Prison
Cat D
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Kirkham
IMB Annual Report 2023 · Published 12 December 2024
HMP Kirkham faced unprecedented challenges in 2023, primarily due to the Temporary Presumptive Recategorisation Scheme (TPRS) which led to a significant influx of prisoners and placed immense pressure on staff, resources, and the prison's resettlement-focused regime. While the Board noted staff's resilience and improvements in some areas like healthcare waiting times and new facilities, key concerns included increased assaults, persistent illicit substance issues, and significant disruption to purposeful activities and resettlement services. Staffing shortages exacerbated these problems, leading to curtailment of activities and impacting crucial offender management processes.
Positive Findings
The Board generally considers HMP Kirkham to be a safe environment, noting improvements in staff-prisoner relationships and senior management team functioning. Staff coped incredibly well under unprecedented circumstances, particularly with the influx of TPRS prisoners. There have been improvements in accommodation standards, healthcare waiting times, and education provisions, including the restoration of Direct Claims Status. The new gym facility has been well-received, and various charities and employers provide positive support for rehabilitation and resettlement.
Key Concerns
Safety
Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults increased during the reporting year.
Safety
Large number of prisoners return to closed conditions.
Substance Misuse
There were ongoing issues with illicit substances in the prison, despite enhanced security measures.
Overcrowding
The introduction of TPRS impacted on the treatment of all prisoners. Kirkham took 70% of those on the scheme across the entire country. The entire regime of this resettlement prison was disrupted due to the large influx of prisoners with very different needs, which the prison was not staffed to manage.
Healthcare
The health and wellbeing requirements have been difficult to meet, due to the increase in population and TPRS.
Staffing
Due to low staff numbers, purposeful activities, including gym time, have had to be curtailed. This has had an adverse effect on both the prisoners and the staff.
Resettlement/Release
Resettlement services were significantly impacted due to the introduction of TPRS. The prison was not supported sufficiently.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Access to education, library services and workshops were impacted by prison staff shortages.
Resettlement/Release
Prisoners told the Board that they were increasingly concerned about sentence progression and the Board observed a lack of communication with prisoners in this area.
Estate/Conditions
The IMB would like to see the remaining unused buildings removed in a timely manner due to safety implications.
Staffing
The IMB would like to see C2W programme issues addressed when using operational staff.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The IMB recommends that there should be a strategy for when activities are curtailed, due to redeployment of staff, to deal with absences/emergencies.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The IMB recommends that more work is done on the impact of gym sessions on attendance at other activities/education.
Estate/Conditions
Lack of heating and hot water continued to be a significant issue during the year, due to boiler and plumbing issues.
Estate/Conditions
There were maintenance and repair delays, with AMEY, the contractor, being put into special measures.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Although each billet has a phone in the communal area, prisoners are unable to have confidential conversations with friends and family and reported to the Board that they were frustrated, as previous establishments had in-cell telephony.
Healthcare
The number of prisoners going to hospital appointments outside the prison increased, as did the number of prisoners requiring a 24-hour bed watch. The Governor requested that staffing for these additional activities is addressed as part of the new upcoming healthcare contract, to avoid future staffing pressures and regime curtailments.
Mental Health
There were 177 more referrals to the mental health team this year than last year, which was a significant increase.
Resettlement/Release
The large increase in population during the year and large turnover has made the end of sentence preparation difficult. It has been a difficult year for the rehabilitation team to arrange for post-release supervision and treatment, with numbers of prisoners arriving with only a short time left to serve.
Resettlement/Release
Opportunities for working outside the prison are being hindered by ROTL processes arising from the increased workload exerted on the offender management unit (OMU) through the TPRS.
Staffing
The constant churn, together with the increased use of home detention curfew (HDC), has again diverted staff from their regular responsibilities.
Resettlement/Release
The change from ROTL books to paper licences has proved time consuming. When taken together with external police forces being dilatory in complying with their requirements, this has led to continuing stress and frustration in this busy and vital area of the prison.
Resettlement/Release
C2W remains in a separate building and is isolated and under-resourced. It is staffed by operational officers, leading to occasional disruption.
