Norwich

Response
I appreciate the Board’s continued concerns about prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP) and those serving life-sentences. Whilst our main priority is to protect the public, I would like to reassure you HM Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) remains committed to supporting the progression of these prisoners. This commitment is delivered by means of a bespoke and regularly refreshed IPP action plan, which includes working with Psychology Services to help identify the most appropriate pathway for every individual. It also includes the delivery of specialist progression regimes that give prisoners a chance to develop and test their ability to manage their risks and lives in an environment of increasing freedoms and responsibilities. All indeterminate sentenced prisoners should be located at the establishment best placed to meet their sentence planning needs in terms of interventions, and prisons will seek out suitable locations for prisoners that are assessed as needing to access certain interventions in other prisons as promptly as is reasonably possible. There are a broad range of work streams in the IPP action plan aimed at both the progression towards a safe release, and towards the sustainability of that release. As the number of IPP prisoners who have never been released continues to decrease, the proportion of those who remain in prison who committed more serious offences and whose cases are complex grows. These prisoners are still assessed to pose a high risk of committing further violent or sexual offences and have a complex set of risks and needs. Progression of these prisoners is not a simple task and HMPPS continues to work with these individuals to offer them opportunities to reduce their identified risks. For these reasons, there are some prisoners serving an IPP sentence who remain in custody after completing their tariff.

Response
The expansion of HMP/YOI Norwich is expected through refurbishment of the existing Elizabeth Fry wing, with an increase in the population up to 173 places, subject to approval of the planning application. The houseblock will include new sanitary facilities such as in-cell showers, staff welfare facilities, and a new accessible platform lift for improved access to the first-floor multi-faith centre. The kitchen provision is currently being reviewed to ensure there are enough facilities for the increase in prisoners and I can confirm HMPPS will provide additional capacity as required. A further planning application has been submitted to construct a new sports hall facility to allow further space for exercise, rehabilitation, recreation, and additional further education and intervention opportunities for prisoners. I can confirm the expansion programme will ensure there is sufficient capacity in education and intervention provision to accommodate the increase in the population.

Response
The Ministry of Justice has been working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to reform the Mental Health Act, to ensure people with severe mental health conditions receive better, more personalised care, with greater autonomy over their treatment. The draft Mental Health Bill was published on 27 June and contains a number of policies to improve support for people with acute mental health needs that are in contact with the criminal justice system. This includes ending the use of prison as a ‘place of safety’ for those awaiting assessment or treatment under the Mental Health Act; amending the Bail Act (1976) to ensure that vulnerable defendants can no longer be remanded to prison for their ‘own protection’ where the court’s sole concern is the defendant’s mental health; and introducing a new statutory time limit of 28-days for transfer from prison and other places of detention to hospital to reduce unnecessary delays and deliver swift access to treatment. NHS England (NHSE) also began an implementation programme including webinars and bespoke regional and provider-focussed visits to ensure staff understand the changes made, key dates being monitored, and escalation routes. A new process for collecting and monitoring data on transfers has been developed by NHSE and is analysed to identify trends and areas where further improvement is needed to meet the 28-day timeframe set out in the guidance. In the event of any breaches, NHSE will carry out targeted work with local and regional teams and NHSE funded providers. This data is not published due to the potential risks of identifying individual patients/prisoners. Additional investment in mental health services of £1bn per year by NHSE by 2023/24 supports the ambition within the Long-Term Plan. The focus is on improving efficiency across the whole pathway such as ensuring appropriate lengths of stay, will make better use of existing capacity across the whole system including the pathway to and from prison.

Response
I appreciate your concerns around food budgets, particularly with an increase in the cost of living. Food budgets are determined locally, and prison Governors have the authority to determine how they spend the overall non-pay budget for their establishment. Governors ultimately use their discretion to determine how much is specifically allocated from within their budget for food. Prison Rules require that prisoners are provided with three meals a day that are varied and nutritious and meet the religious, cultural and medical needs of all. HMPPS will continue to work closely with the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities, adhering to government guidelines on eating healthy meals.

