HMP Morton Hall Families and Significant Others Strategy

Our commitment to you

You can find visiting information and book a visit on the Morton Hall Prison main page.

At HMP Morton Hall we will provide clear and visible leadership, aspiring to be positive role models for our colleagues, the men in our care, and all those who visit the establishment, including families and significant others.

We will support our staff to be the best they can be, to work collaboratively with partners, and to place family engagement at the heart of our reducing reoffending approach.

We recognise the vital role that positive, supportive relationships play in wellbeing, stability and successful resettlement, and we are committed to creating a safe, fair and decent environment where everyone is treated with dignity, respect and humanity.

We take a whole prison approach to equality, inclusion and decency, and we will challenge unacceptable behaviour wherever it occurs, ensuring people feel confident and supported to speak out.

Our aims

• maintain and strengthen family ties and meaningful relationships as a core part of our resettlement offer
• ensure every man has access to appropriate support, recognising that this may include family members or significant others
• provide one to one support, family engagement activity, forums and partnership led interventions
• offer clear advice, guidance and support to men and their families to help them throughout custody and in preparation for release

Support and services offered

Families and Significant Others provision

HMP Morton Hall recognises the vital role that families and significant others play in supporting wellbeing, rehabilitation and reducing reoffending.

Maintaining positive and appropriate relationships is a vital part of preparation for release and contributes to good order within the establishment.

Family is defined broadly to recognise blood relatives, legal relationships, and significant individuals such as friends, carers or professionals, particularly for those with care experience or non traditional family backgrounds.

Our family services are delivered in partnership with Lincolnshire Action Trust (LAT) who provide specialist family engagement, advice and casework support. LAT attend monthly partnership meetings and provide service reports to the Head of Reducing Reoffending.

Visitors’ Centre support

All first time visitors are offered one to one support on arrival to explain the visits process, have questions answered and with the aim to help reduce any anxieties around visiting a prison.

The visits centre provides clear information and signposting to support services including debt advice, housing, employment, children’s services, substance misuse, health and wellbeing.

We share information through leaflets, posters, digital resources and staff support, alongside up-to-date prison information.

Children are supported through the provision of books, games and a dedicated soft play area within the visits hall to encourage positive, family friendly visits.

Family engagement and casework

Lincolnshire Action Trust provide one to one family engagement casework based on individual need.

This includes emotional and practical support, parenting support, maintaining family ties, improving communication and relationships, advocacy, family mediation and support with child protection or care proceedings.

LAT also work with internal and external agencies to ensure family concerns are appropriately addressed and safeguarded.

LAT routinely identify men who have not received visits or video calls and proactively engage them to understand barriers, reduce isolation and support relationship building where appropriate.

Maintaining contact

All prisoners at HMP Morton Hall are supported to maintain contact with families and significant others through a range of methods, including:

• letters (with free and additional allowances for specific cohorts)
• email via the Email a Prisoner service
• in cell and wing based telephones
• social visits
• family visits
• video calls
• Storybook Dads
• prison voicemail

All social visits are enhanced sessions of two hours, with entitlement based on Incentives Policy.

Family visits take place through the year, often in school holidays to allow more relaxed, meaningful interaction between prisoners and their children.

These sessions focus on strengthening family bonds and helping children understand the impact of custody in a safe and supportive setting.

Foreign national and isolated prisoners

We recognise that many men at Morton Hall are foreign national offenders or may be without family ties, and provide additional support.

This includes:

• extended and late in cell calling to support overseas contact
• additional PIN credit for those without visits
• access to British Red Cross international family tracing
• support from Midlands Migrant Support and the New Bridge befriending service

These arrangements aim to reduce loneliness, isolation and the negative impacts of separation.

Care leavers

HMP Morton Hall identifies the specific needs of care-experienced individuals during induction to ensure appropriate and ongoing support.

Prison offender managers and keyworkers together with local authorities and personal advisors, ensure sentence plans reflect additional needs and entitlements.

