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Independent Monitoring Boards annual report

Swinfen Hall

Report year 2023 Published 14 Sep 2023 Type Prison, category Cat C, YOI Population 614 Responsible body HMP Swinfen Hall 9 recommendations

Original IMB report page ↗ Ministerial response, 1 Nov 2023 ↗ imb.org.uk ↗

The summary and positive findings below were written from the report by an AI model. The Board's own wording is in the report linked above.

Summary

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
HMP/YOI Swinfen Hall, a Cat C training prison and YOI, reported a prisoner population of 614 at the end of April 2023. The Board observed positive movement towards increased prisoner support and a shared vision from the Governor and SLT, particularly in developing work opportunities. However, significant concerns remain regarding the restricted regime, with many prisoners experiencing 23-hour lock-ups, inadequate provision of basic items, and a persistent lack of sufficient secure mental health spaces leading to long transfer waits. The report also highlights issues with overloaded Offender Management Unit staff affecting prisoner progression, an understaffed Business Hub, and inconsistent quality in handling prisoner complaints and property issues.

Positive findings

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
The Board noted positive movement in the prison's focus on increasing support for every prisoner, with the Governor and SLT sharing a vision for future improvements, including providing work places for up to 85% of the population. Individual Challenge, Support, and Intervention Plans (CSIPs) were well-documented and targeted, and the aftercare following a death in custody was exemplary. The use of prisoners as peacekeepers and the Keep the Peace strategy significantly reduced violence, and the prison's ethos on equality and diversity has improved. A new four-band incentives scheme motivated positive behaviour, the library now offers sessions to all wings, and good practice cases ensured prisoners moving to approved premises met staff in advance, with no prisoner released homeless despite lacking formal funding.

Recommendations

All 9 recommendations

Key concerns

All 10 key concerns

Recommendations 9 items · 5 repeated

Recommendations were extracted from the report by AI, and responses and their status from the ministerial response by AI. Each recommendation shows whether its wording has been checked against the report.

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Mental Health

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Can the Minister liaise with other departments to create a detailed and funded plan for sufficient spaces in secure mental health units to reduce the number of seriously mentally ill being held in prison, especially in segregation units?

Source text verified

Recommendation 1

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Education

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Will the prison service set and monitor national, publicly shared, targets for educational and training outcomes in young offender institutions, backed by professionally informed practice and proper data analysis?

Source text verified

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Property · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action will be taken to improve the internal processes for the reception and onward delivery of prisoners’ property within Swinfen Hall?

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Mental Health

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Will the Minister explain how provision can be increased to ensure that waiting times for approved transfers to secure hospitals are reduced?

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Education

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Will the prison service set and monitor effectively high-quality targets, and appropriate penalties, in third-party contracts for education, training and vocational skill delivery?

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Property · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action will be taken to improve the handling of the clothing parcel process from initial application to safe delivery of the parcel?

Source text verified

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Resettlement · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action will be taken to reduce the backlog of OASys reports that impacts negatively on outcomes for prisoners?

Source text verified

Recommendation 4

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Safety · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action will be taken to improve the detection of weapons in the prison?

Source text verified

Recommendation 5

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Staffing · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
When will the Business Hub be fully resourced such that it can function adequately? (see para 6.7)

Source text verified

Key concerns 10 items

Key concerns were extracted from the report text by an AI model.

Key concern 1

Regime/Time Out of Cell · Repeated from a previous year

A regime that requires 23 hours a day to be spent in cell for many has been a continued concern.

Key concern 2

Estate/Conditions · Repeated from a previous year

The provision of basic items (such as toilet covers, toilet rolls, and curtains) and access to property in a reasonable timeframe has been a continued concern.

Key concern 3

Regime/Time Out of Cell

Progression and resettlement h) Of concern is that for many prisoners, access to purposeful activity remains limited despite the situation improving.

Key concern 4

Staffing · Repeated from a previous year

Probation Prison Offender Managers (POMS) are carrying excessive caseloads of up to 90 prisoners, when usually tasked with 60, adversely affecting OASys reports and interaction with OMU staff, leading to significant delays (up to 5 months).

