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Independent Monitoring Boards annual report

Swinfen Hall

Report year 2022 Published 3 Nov 2022 Type Prison, category YOI, C Population 583 Responsible body HMP Swinfen Hall 8 recommendations

Original IMB report page ↗ Ministerial response, 4 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/YOI Swinfen Hall, a YOI and Category C training prison, held 583 prisoners during the reporting year. The Board noted positive progress in safety initiatives and equality, diversity, and inclusion. However, significant concerns remain regarding slow responses to prisoner property and complaints, insufficient purposeful activity places, and delays in offender management. Healthcare provision, particularly night cover and mental health staffing, also raises concerns.

Positive findings

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
The Board welcomes the new Governor's "keep the peace" strategy and improvements in managing self-isolators. In-cell phones have been a positive addition, and there has been significant progress in equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, including a positive HMPPS health check. Chaplaincy services are highly effective, and there are good examples of staff-prisoner collaboration, successful barbering, library initiatives, and thriving workshops. The prison also offers a range of positive social prescribing and wellbeing activities.

Recommendations

All 8 recommendations

Key concerns

All 13 key concerns

Recommendations 8 items · 1 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: HMPPS · Topic: transfers

Recommendation (the Board's words)
The names of prisoners to be transferred should be provided to the receiving prison by close of play on Thursday each week. This change would allow sufficient time for checks on key security and safety concerns to be completed prior to any unnecessary journey being made. Will HMPPS implement a process to ensure that this happens?

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: property

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action is HMPPS taking to improve the protocols related to the transfer of prisoners’ property between prisons?

Source text verified

Recommendation 3

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: prison_management

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Will HMPPS give consideration to categorising Swinfen Hall as a complex prison to improve the outcomes for prisoners held here?

Source text verified

Recommendation 4

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: property

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 5

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: property

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 6

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

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

Source text verified

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: safety

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

Source text verified

Recommendation 8

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: safety

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action will be taken to improve the use of body worn video cameras and to address delays in control and restraint training?

Source text verified

Key concerns 13 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

1 Background to the report The Board has been able to return to on-site monitoring for much of the period covered by this report. The Board has continued to receive applications from prisoners. Many of these relate to prisoners’ personal property being lost on arrival or when being transferred between wings. The Board is concerned that the prison is slow to respond to these issues, which increases the anxiety of the prisoner involved.

Key concern 2

Complaints/Property

Whilst there are few complaints about unfair treatment, the prison is frequently too slow to investigate and respond to specific allegations and advise the prisoner of the outcome.

Key concern 3

Education/Purposeful Activity · Repeated from a previous year

There are insufficient work and education places available for the prisoner population, leading to many placements being part-time or low-value wing worker roles, and some workshops remaining closed.

Source wording under review

Key concern 4

Resettlement/Release · Repeated from a previous year

Persistent delays in preparing OASys sentence plans and programme delivery are hampering prisoners’ progression and opportunities for timely transfers, with waits of five months or more for OASys reports.

Source wording under review

Key concern 5

Safety

Custodial managers frequently fail to supply timely support plans for prisoners identified as needing safer custody support, and reports for multi-agency safeguarding meetings are not always available on time, impacting informed decision-making.

Source wording under review

Key concern 6

Safety

The use of weapons has increased, and searches of men leaving residential areas and workplaces are failing to detect weapons.

Key concern 7

Safety

There are delays in control and restraint staff training, a shortage of instructors, and inconsistent use of Body Worn Video Cameras by staff during prisoner moves.

Source wording under review

Key concern 8

Equality/Diversity · Repeated from a previous year

There is a disproportionate use of PAVA against Black, Asian, and minority ethnic prisoners.

Key concern 9

Estate/Conditions · Repeated from a previous year

Problems with C wing showers persist despite a third refurbishment during the reporting year, indicating poor standards of work and inadequate contract monitoring.

Key concern 10

Healthcare

Healthcare night cover ceased as of June 2021. The Board is not confident that the out of hours GP service will carry out visits to the prison over the night period, and therefore the risk to prisoners is increased.

Key concern 11

Mental Health

Difficulty in recruiting a registered nurse with specialist training in mental health is a potential risk to mental health support.

Key concern 12

Other

The production of this report has put considerable strain on the reduced Board resources available (four full members compared to seven last year). This has not been helped by the lack of administrative support provided by the prison to the Board, including supply of data for this report. The prison does not comply with the Memorandum of Understanding in place between HMPPS and the IMBs and this adversely affects the efforts of Board members.

Key concern 13

Equality/Diversity

There is a significant imbalance in the number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) prisoners on the enhanced incentives scheme level, with BAME prisoners making up only 39% of the enhanced level despite being 47.5% of the population.

Safety statistics

Incidents during the reporting year.

IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody0not recorded
Prisoner assaults232not recorded
Assaults on staff79not recorded
Use of force36not recorded

Population

Population583
Operational capacity624

Applications to the IMB

CategoryCurrentPrevious
Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions 6 14
Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) 0 3
Discipline, including adjudications, incentives schemes, sanctions 8 7
Equality 1 0
Finance, including pay, private monies, spends 18 7
Food and kitchens 3 2
Health, including physical, mental, social care 8 13
Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions 15 10
Miscellaneous, including complaints system 5 1
Property during transfer or in another establishment or location 23 16
Property within this establishment 36 16
Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell 9 7
Sentence management, including HDC, release on temporary licence, parole, release dates, recategorisation 33 36
Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying 15 24
Transfers 37 9

Report details

Establishment
Swinfen Hall
Type
Prison, category YOI, C
Report year
2022
Published
3 November 2022
Responsible body
HMP Swinfen Hall
Recommendations
8
MoJ rating (2025/26)
2, Concern

Service providers

ServiceProvider
EducationNovus
EstatesAmey
HealthcarePractice Plus Group
Substance Misuse ServicesMidlands 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

2023

Published 14 Sep 2023 · Population 614 · 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