Source · IMB Annual Report
Wayland
Year: 2024
Published: 13 Mar 2025
Type: Prison · Cat C
Population: 1,000
Recommendations: 13
Key concerns
Positive findings
The IMB's latest survey at HMP Wayland shows a generally positive shift across many areas, including improved induction experiences, property handling, and healthcare complaint responses. However, significant challenges persist, particularly concerning staff's ability to provide effective support for personal issues and loneliness, which has worsened. Concerns also remain regarding cell decency, the pervasive availability of drugs, inadequate resettlement preparation, and the perceived unfairness of the complaints system, indicating much work is still needed.
Positive findings
The usefulness of induction has significantly improved, with positive views rising from 46% to 66%. A notably higher percentage of prisoners (76%) now talk to staff about personal problems on arrival. Cell cleanliness on arrival has improved, and weekly bedding changes are more consistently available. Personal safety perceptions have improved, with only 9% feeling unsafe. Property delivery times have significantly reduced, and healthcare complaint responses are now satisfactory for 63% of respondents, a reversal of previous trends. Ease of making healthcare appointments has also notably improved across all specialisms. The IMB notes a generally positive movement in almost all areas over the last year, despite ongoing challenges.
Key concerns
Staffing
Repeated
Staff are not able to help prisoners with personal problems on arrival, and the ability to respond to loneliness has seen a catastrophic drop from 50% to 5%.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
Over half of respondents reported that their cell was not clean on arrival, cleaning materials were not easy to get, and nearly half reported toilets, showers, and basins were not as clean as they should be. Furthermore, 43% of cells lacked sufficient equipment.
Mental Health
Repeated
Almost 60% of prisoners continue to report feeling lonely, and staff's ability or willingness to address this issue has significantly worsened, with only 5% of lonely prisoners feeling able to talk to staff about it.
Substance Misuse
Drugs and hooch are too easily available, with two-thirds of respondents confirming this, indicating a major failing in keeping prisoners safe and creating an environment where prisoners struggle to avoid illicit substances.
Resettlement/Release
Almost 80% of prisoners do not believe they are being helped by staff with their personal problems about life after release.
Education/Purposeful Activity
37% of respondents reported difficulty reading and writing, with 55% of these not receiving adequate help. The report highlights that reading education is not given sufficient priority, and current assessments and offerings are unsuitable for many.
Resettlement/Release
Only 31% of prisoners find their sentence plan useful, with 40% stating it is not useful and 39% unsure, suggesting sentence management is not fully tuned to prisoner needs for rehabilitation.
Complaints/Property
Repeated
Only 21% of prisoners believe that complaints are dealt with fairly, a figure that remains largely unchanged since the 2022 HMIP inspection, indicating persistent issues with the quality and fairness of the complaints system.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Prisoner Forums are still perceived as unhelpful by two-thirds of respondents, a figure unchanged from the previous year. Similarly, 60% of prisoners find the prison's communications about regime matters ineffective.
Resettlement/Release
Visits from family or friends are received by only just over half of respondents, primarily due to cost, distance, and lack of transport, an issue exacerbated by the prison's remote location and planned capacity increase.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
more staff training is needed. Moreover, given the constraints on the time that new receptions spend in the First Night Centre before they are thrown into the melee of the standard wings, the real focus for staff training should be on Band 3 and Band 4 staff. Realistically, the training to equip all such staff for a high level of competence in managing the multifarious issues that are likely to be presented by new receptions will be a long haul. It should be started, of course, but perhaps a quicker fix could be achieved by bringing together the knowledge of, say, the ten most likely issues (supported by perhaps a survey of new receptions for a month) and ensuring Band 3 and 4 staff are brought up to speed on how either those issues can be addressed by them or by reference to specialist help. The circle of help could be closed by ensuring that the staff approached by a prisoner noted the concerns expressed and help requested and that, importantly, the specialist staff are then recorded as informed of the need for intervention with that prisoner. The Board believes that this approach could be a significant help in manging the obvious stressors that accompany a prisoner’s first few days and weeks in Wayland.
Repeated
Response
In relation to the concerns that you have raised around training, I recognise the need to develop and support Prison Officers to carry out their roles. Prior to becoming a Minister, I oversaw an independent review of Prison Officer Foundation Training, and the recommendations are being used to improve the training offer. Findings from the review are being brought together with HMPPS’s Enable Programme, which is considering both the ‘what’ and ‘how’ prison officers learn from the start of their career and develop throughout it. The programme is a long-term strategy aimed at transforming how HMPPS trains, develops, leads, and supports prison staff. Within this, there is a key focus on relational practice allowing staff to understand themselves, others and the interaction between the two enabling them to build the relationships that will aid rehabilitation. Locally, HMP Wayland has developed a Workforce Development Programme which encompasses effective training and outlines strategies to support operational grades to instil pride in their work and foster a commitment to their own continuous development. In addition to this, HMP Wayland has incorporated additional hours into their regime which will be set aside for staff capability and wellbeing. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 2 |
prison management make efforts to follow up this finding through a variety of means and devise appropriate training modules for staff to encourage sensitivity to this issue and confidence in talking with prisoners about it.