Source wording under review

Key concern 5

Mental Health

There are serious concerns over the availability of appropriate mental health support for those in need who should be placed in NHS secure mental health units, leading to seriously mentally ill prisoners being held in prison, especially in segregation units, and long waiting times for approved transfers.

Key concern 6

Staffing · Repeated from a previous year

The Business Hub is understaffed and does not have the resources necessary to keep up with demand for essential prisoner services (PIN credit, approval of telephone numbers, property, canteen purchases, finance, complaints, IMB applications).

Key concern 7

Complaints/Property

Throughout the year, the Board conducted three dip tests involving 20 complaints on each occasion. The quality and fairness of the responses varied significantly. Approximately 40% of the complaints were either left unanswered or received responses lacking the seriousness they deserved. Compounding the issue, handwritten replies posed challenges in terms of legibility, especially for prisoners with limited reading skills. Additionally, the illegibility of some staff signatures further hindered effective communication.

Key concern 8

Healthcare · Repeated from a previous year

The Board is not confident that the out-of-hours GP service will carry out night visits, which remains a concern from the previous year.

Key concern 9

Healthcare · Repeated from a previous year

Dentistry is a particular concern as initial appointments often lead to follow up treatment so there is a paradoxical effect where the waiting list for ongoing treatment grows the more patients that are seen.

Key concern 10

Resettlement/Release

5 Resettlement planning Swinfen Hall as a Cat C training prison does not have funding to provide support for men on release. During the reporting period up to 10 men were released from the prison each month. The prison expects to release directly at least 70 men in the next 10 months, as these men are less than 10 months from release and so cannot move to a resettlement prison. A further 134 men are due to transfer to resettlement prisons as they are in the 24 to 10 month resettlement window. Population pressures indicate many of these men will not move to their resettlement prison. The prison is not resourced to support prisoners on direct release.

Safety statistics

Incidents during the reporting year.

IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody1not recorded

Population

Population614

Applications to the IMB

CategoryCurrentPrevious
Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions 7 6
Canteen, facility list, catalogues 9 0
Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions 7 8
Equality 0 1
Finance, including pay, private monies, spends 14 18
Food and kitchens 2 3
Health, including physical, mental, social care 14 8
Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions 5 15
Miscellaneous 1 5
Property during transfer or in another facility 6 23
Property within the establishment 37 36
Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell 20 9
Sentence management, including HDC, ROTL, parole, release dates, re-categorisation 23 33
Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying 22 15
Transfers 26 37

Report details

Establishment
Swinfen Hall
Type
Prison, category Cat C, YOI
Report year
2023
Published
14 September 2023
Responsible body
HMP Swinfen Hall
Recommendations
9
MoJ rating (2025/26)
2, Concern

Service providers

ServiceProvider
HealthcarePractice Plus Group
Mental Health and Psychosocial Substance MisuseMidland Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust ('Inclusion' team)

Related inspections and investigations

HMIP inspection, 20 Aug 2024

Unannounced · Safety 2 · Respect 2 · Activity 2 · Release 3

HMIP inspection, 21 Feb 2022

IRP

HMIP inspection, 28 Jun 2021

Unannounced

HMIP inspection, 8 Jul 2019

IRP

Pearce, Luke

PPO fatal incident · 6 Apr 2023 · Self-inflicted

Luke Pearce

Prevention of future deaths report · 16 May 2024 · Suicide (from 2015)

Other reports for Swinfen Hall

2026

Published 19 Aug 2026 · Population 611 · Key concerns recorded

2025

Published 12 Sep 2025 · Population 616 · Key concerns recorded

2024

Published 8 Oct 2024 · Population 618 · Self-harm 369 · Key concerns recorded

2022

Published 3 Nov 2022 · Population 583 · Key concerns recorded

2021

Published 4 Nov 2021 · Population 570 · Key concerns recorded

2020

Published 18 Sep 2020 · Population 556 · Self-harm 881 · Key concerns recorded