Support focuses on stability, independence, relationship building and preparation for release.

Protected characteristics and neurodiversity

Where protected characteristics create barriers to maintaining family contact, reasonable adjustments are made on a case by case basis. This includes alternative contact methods, in cell adaptations, extended calling times and practical assistance.

The establishment works closely with Equalities colleagues to ensure fair access and inclusive practice.

Trauma informed and safeguarding support

Where appropriate, family involvement is considered during periods of crisis, with consent. Families may be involved in reviews where it is beneficial to an individual’s care and wellbeing.

Safeguarding remains central to all contact, particularly where family relationships are complex, involve victims, or require external agency approval.

Safeguarding measures

For non-emergency concerns where you have concerns about a prisoner’s safety or wellbeing which are serious but not life-threatening, you can:

• call 01522 666 885
• complete a Safer Custody Contact Form on the Prisoner’s Families Helpline website

Creating a safe and supportive environment is fundamental to ensuring that the men in our care are able to stabilise, progress and remain hopeful, free from fear of harm or intimidation during their time at HMP Morton Hall.

We have a dedicated Safety team that works closely with both internal departments and external partners to support the safety and wellbeing of all those who live, work and visit the establishment. (This includes appropriate engagement and outreach with families and significant others where safeguarding or welfare concerns arise.)

During visits, you can speak to visits staff, or ask for information to be passed to the Safer Custody team.

All concerns are taken seriously and assessed appropriately. Where it is safe and appropriate to do so, information from families and significant others helps the prison to support and safeguard those in our care.

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

What we have achieved

At HMP Morton Hall, we have strengthened our approach to engaging families and significant others as a key part of our reducing reoffending agenda.

Visitor feedback has been actively sought through surveys, with responses welcomed and used to inform service development and improvement.

We have successfully delivered events recognising men’s achievements in education and work, inviting families to attend and share in these positive milestones. These events have been well received and further opportunities to involve families in rehabilitative achievements are planned.

Family visits remain a central feature of our engagement offer and continue to be well attended. We have focused on maintaining meaningful contact between men and their families and are working to further enhance the quality and experience of family visits.

In line with our reading strategy, all men are offered a book on induction to promote wellbeing and literacy, which is reinforced through family focused reading activity supported by the library and partner services.

We have taken steps to better support bonding and positive family relationships, including making appropriate arrangements within the visits environment to support early family contact where suitable.

Reasonable adjustments are made to meet individual needs, including providing sensory resources, quieter spaces and flexibility within visits to support neurodivergent individuals and their families.

Information and guidance on neurodiversity is also shared with families to improve understanding and accessibility.

Overall, these achievements demonstrate our commitment to a whole prison approach to family engagement, placing dignity, inclusion, safety and rehabilitation at the centre of our work.

You said, we did

You told us:

• That visiting prison can feel worrying and confusing, especially for first time visitors, and that clearer information would help. We improved the support available when families arrive and made information easier to find in the visits centre.

• How important it is to stay connected, so we’ve focused on making family visits meaningful and supported men to keep in touch through visits, calls, letters and reading with their children.

• It matters when achievements are recognised, so we invited families to celebration events for education and work.

• That some people need extra support, and we’ve made adjustments during visits, including quieter spaces and sensory resources. We will continue to listen and make changes that help families feel supported, informed and involved.

How we measure our success

• Visitor and family feedback, including surveys, compliments and complaints.
• Uptake and attendance at family visits and contact opportunities.
• Review of family engagement casework and partner service reports.
• Evidence from partnership meetings, audits and safeguarding assurance.
• Monitoring equality, reasonable adjustments and access to services.
• Learning from inspections and internal reviews to drive improvement.

Staffing structure

• Overall oversight of Families and Significant Others strategy - Governor
• FaSO Strategy, overseen by the Head of Reducing Reoffending, who is also our local FaSO lead
• FaSO Champion Custodial Manager, Operations (Visits)