HMIP Reports, HMP & YOI Peterborough (Female)

The prison was given an inspection in the November 2023.The full reports can be read at the Ministry of Justice web site, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said

HMP YOI Peterborough opened in 2005 and since that time, has operated under contract managed by the private company, Sodexo. Following a modern and spacious design, the site houses a large men’s prison and a separate women’s facility, holding up to 392 women from a large catchment area across the eastern counties and southern Midlands. At the time of our inspection, the prison held 350 women.

We inspected the prison at a time of transition following several changes in the senior leadership, including the departure of the longstanding Director. We were impressed by the interim Director, who evidenced a clear understanding of the challenges faced by the prison, and some clear ideas about what needed to be prioritised. This understanding, however, needed to be developed further and evidenced more formally in the prison’s self-assessment.

Overall, Peterborough women’s prison continued to be a competent and capable institution. It was generally safe, and outcomes in that healthy prison test were now ‘good’, a significant improvement since we last inspected in 2017. In the area of respect, outcomes remained ‘reasonably good’, but there had been deterioration in both purposeful activity and release planning.

Relationships between staff and prisoners were supportive. Most women had a staff member they could turn to, although the quality of formal key work was disappointing. Women were treated particularly well on reception and the prison provided some excellent support to women with complex needs that often led to self-harming behaviours. Levels of violence and most other safety outcome indicators were similar to other women’s prisons. A key challenge for leaders was to make sure that operational practices which were appropriate in the men’s prison were not adopted in an unthinking way for women, and that their specific needs were addressed.

Many women were held a long way from home, but there was support to maintain family connections. Although living conditions were good, the food was not popular, and the lack of self-catering facilities was a missed opportunity. Arrangements for redress and consultation were satisfactory, but work to promote equality had, despite the backdrop of a respectful and inclusive culture in the prison, drifted until the recent appointment of a manager who had begun to take charge of the issue and lead improvements. Health care was satisfactory overall, although mental health services which had been limited by staff vacancies.

The prison had struggled to maintain a purposeful regime. Few women thought that their experiences at Peterborough would equip them usefully or meet their training or employment needs. Over a third were allocated to menial domestic work and few were acquiring useful skills in vocational training or education. Our colleagues in Ofsted judged provision to be ‘inadequate’, their lowest score. During spot checks we typically found about a quarter of the population locked up during the working day, while general enrichment and recreational activity was similarly limited.

The population profile of women at Peterborough was complex, ranging from nearly a quarter serving long sentences of over four years, to more than 70% serving short sentences or still on remand. This placed great pressures on the offender management unit and resettlement staff. There were shortcomings in the prison’s approach to offender management, caused principally by the very high caseloads and weaknesses in public protection arrangements, but psychological services had been improved. Work to prepare women for release was generally very good.

Overall, this was a satisfactory inspection. Many of the weaknesses we identified were already known to local leaders and there was a broad agreement between us about the prison’s priorities and how to drive improvement. Stable leadership and improving the number and availability of specialist and supervisory staff will assist greatly.

Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
January 2024

 

The inspectors proved a brief summary of their major findings:

What needs to improve at HMP/YOI Peterborough (Women)

During this inspection we identified nine key concerns, of which four should be treated as priorities. Priority concerns are those that are most important to improving outcomes for prisoners. They require immediate attention by leaders and managers.

Leaders should make sure that all concerns identified here are addressed and that progress is tracked through a plan which sets out how and when the concerns will be resolved. The plan should be provided to HMI Prisons.

Priority concerns

  1. Not all services and support were sufficiently focused on addressing the specific needs of women in prison. One exception to this was the work to promote contact with children and families which had benefited from the expertise of an external advisor.
  2. Mental health support was limited and did not meet the high level of need. There were delays in assessments being completed and care being provided.
  3. Support for some protected and minority groups was too limited. There were too few adapted cells for women with physical disabilities and foreign national prisoners could not access some key progression opportunities.
  4. The education, training and work curriculum did not meet women’s needs. It did not help them develop the knowledge, skills or behaviour they needed to prepare them for release.

Key concerns

  1. Patient safety was being undermined by weaknesses in health care. For example, record keeping was poor, incident reporting was not embedded, and some aspects of medicines management did not meet national guidance.
  2. Women did not receive effective careers education, information, advice and guidance. This meant they could not make informed decisions about the opportunities available in the prison.
  3. Leaders had not implemented a reading strategy to improve women’s skills or widen their reading interests.
  4. Women serving long sentences received too little support from their offender manager.
  5. Some public protection measures were not robust or fully effective. For example, not all high risk of harm cases were reviewed before release, which meant important information might have been missed. Restrictions on contact with children were not always applied robustly.

Return to Peterborough 

The full reports can be found by following the links below to the Ministry of Justice web site:

You don't always get what you are entitled to unless you ask properly!

We can introduce you to  experienced  lawyers can help you with parole,  probation,  immigration, adjudications, visits and any other complaints  and disputes you have with the Prison Service.

The solicitors are all experts on how the Prison Service/Criminal Law  system works and will be able to provide to you the necessary advice and support to ensure you or your loved ones are treated fairly. These lawyers are "small enough to care about you, but big enough to fight for you"

and remember the old saying:

" A Man Who Is His Own Lawyer Has A Fool for a Client"

Click here to go to the list of lawyers in your area