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Independent Monitoring Boards annual report

Thameside

Report year 2022 Published 24 Nov 2022 Type Prison, category B/C Population 1,300 Responsible body HMP Thameside 11 recommendations

Original IMB report page ↗ Ministerial response, 31 Jan 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 Thameside, a Category B/C prison, saw its population close to its operational capacity of 1,232. While the regime slowly normalized after Covid restrictions, challenges persisted, including a rise in prisoner-on-prisoner assaults (273 total) despite a decrease in staff assaults (168 total). The Board identified significant concerns around the inhumane delays for mental health transfers (average 39 days), inadequate property handling (complaints up 60%), and the unreliability of the cell bell system. Staff shortages, particularly impacting purposeful activity and resettlement services, were partially mitigated by recruitment efforts, though a large cohort of inexperienced staff remains.

Positive findings

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
The Board welcomes the prison's focus on initiatives like UoF training, ACCT documentation, and CSIPs, noting continued effective management and increased openness. Positive developments include improved COMP2 and overall complaint systems, with higher timeliness and quality of responses. The introduction of BWVC evidence in adjudications, prompt accommodation repairs, and an upgraded CMS system are also noted. The PIAC is now running more efficiently, and a new incentives scheme is welcomed. The IMB commends staff professionalism in the CSU and generally positive staff-prisoner relations.

Recommendations

All 11 recommendations

Key concerns

All 12 key concerns

Recommendations 11 items · 4 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 · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Liaise with NHS England to provide sufficient bed capacity in secure mental health hospitals, in order to avoid the need for prisons to hold mentally ill prisoners longer than the recommended NHS 14-day guideline, a practice which is wholly inhumane.

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Resettlement

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Provide sufficient resourcing for the probation service to ensure adequate support to both sentenced and remand prisoners before and after their release.

Source text verified

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Resettlement

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Work with other government departments to provide sufficient resources so that prisoners have adequate resettlement support and guidance on release such as housing and employment which is known to reduce recidivism.

Source text verified

Recommendation 4

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Property · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
For many years IMBs have raised the continuing problems associated with the transfer of prisoner property. This is due to inefficient processing systems and inadequate and insufficient storage in transfer vehicles across the prison estate. Apart from the distress and frustration this causes prisoners, these losses also lead to expensive but avoidable compensation claims. A national solution is urgently needed to tackle this problem.

Source text verified

Recommendation 5

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Accommodation

Recommendation (the Board's words)
There is a lack of available places within the prison estate to enable reception prisons such as Thameside to transfer category D and prisoners on longer sentences to establishments where their needs will be met more appropriately.

Source text verified

Recommendation 6

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Contract Management

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Better management of the contracts of outside agencies including healthcare, education, housing, resettlement and probation is needed to address the shortcomings in the delivery of these services.

Source text verified

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Property

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Improve the system for handling prisoner property, especially within the reception area (see section 5.8).

Source text verified

Recommendation 8

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

Recommendation (the Board's words)
More rigorous monitoring and analysis of cell bell data, especially data covering night-time calls, and address the system’s unreliability (see section 5.1).

Source text verified

Recommendation 9

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Management

Recommendation (the Board's words)
More focused analysis of the data collected across all departments to inform and improve planning.

Source text verified

Recommendation 10

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Staff-Prisoner Relationships

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Improve the key worker scheme to ensure that the contact between prisoners and key workers becomes more effective and meaningful (see section 5.3).

Source text verified

Recommendation 11

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

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Address Listener call-out issues across the houseblocks (see section 4.2).

Source text verified

Key concerns 12 items

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

Key concern 1

Safety

Prisoner on prisoner assaults have increased this year.

Key concern 2

Substance Misuse

The Board has been unable to obtain reliable MDT data from the prison on the extent and nature of drug use, which is a major contributory factor to prison violence.

Key concern 3

Safety · Repeated from a previous year

The Board is concerned by the reliability of the emergency cell bell answering system and how many calls go unanswered.

Key concern 4

Complaints/Property · Repeated from a previous year

Complaints about missing property have risen by 60% this year. The Board sees frequent evidence of lack of care and respect for prisoner property. This causes understandable prisoner frustration and needs urgently addressing.