Resettlement/Release
The accommodation officer has been required to undertake a strategic role across the region, which has restricted her availability at HMP Kirkham. Whilst this has clearly been to the advantage of other institutions, it has had a marked impact locally.
Resettlement/Release
The influx of TPRS prisoners has, for the first time, led to a number of prisoners being released without settled accommodation. Many are unwilling to engage and come from areas distant from Kirkham, where resolution is more problematic.
Resettlement/Release
It is clear that a significant number of TPRS prisoners are arriving at Kirkham with a minimal amount of resettlement planning.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The introduction of the Temporary Presumptive Recategorisation Scheme (TPRS) led to staff exhaustion and an adverse impact on purposeful activities due to low numbers and redeployments. The healthcare team was also under extra pressure due to the influx of prisoners. The PE department staffing is low for the population, leading to curtailment of gym sessions. The Custody to Work (C2W) team is under-resourced and reliant on operational staff, causing disruption. The Offender Management Unit (OMU) experienced increased workload and diversions due to TPRS and increased Home Detention Curfew, affecting ROTL processes. The reduced availability of the accommodation officer also had a marked local impact.
Healthcare
Health and wellbeing requirements were difficult to meet due to the increased population and TPRS. Despite this, waiting times for general healthcare appointments fell. The Governor requested a review of staffing for hospital appointments and 24-hour bed watch in the new healthcare contract. Non-urgent GP appointments had a ten-day wait, while podiatry and optician waits were six weeks, and physiotherapy ten weeks. Mental health support continued, but referrals increased significantly. The substance misuse service provided by Spectrum utilizes group work, one-to-one support, and opioid replacement therapy, which has positively impacted prisoners' opportunities for external work and ROTL.
Regime & Daily Life
The prison's regime was significantly disrupted by the large influx of TPRS prisoners, for whom the prison was not adequately staffed. Low staff numbers led to the curtailment of purposeful activities and gym time, adversely affecting both prisoners and staff. The new gym, opened in October 2023, was well-received and allows for varied sports activities, exceeding mandatory and best practice targets for physical education. However, the increased gym sessions have adversely affected attendance at other work and education activities. Staff redeployments often resulted in the closure of the gym, while Parkrun was paused during autumn/winter 2023.
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 | 1 | 1 | — |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 0 | 0 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 2 | 2 | — |
| Equality | 0 | 0 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 0 | 2 | |
| Food and kitchens | 0 | 0 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 8 | 0 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 0 | 1 | |
| Miscellaneous | 3 | 1 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 0 | 7 | |
| Property within the establishment | 0 | 0 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 2 | 2 | — |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, recategorisation | 1 | 5 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 1 | 1 | — |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 |
Recommendations (6)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 1
Governor / Director: 4
Recommendation 1
TPRS has had a huge impact on HMP Kirkham after receiving the majority of these prisoners. The IMB feels that, whilst the Governor and staff coped incredibly well under unprecedented circumstances, the prisoners already being housed at Kirkham were not given due consideration. This affected their resettlement programmes, resulting in, for example, delays with release on temporary licence (ROTL) due to sentence recalculations. What will the Minister do to address this issue?
Ministry of Justice
Overcrowding
Recommendation 2
The IMB would like to see the remaining unused buildings removed in a timely manner due to safety implications. When will the Prison Service arrange for this to be done?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 3
The IMB would like to see continued development of working relationships between the employment hub and the Custody to Work programme (C2W).
Governor / Director
Resettlement
Recommendation 4
The IMB would like to see C2W programme issues addressed when using operational staff.
Governor / Director
Staffing
Recommendation 5
The IMB recommends that there should be a strategy for when activities are curtailed, due to redeployment of staff, to deal with absences/emergencies.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 6
The IMB recommends that more work is done on the impact of gym sessions on attendance at other activities/education.
Governor / Director
Regime
Other IMB Reports for Kirkham
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
9 Sep 2024
Unannounced
Safety: 3
Respect: 2
Activity: 2
Release: 2
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.