Response
There are currently eleven foreign national prisoners held at HMP/YOI Norwich who have served their sentence. The Home Office is responsible for their detention and acknowledges their continued incarceration is neither fair nor humane. The Home Office makes every effort to ensure that a foreign national offender’s removal by deportation coincides, as far as possible, with their release from prison on completion of sentence. Where that is not possible, decisions on the appropriateness of an individual’s continued detention is made on a case-by-case basis. Individuals held in prison usually are there because they have been assessed as unsuitable for the conditions of immigration removal centres such as posing high-risk or high harm to others. This is assessed by a dedicated Home Office team and is reviewed on a regular basis, including changes of circumstances. The Home Office is committed to ensuring that all processes are expedited as quickly as possible and that foreign national offenders are either deported or released from detention as soon as possible.

Response
Prisoners may only be detained on the segregation unit pursuant to the appropriate rules. Continual segregation for longer than 42 days is subject to additional review and sign off. Segregation will be addressed as part of a policy review and new guidance will be developed. The review of Prison Service Order (PSO) 1700 Segregation is already underway and a new Policy Framework is due to be published in Spring 2023. The new policy framework will reaffirm the minimum regime to be provided, to all prisoners held in segregation, and will be supported by new guidance which will set out practice for the management, support, and reintegration of prisoners. The Board will appreciate HMPPS is unable to comment on individual cases such as the one referred to at section 5.2 of the report, and the Board is welcome to discuss specific cases directly with the Governor and Senior Management Team at the prison. HMPPS can reassure the Board HMP/YOI Norwich always operates in accordance with national policies and is subject to scrutiny and support via the regional team, audit, and inspection.

Response
Refurbishment of the old A wing is underway and due for completion in 2024. M wing has been demolished and Rapid Deployment Cells are currently being manufactured to take its place. A decision is yet to be made regarding the proposed refurbishment of E wing, and it will be kept under consideration for future custodial maintenance investment. Other refurbishment work includes extensive re-roofing and the development of a new Video Conferencing Centre.

Response
Facilities management services are procured via the Ministry of Justice Property Directorate and guided by Government Procurement frameworks for all in-scope work across the estate. Pest control is covered within the service agreement for facilities management, an external contractor was procured by the establishment and work was carried out accordingly.

Response
The expansion of HMP/YOI Norwich is expected through refurbishment of the existing Elizabeth Fry wing, with an increase in the population up to 173 places, subject to approval of the planning application. The houseblock will include new sanitary facilities such as in-cell showers, staff welfare facilities, and a new accessible platform lift for improved access to the first-floor multi-faith centre. The kitchen provision is currently being reviewed to ensure there are enough facilities for the increase in prisoners and I can confirm HMPPS will provide additional capacity as required. A further planning application has been submitted to construct a new sports hall facility to allow further space for exercise, rehabilitation, recreation, and additional further education and intervention opportunities for prisoners. I can confirm the expansion programme will ensure there is sufficient capacity in education and intervention provision to accommodate the increase in the population.

Response
A major fire safety improvement programme is due to commence at HMP/YOI Norwich in 2023, and work to address the issues escalated by the fire in the catering unit is underway.

Response
When there are multiple deaths at a site, particularly when self-inflicted, it is important that HMPPS does everything possible to understand the circumstances and to identify any learning. In October 2021, HMPPS introduced a more formal approach to what is described as ‘clusters’ of self-inflicted deaths. This is designed to offer additional support to Governors experiencing multiple deaths, without imposing unnecessary burdens or intervening unhelpfully without regard to the context in which the deaths occurred. After each of the deaths an early learning review was conducted by the group safety team, and they will in turn be subject to an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and an inquest. In December 2021 the prison reached the threshold of three apparent self-inflicted deaths within twelve months and was identified as a stage one cluster site. An action plan was developed, based primarily on the findings of the early learning reviews, and the prison has since received additional support from the National Safety Team, including prioritising staff at HMP/YOI Norwich for training as Assessment Care and Custody Teamwork (ACCT) case co-ordinators. The Governor has appointed two ACCT Case Managers and the Area Specialist subsequently positively reviewed the current setup. The Deputy Director for Safety also wrote to the operational stability panel to set out the risks to safety and to make the case for additional resources to be deployed to HMP/YOI Norwich.

