look at how those experiences affect the way in which they bring up their own children
• look at ways of improving communication between fathers and significant others and their children
• discuss ways of listening and talking to children
• provide a framework for better understanding the effect of imprisonment on the family, empowering fathers to support their children
• available from the Children and Families team via a referral form

Storybook Dads and DVDs (YMCA)

Prisoners can record a story on CD or be filmed reading a story, recite nursery rhymes, sing a song or recite a poem, they can add a short message to this, which is then edited with music and sound effects by ‘Storybook Dads.’

The finished story can then be sent to the child or placed in the prisoner’s property box. Becoming a treasured possession for the children as hearing their loved one’s voice is a way to help build on the parent-child bond.

All About Me - Memory books (SWAPS) YMCA

Memory Books is a continuation of Me and My Dad and Storybook Dads. Those who have completed a course are given the opportunity to create a memory book, by choosing from a variety of sheets.

Both the resident and their child/children are given the opportunity to complete the sheets and on completion they can be compiled into a book. This enables both resident and child/children to enjoy reading and sharing memories of each other. This is a lovely opportunity to support and enhance a positive relationship.

Family support 

Foreign national phone credit and letters:  

Foreign national prisoners are entitled to convert their standard visiting orders to phone credit to make calls abroad or airmail letters.

Family engagement casework 

YMCA and Pact provide support for residents and their families who are experiencing family issues.

The service will provide:

• emotional and practical support for residents and their families whilst in custody
• offer emotional and practical support for children and young people before and during social visits and family visits/days
• opportunities for children to explore, express and share their views and feelings with adults and family members on issues that are affecting them
• one to one emotional and practical parenting support to the parents before and during visits
• help and support with maintaining family ties, improving communication and relationships
• family mediation
• family days and enrichment activities
• information and guidance on welfare-related issues
• information and guidance on criminal justice / prison system signposting and referrals to other agencies
• meet and greet families
• support first time visitors along with family support workers
• raising awareness of service via prison induction
• liaising with external agencies such as social services
• provide advice and support to professionals from other agencies to increase awareness of the difficulties experienced by families affected by imprisonment
• offering access to presentations, training opportunities and resources about the emotional impact that imprisonment of a close family member can have on a child

Family days 

We run numerous family days throughout the year, facilitated by either PACT or YMCA. These are usually five-hour visits, held in the gymnasium or the main visits room.

The aims of family days are:

• To prepare our prisoners for release by offering them the opportunity to keep in touch with their families and help them to build on repairing broken/strained relationships.
• To provide a sense of normality. Families share breakfast, tea and toast and a meal at lunchtime, spending a day together doing everyday things often taken for granted, such as reading stories, discussing schoolwork, playing games and sharing a meal.
• To take home a photograph as a memory of the day. Once families have completed their family passport/worksheet they can choose to have their photograph taken which is printed on site.

Prisoners can apply to attend these at any time and are automatically considered for each event, which are limited to 20 prisoners per event. Prisoners should be adjudication free for 3 months before the event and also obtain clearance from public protection and security.

Care leavers 

At the heart of our work within custody and the community is a passionate belief in rehabilitation. We believe in the ability of everyone to change their lives for the better with the necessary help and support.

We recognise at Hewell that residents within our establishment have had adverse childhood experiences that have led to trauma. Therefore, our commitment to those who have care experience is to provide support needed to help these individuals lead happy, fulfilling and crime-free lives.

We appreciate the positive contribution of family and the support of significant people in the lives of those in our care and continue to work alongside the families and significant others strategy team to implement the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s review.

A care leaver is an adult who has spent time living in the care system, away from their family. This could be either with a foster family, in a children’s home or supported housing service, or under another arrangement as agreed by their social worker. Young people usually leave care when they are 18 years old but are still entitled to support up to the age of 25.

The Equality Act 2010 does not include care leavers specifically as a protected characteristic (PC).

However, it is well documented that those with care experience are more likely to have mental health conditions and are therefore protected under the ‘disability’ strand of PCs. This is recognised here at Hewell and other prisons, and the reason care leavers are included as a priority group within our community.

Support can be obtained by speaking with a prison offender manager (POM) or key worker.

Our protected characteristics lead is a custodial manager.

Safeguarding measures

All our services or provisions must follow our local safer custody policies. Many of the services we aim to provide will support and enhance the primary objectives of the Safer Custody team.

This strategy should support individuals and their family/significant others to cope with the difficult times as they adjust and settle into their sentence. The result of a prisoner feeling vulnerable at this time can be fatal.

It is reasonable and right to ask questions to consider, enable and endorse improved safety, to prevent self-harm and suicide of prisoners coming into custody at Hewell.

See our main Hewell Prison GOV.UK page for contact details if you have a safeguarding concern

You can also report a safeguarding concern by completing a Safer Custody Contact Form on the Prisoner’s Families Helpline website.

For further reference to safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework.

What have we achieved?

• We have refurbished the visitors centre with new furniture and lockers.
• Increased the range of drinks and refreshments available from the tea bar in the visits hall.
• Increased the number of visits slots available.
• Improved our score on the Family Ties Performance Measure.
• Continued to consult prisoners and their FaSO about the support and services they need and value.
• Provided regular family days.

You said, we did

You said you would like to have hot food available – hot food options have now been introduced and have proved very popular.

You said you would like to bring in more money to purchase food and refreshments from the tea bar – we increased the limits on cash.

You said you would like more visits slots and sessions – we increased the capacity of the visits hall from 3 to 46.

We also increased the number of sessions per week from 5 to 8.

How will we measure our success?

There is a National Family Ties Performance Measure which was a recommendation of Lord Farmer’s Report.

Each year every prison must complete a self-assessment report which is evaluated and validated by the regional prison group director.

The measure is still designed to encourage a proactive approach to FaSO work, and an establishment will score well if it is able to evidence proactivity in response to the range of questions within the measure.

At Hewell we will use the self-assessment to develop an action plan to make improvements

In addition, we will use feedback from prisoners and their families and friends to identify areas for improvement or change.

Hewell has a prisoner council which meet monthly and is attended by the governing governor or deputy governor.

Visits is a standing agenda for this meeting. PACT also run an annual family forum in the visitor’s centre for families to attend.

PACT also conduct quarterly surveys with visitors and both YMCA and PACT get feedback forms completed during family days.

Any recommendations or concerns related to FaSO provision raised by MQPL (Measuring the Quality of Prison Life Surveys or external bodies such as His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons are used to formulate improvement actions.

Staffing structure

• Governing governor
• FaSO lead - Head of Reducing Reoffending
• FaSO champion - custodial manager

PACT: www.prisonadvice.org.uk

Prisoners’ Families Helpline: 0808 808 3444

YMCA: Helen Smith, Family Support Lead