Prison
Cat women's open prison and young offender institution
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Askham Grange
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 25 April 2025
HMP/YOI Askham Grange is generally a safe and positive environment for women, with excellent staff-prisoner relationships, no self-harm incidents, and no use of force. While healthcare provision is good, concerns persist regarding accessibility and transparency of the complaints process, and issues with medication dispensing lockers. The prison excels in purposeful activity and resettlement, yet faces challenges with maintaining capacity and ensuring prisoners arrive with sufficient time to fully benefit from open conditions.
Positive Findings
The Board remains satisfied that HMP/YOI Askham Grange is generally a safe place for both prisoners and staff, with no significant self-harm or violence incidents and no use of force. Staff and prisoner relationships are excellent, and key worker targets are met. Healthcare provision is deemed good, with staff collaborating effectively to accommodate complex health needs. The prison's ethos of rehabilitation and resettlement is well-supported by a relatively small population, and the prison exceeds delivery requirements for ex-prisoners employed after release. English and Mathematics improvements exceeded targets, and the library continues to encourage reading.
Key Concerns
Resettlement/Release
The impact of the introduction of the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan on the numbers of women being sentenced to prison for relatively short periods.
Overcrowding
The relatively low number of prisoners at Askham Grange.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
How the Prison Service promotes the benefits of open conditions to those for whom open conditions would be a natural and positive progression in their sentence plan, particularly given Askham Grange remains below capacity despite local efforts and receives prisoners with insufficient time to benefit from opportunities.
Healthcare
Lack of provision of services to support prisoners who have been subject to sexual and domestic violence, despite the Governor's requests for such services over the past 12 months.
Healthcare
Prisoners’ concerns that the healthcare complaints process should be evident, transparent, and its use not discouraged, given no formal complaints were recorded as dealt with informally during the reporting period.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Ongoing problems with phone lines, which caused a great deal of frustration for prisoners.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Askham Grange does not have a managing chaplain, despite trying to secure this with chaplaincy HQ for over the past year.
Estate/Conditions
Maintenance delays due to the absence and departure of key staff meant that resources had to be bought in from HMP New Hall, resulting in delays to maintenance requests.
Healthcare
The Traka medication distribution lockers, which facilitate the collection of medication, were out of action for the entire reporting year and are still not being used despite being mended and tested.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Uncertainty of central funding for the reading specialist post, which may not continue next year.
Healthcare
It was not possible to keep the prisoner health champion, as there was no funding to support the role.
Complaints/Property
Prisoners are reluctant to submit a complaint, as they believe this makes it more likely they may be returned to a closed prison.
Staffing
Some dissatisfaction relating to how a small number of staff have spoken to or dealt with prisoners.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staff and prisoner relationships are generally excellent, though some dissatisfaction with how a small number of staff interact with prisoners was noted. Key worker targets are consistently met, with an average compliance rate of 84.4%, exceeding the 80% target, although three months fell below target due to reasons like increased ROTLs in December. The Deputy Governor retired, leading to the No1 Governor dedicating more time to Askham Grange. Healthcare staff reported feeling valued and able to challenge positively, fostering good collaborative working with custody managers. Staff training on British values and cultural capital has increased.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision is generally good, and outcomes for prisoners' physical and mental health were rated 'Good' by the CQC. However, prisoners reported difficulty accessing the formal complaints process and felt discouraged from doing so, with relevant forms not readily available. There was a prolonged absence of clinical lead cover, affecting department running, though a new lead was appointed at year-end. The Traka medication distribution lockers were out of action for the entire reporting year, causing inflexibility for medication collection. There is also a lack of a clinical lead qualified to prescribe, increasing reliance on external prescribers.
Regime & Daily Life
HMP/YOI Askham Grange operates as a women's open prison and YOI, with an overriding ethos of resettlement and preparation for community return, allowing prisoners to spend most of their day outside the prison working or in education. The small prison population facilitates staff in getting to know prisoners and supporting their individual needs. However, a repeated concern is the number of prisoners arriving with insufficient time to benefit from outside work or ROTLs. Phone line problems caused frustration for prisoners, though alternative arrangements were made. The prison currently lacks a managing chaplain.
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 | 0 | 0 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 0 | 0 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 1 | 4 | |
| Equality | 2 | 1 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 0 | 0 | |
| Food and kitchens | 0 | 0 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 0 | 0 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 3 | 2 | |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | 2 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 1 | 1 | — |
| Property within the establishment | 0 | 0 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 1 | 0 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, recategorisation | 3 | 1 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 2 | 3 | |
| Transfers | 1 | 0 |
Recommendations (5)
Ministry of Justice: 2
HMPPS: 2
Governor / Director: 1
1 repeated
Recommendation 1
The Board recommends that the Minister comments on the impact of the introduction of the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan on the numbers of women being sentenced to prison for relatively short periods (i.e. has there been any reduction?).
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 2
The Board recommends that the Minister considers what more could be done to increase the relatively low number of prisoners at Askham Grange.
Ministry of Justice
Overcrowding
Recommendation 3
Repeated
The Board recommends that the Prison Service outlines how it promotes the benefits of open conditions to those for whom open conditions would be a natural and positive progression in their sentence plan, particularly given Askham Grange remains below capacity despite local efforts to encourage transfers.
HMPPS
Regime
Recommendation 4
The Board recommends that the Prison Service ensures the provision of services to support prisoners who have been subject to sexual and domestic violence, following the Governor’s requests over the past 12 months.
HMPPS
Healthcare
Recommendation 5
The Board recommends that the Governor raises with the head of healthcare prisoners’ concerns that the complaints process within the department should be evident, transparent and its use not discouraged, given that no complaint/concern was recorded as dealt with in person and informally during the reporting period.
Governor / Director
Healthcare
Other IMB Reports for Askham Grange
2022
Published 17 Jul 2025
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
19 Jun 2023
Unannounced
Safety: 4
Respect: 4
Activity: 4
Release: 4
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.