Response
The majority of recruitment activity is managed locally, however Ministry of Justice Resourcing (MoJ) runs a central recruitment model for all prisons. The MoJ carefully monitors resourcing levels to ensure that HMPPS is able to manage current staffing levels and make accurate forecasts around future needs. A number of initiatives are in place to support recruitment for prisons which are hardest to recruit to. This includes Advance into Justice, a fast-track scheme to support armed forces staff and veterans to become prison officers. Additionally, The First Deployment National Start campaign offers an incentive package for hard to recruit to prisons. An ‘always on’ approach is in place for recruitment activity for HMP/YOI Norwich which is also receiving a tailored approach to recruitment advertising and promotion through a variety of channels. This includes local public relations support; radio; posters; information at petrol forecourts; internet job boards; and search engine advertisements. These measures are in place to raise awareness of HMPPS as an employer in the local community and highlight the breadth of roles available. A £3,000 market supplement is in place for sites where it is hard to recruit staff, and HMP/YOI Norwich benefitted from this in April this year which was applicable to all current and new Band 3 prison officers on ‘Fair and Sustainable employment terms’. A Retention Strategy and interactive toolkit was launched in November 2021, with a focus on collaborative working with Human Resources to engage and retain new and experienced operational and non-operational staff. A new exit interview process has been introduced to identify why operational and non-operational staff are leaving to allow targeted local interventions to be introduced to reduce staff turnover. HMPPS is currently working with a new initiative looking at retention involving a Psychologist from the MoJ to conduct a thorough analysis into barriers and what can be done to address them. The introduction of an apprenticeship for new recruits has given HMPPS confidence that retention will improve as this is a real qualification which staff are proud to obtain, providing additional status and dignity. HMP/YOI Norwich has also resourced two permanent Band 5 Hub Managers to improve Staff retention and Staff Wellbeing. The success of these roles will be reviewed in the autumn.

Response
The COVID pandemic has seen the biggest operational impact on prisons for a generation. The impact of the pandemic has left HMPPS with areas of backlog and a series of competing demands to address in restoring the service. HMPPS ceased the implementation of the National Framework policy on 9 May, and stood down Covid Gold command on 23 May. This moved decision making on regime delivery wholly to the Governor and local decision as opposed to centrally controlled regime stages. The level of restriction that regimes have experienced means that there is now a critical need to increase access to time unlocked and to afford access to purposeful activity that supports wellbeing, rehabilitation, and sentence progression. There is now weekly oversight of the level of purposeful activity being provided in each prison with a current positive upward trend showing increased employment and regime engagement. A dedicated Regime dashboard now provides this management information locally and centrally ensuring progress can be tracked and any concerns identified to drive supportive action through the management line or centrally where required. There has been considerable active engagement between Directors and the Future Regime Design (FRD) project to achieve the maximum quality from the quantity of regime that can be delivered in prisons, as they continue to work with the operational line to share good practice.

Response
When there are multiple deaths at a site, particularly when self-inflicted, it is important that HMPPS does everything possible to understand the circumstances and to identify any learning. In October 2021, HMPPS introduced a more formal approach to what is described as ‘clusters’ of self-inflicted deaths. This is designed to offer additional support to Governors experiencing multiple deaths, without imposing unnecessary burdens or intervening unhelpfully without regard to the context in which the deaths occurred. After each of the deaths an early learning review was conducted by the group safety team, and they will in turn be subject to an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and an inquest. In December 2021 the prison reached the threshold of three apparent self-inflicted deaths within twelve months and was identified as a stage one cluster site. An action plan was developed, based primarily on the findings of the early learning reviews, and the prison has since received additional support from the National Safety Team, including prioritising staff at HMP/YOI Norwich for training as Assessment Care and Custody Teamwork (ACCT) case co-ordinators. The Governor has appointed two ACCT Case Managers and the Area Specialist subsequently positively reviewed the current setup. The Deputy Director for Safety also wrote to the operational stability panel to set out the risks to safety and to make the case for additional resources to be deployed to HMP/YOI Norwich.

Response
Further to last years’ response, there was a pause in the development of the new Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following feedback from all stakeholders and further operational engagement, adjustments to the new Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework have been made where appropriate. The Framework is currently going through the necessary clearance processes and will be published as soon as those processes are concluded. The Framework aims to ensure that property is handled with efficiency, care and respect and that staff and prisoners are clear on the arrangements in place. It provides clear requirements and strengthens guidance on known problem areas. This includes providing stronger guidance to ensure volumetric control limits are respected, so that prisoners do not build up excessive amounts of property.