Thameside

Response
HMPPS recognises that the continued provision of healthcare and medication is critical to support prisoners whose mental health might have deteriorated because of the pandemic. Governors have continued to work to ensure that prisoners can access healthcare in a timely manner, and where necessary address staffing requirements to improve timely access to the full range of commissioned health services. As regime restrictions are lifted, we are also looking at how we can promote positive wellbeing in prisons to better support prisoners and reduce the risk of individuals reaching crisis point and harming themselves or others. To this end, we have increased staffing levels by 4,088 full-time equivalent officers between October 2016 and June 2021 to enable the roll out of the Offender Management in Custody Key Worker scheme, which provides one-to-one support to every prisoner across the closed adult male estate and are supporting establishments to deliver this service in a safe and flexible way, as regimes are eased. In addition, we continue to fund the Samaritans excellent Listeners scheme by awarding a grant of £500,000 each year, through which as the Board is aware selected prisoners are trained to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners. The local mental health team also make regular contact with those individuals who have increased concerns, utilising in-cell phones, as well as face-to-face consultations where appropriate. The healthcare team has also offered resource packs to support in any intervention programme where they can.It is recognised that the regime that was being delivered at HMP Thameside was not providing as much time out of cell to prisoners as would be expected under Stage 3 of the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services for recovery. Whilst prisoners have excellent in-cell facilities available at HMP Thameside, the prison provider has been challenged on regime delivery and improvements are being made. Further enhancements are planned to continually increase the time out of cell and purposeful activity opportunities that are made available to prisoners between 1 October 2021 to 24 January 2022. The Board will be reassured to note that it is envisaged by this point HMP Thameside will be delivering 75% of its pre-covid-19 regime levels.

Response
Turning to the Board’s continued concern about the delays in transferring prisoners with mental ill health, due to the strong collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HMPPS, Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) a White Paper titled, Reforming the Mental Health Act, was published on 13 January 2021. The White Paper provides a commitment to introduce a statutory time limit of 28 days for transfers to mental health hospitals from custody. In addition, NHSE&I published new good practice guidance on 10 June 2021 which promotes timely access to appropriate treatment under the Mental Health Act and reduces unnecessary delays - https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/guidance-for-the-transfer-and-remission-of-adult-prisoners-and-immigration-removal-centre-detainees-under-the-mental-health-act-1983 It is acknowledged that many individuals requiring inpatient hospital care currently wait longer than 28 days for transfer due to the pressures being experienced on secure beds within the London areas. NHS England recognise this will be a longer term strategic and commissioning issue for Provider Collaborative and Integrated Care system partnerships to address. However, the two London Secure Service Provider Collaboratives are working with their providers to enable improved transition of patients from secure hospital to community services and this will help manage pressures for patients from prison accessing inpatient mental health provision. Locally the healthcare team meets weekly with the London Health and Justice Quality Lead to discuss current individuals awaiting hospital transfer.

Response
It is recognised that the regime that was being delivered at HMP Thameside was not providing as much time out of cell to prisoners as would be expected under Stage 3 of the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services for recovery. Whilst prisoners have excellent in-cell facilities available at HMP Thameside, the prison provider has been challenged on regime delivery and improvements are being made. Further enhancements are planned to continually increase the time out of cell and purposeful activity opportunities that are made available to prisoners between 1 October 2021 to 24 January 2022. The Board will be reassured to note that it is envisaged by this point HMP Thameside will be delivering 75% of its pre-covid-19 regime levels. The contract management team are working closely with the prison and education provider to ensure that the existing funded activity places and educational opportunities are delivered and maximised. In addition, funding has been agreed to introduce additional vocational training opportunities and forklift truck training. Both of these business cases have been approved and are progressing. We are also working with Serco and Novus to introduce in-cell learning through the recently upgraded Virtual Campus.