Repeated
Response
In relation to the concerns that you have raised around training, I recognise the need to develop and support Prison Officers to carry out their roles. Prior to becoming a Minister, I oversaw an independent review of Prison Officer Foundation Training, and the recommendations are being used to improve the training offer. Findings from the review are being brought together with HMPPS’s Enable Programme, which is considering both the ‘what’ and ‘how’ prison officers learn from the start of their career and develop throughout it. The programme is a long-term strategy aimed at transforming how HMPPS trains, develops, leads, and supports prison staff. Within this, there is a key focus on relational practice allowing staff to understand themselves, others and the interaction between the two enabling them to build the relationships that will aid rehabilitation. Locally, HMP Wayland has developed a Workforce Development Programme which encompasses effective training and outlines strategies to support operational grades to instil pride in their work and foster a commitment to their own continuous development. In addition to this, HMP Wayland has incorporated additional hours into their regime which will be set aside for staff capability and wellbeing. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 3 |
future staff training sessions could take account of the points honestly made by respondents.
Response
In relation to the concerns that you have raised around training, I recognise the need to develop and support Prison Officers to carry out their roles. Prior to becoming a Minister, I oversaw an independent review of Prison Officer Foundation Training, and the recommendations are being used to improve the training offer. Findings from the review are being brought together with HMPPS’s Enable Programme, which is considering both the ‘what’ and ‘how’ prison officers learn from the start of their career and develop throughout it. The programme is a long-term strategy aimed at transforming how HMPPS trains, develops, leads, and supports prison staff. Within this, there is a key focus on relational practice allowing staff to understand themselves, others and the interaction between the two enabling them to build the relationships that will aid rehabilitation. Locally, HMP Wayland has developed a Workforce Development Programme which encompasses effective training and outlines strategies to support operational grades to instil pride in their work and foster a commitment to their own continuous development. In addition to this, HMP Wayland has incorporated additional hours into their regime which will be set aside for staff capability and wellbeing. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 4 |
perhaps a voluntary program experience which opens up this very personal issue could be helpful in encouraging the possibility of trust in others in open society which might be very hard for those who have received little trust in their previous lives or upbringing. We therefore commend this suggestion to prison management for their consideration.
Response
I have long been an advocate of rehabilitation to help people turn their lives around so sympathise with your concerns in respect of ensuring a focus on rehabilitation in our training prisons. Work is currently ongoing with a small number of Category C prisons to understand how the working day can be extended to increase the work on offer in those prisons. The learning from this exercise, alongside feedback from targeted engagement events with businesses, will be shared across the Category C estate and used to inform practice to provide improved work opportunities both in prison and upon release. We have also invested in mobilising the Employment Advisory Boards, and now also the Employment Councils, working with the Department for Work and Pensions to look at how we can target activity to increase employment opportunities for prisoners on release. We will continue to drive this very important priority as part of plans moving forward. Locally at HMP Wayland, a comprehensive needs analysis has been conducted in partnership with key stakeholders which will inform a review of purposeful activity places and the commissioning of educational courses to meet the needs of the population. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 5 | whether there could not be a greater emphasis on alternative strategies than ones of prohibition and interdiction of the actual supply and the provision of treatment options for those caught up in its effects. We mean by this a strategy which counters the reasons that prisoners find drug-taking either attractive as a way of dealing with their personal pains of imprisonment, or seeks innovative approaches to creating greater resilience amongst the prisoner population and greater action against the predations of in-prison pushers. | Governor / Director | |
| 6 | strategies are considered by the prison to offset the lack of visits by other means; including perhaps a greater opportunity for remote visits when families may be more reachable, say at weekends and in the evenings, if relaxations to those periods can be made in the future when the prison is fully up to complement with its staff. | Governor / Director | |
| 7 | strongly recommend to all areas of the prison’s management, that further consultative investigation is done with prisoners to unpack the reasons behind this result, and, if justified, consider strategies to respond to the findings revealed. | Governor / Director | |
| 8 |
it should be read by Wayland’s prison management and then to respond appropriately to our, and the report’s, findings.
Response
I was though encouraged by the approach being taken by the Governor of HMP Wayland in giving all recommendations of scrutiny bodies equal weighting and ensuring that they are responded to in an open and transparent manner. |
Governor / Director | Implemented |
| 9 | we can do no other than to recommend that the effort is made, nationally and not just locally, to seek ways to make the sentence plan feel more relevant to the majority of prisoners’ lives and futures. | HMPPS | |
| 10 | perhaps a system of update messages, generated at the standard timeframe of five working days for an internal response, might be considered by management, signed off by the relevant SO or CM so that it might be personalised. | Governor / Director | |
| 11 | prison management should perhaps review how effective they are in addressing prisoners’ concerns by this means. We repeat that suggestion in 2024. Repeated | Governor / Director | |
| 12 | management carry out its own review about why the lack of appreciation of their efforts in these important areas stubbornly exists, in addressing the issue revealed in this survey. | Governor / Director | |
| 13 | increase consultation over food within the prison’s communication strategy with its prisoners, as was suggested by the HMIP 2017 Wayland inspection report. Repeated | Governor / Director |
Related inspections & investigations
26 Jan 2026
HMIP · Unannounced
Other reports for Wayland
Report details
- Establishment
- Wayland
- Type
- Prison · Cat C
- Report year
- 2024
- Published
- 13 March 2025
- Responsible body
- HMP Wayland
- Recommendations
- 13
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 3 — Good
Population
| Population | 1,000 |
| Time out of cell | 8.0h/day |