Key concern 5

Healthcare · Repeated from a previous year

Concerns raised by the Board in the previous reporting year – medication issues, complaints handling – have continued this year and were also highlighted in the HMIP inspection report.

Key concern 6

Mental Health · Repeated from a previous year

The Board once again deplores the length of time mentally ill patients must wait for outside transfer to an appropriate secure mental health hospital. This is not humane.

Key concern 7

Regime/Time Out of Cell

Concerns regarding the limited access to gym for prisoners due to the continued cross deployment of staff.

Key concern 8

Staffing

Lack of staffing in the other agencies contracted to provide resettlement services has impacted on the services they can offer.

Key concern 9

Resettlement/Release

This cohort did not feel their needs were being met in relation to education, training, employment, debt, finance and housing.

Key concern 10

Resettlement/Release

Little or no support for remand prisoners has been available over the reporting year due to the reunification of the probation service.

Key concern 11

Staffing

The key worker scheme remains hard to quantify... random sampling of entries by the IMB continues to depict a very varied picture: while a few sessions show meaningful conversations between the prisoner and his key worker, other sessions are clearly just a ‘cut and paste’ version of the previous session.

Key concern 12

Equality/Diversity

Black prisoners consistently appear disproportionately more likely than White prisoners to be on the basic incentives scheme level, to be housed in the CSU and to make complaints, and less likely to be on the enhanced incentives scheme level. The Board would welcome more analysis to understand the drivers for this disproportionality in outcomes, and what revised approaches could be adopted.

Safety statistics

Incidents during the reporting year.

IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody0not recorded
Self-harm incidents501570
Prisoner assaults273180
Assaults on staff168234
Drug finds233243

Population

Population1,300
Operational capacity1,232

Applications to the IMB

CategoryCurrentPrevious
Accommodation (including transfers) 45 38
Allegation against staff 7 5
Assault 4 5
Complaints procedure 26 19
Correspondence 10 6
Discrimination 2 2
Drugs & alcohol 1 2
Education & training 4 3
Employment 0 1
Family links (including visits) 12 16
Food 5 8
Healthcare 77 54
Legal 30 23
Money & property 51 22
Other 18 18
Personal safety (including bullying) 12 11
Privileges & incentives 17 9
Race relations 1 0
Religion 0 0
Security category 0 0
Sentence management 3 1
Sexual behaviour 0 0
Total 328 243
Unsuitable for location 1 0
Work, pay, activities 2 3

Report details

Establishment
Thameside
Type
Prison, category B/C
Report year
2022
Published
24 November 2022
Responsible body
HMP Thameside
Recommendations
11
MoJ rating (2025/26)
2, Concern

Service providers

ServiceProvider
Accommodation servicesSt Mungo’s
Careers adviceThe Forward Trust
Drug and alcohol misuseTurning Point
EducationNovus
Facilities managementSerco FM
HealthcareOxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Job and benefits supportJobcentre Plus
Offender management, gangs and rehabilitationCatch22
Prison OperatorSerco Group plc
Resettlement servicesProbation service
Social careChange Grow Live (CGL)

Related inspections and investigations

HMIP inspection, 3 Feb 2025

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

Stephen Weatherley

Prevention of future deaths report · 20 Jul 2023 · Alcohol, drugs medication related deaths | State Custody related deaths

Thomas McAuley

Prevention of future deaths report · 29 Oct 2018 · State Custody related deaths

Other reports for Thameside

2026

Published 8 Oct 2026 · Population 1,232 · Self-harm 492 · Key concerns recorded

2025

Published 9 Oct 2025 · Population 1,232 · Self-harm 676 · Key concerns recorded

2024

Published 5 Nov 2024 · Population 1,220 · Key concerns recorded

2023

Published 22 Nov 2023 · Population 1,232 · Self-harm 470 · Key concerns recorded

2021

Published 10 Nov 2021 · Population 1,188 · Self-harm 570 · Key concerns recorded

2020

Published 22 Oct 2020 · Self-harm 482 · Key concerns recorded