Prison
Cat Category A
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Frankland
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 27 May 2025
HMP Frankland is a high-security prison for adult convicted men, operating close to its capacity of 846. The IMB generally found it to be a safe environment, with positive initiatives in healthcare and education, including 100% pass rates for GCSEs and a 'Good' Ofsted rating. However, key concerns persist regarding the suitability of facilities for prisoners with dementia and mobility issues, significant delays from outsourced maintenance contractors, and the ongoing availability of illicit drugs.
Positive Findings
The IMB notes HMP Frankland is a generally safe and calm environment. Positive initiatives include a new pharmacy shop, successful virtual wards receiving national recognition, and a dementia pathway scheme. There has been a commendable reduction in overdue OASys plans despite staffing challenges. Education achieved a 94% success rate with 100% retention, including 100% pass rates for new GCSE English and Maths courses, and the prison received a 'Good' Ofsted rating. Workshops are fully staffed and productive, with the recycling plant achieving a zero-waste certificate.
Key Concerns
Mental Health
Repeated
Are HMP Frankland, or other prisons within the LTHSE, the best place to house prisoners with dementia?
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
Will the Prison Service challenge the service provided by outsourced maintenance contractors, which seems to result in very long delays for repairs of equipment?
Substance Misuse
What is being done to reduce the availability of drugs in the prison?
Mental Health
Repeated
Dementia and elderly frail prisoners remain a problem throughout the prison; facilities remain quite poor and there are number of prisoners with dementia still in normal accommodation.
Healthcare
Repeated
Waiting rooms, again, remain a problem with facilities for prisoners with mobility issues.
Mental Health
Protracted delays in transferring prisoners requiring secure mental health hospital placements, with one transfer taking 146 days and others 44 and 2 days.
Segregation
Capacity issues in other high-security segregation units hindering the progression of long-term segregated prisoners from Frankland's MPU.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staff and prisoner relationships are generally positive. However, the prison has experienced challenges with staff shortages, particularly impacting the DART team due to a lack of male staff requiring female staff to double up for appointments. Additionally, uniformed POMs were frequently redeployed to wing duties, impacting their core offender management roles, although they still managed to reduce overdue OASys plans. Key worker training is well-coordinated and delivered by POMs, probation, and psychology staff.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision has seen many positive changes and improvements, including the successful implementation of 'virtual wards', a new pharmacy shop, and a dementia pathway. Despite these advancements, significant challenges persist, particularly concerning facilities for elderly and frail prisoners and those with mobility issues, with waiting rooms and toilets being unsuitable. Mental health transfers to secure hospitals continue to experience long delays, and there is a shortage of adapted cells for wheelchair users.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime has been impacted by recurring issues such as workshop heating failures and equipment breakdowns in the kitchen, leading to lost working days and disruption to purposeful activity. Staff shortages also occasionally led to landing closures. Despite these challenges, workshops are generally well-staffed and provide meaningful work, and there are positive initiatives like an 'enabling environment' for enhanced status prisoners and varied menu options. Prisoners of retirement age benefit from all-day unlocking.
Applications to the IMB
Prisoners can apply to their IMB about any aspect of their treatment. This table shows application counts by category.
| Category | Current | Previous | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions | 3 | 21 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 11 | 7 | |
| Equality | 1 | 7 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 20 | 13 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 8 | 11 |
Recommendations (3)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 1
Governor / Director: 1
1 repeated
Recommendation 1
Prev. addressed
Are HMP Frankland, or other prisons within the LTHSE, the best place to house prisoners with dementia?
Ministry of Justice
Mental Health
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Will the Prison Service challenge the service provided by outsourced maintenance contractors, which seems to result in very long delays for repairs of equipment?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 3
What is being done to reduce the availability of drugs in the prison?
Governor / Director
Substance Misuse