Prison
Cat C, YOI
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Stoke Heath
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 14 November 2024
HMP/YOI Stoke Heath saw positive developments in education and purposeful activity, leading to increased prisoner satisfaction and a significant drop in unemployment. The key worker scheme improved contact, and healthcare benefited from paramedics and a successful hepatitis C elimination. However, the Board noted a concerning rise in self-harm, assaults, well as issues with cramped living conditions, an aging estate, and limited mental health therapy. Persistent problems with property transfers and an under-resourced offender management unit also remained key concerns.
Positive Findings
The Board appreciates the many improvements made by the leadership team, with prisoners benefiting from better education and employment opportunities, increased purposeful activity, and more frequent key worker contact. Monitoring of ACCT plans has improved. The recruitment of paramedics has positively impacted acute medical emergencies, and Health and Welfare Champions are a significant asset. Education outcomes have improved, with 73% of prisoners gaining maths and English qualifications, and unemployment has significantly fallen from 39% to 11%.
Key Concerns
Substance Misuse
Increase in positive results from random drug testing and daily reports of prisoners ‘under the influence’.
Safety
Incidents of self-harm have nearly doubled since last year, with a noticeable increase in ligatures.
Safety
The level of violent assaults has increased by 50%, as has the use of force.
Overcrowding
Living space is cramped, especially for two people in a cell, with a lack of privacy for personal hygiene.
Estate/Conditions
Accommodation is showing signs of ageing. The main kitchen floor is a health and safety issue, and the healthcare building needs updating.
Complaints/Property
Repeated
Prison property, particularly whilst being transferred from prison to prison, is the largest area of complaint.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
IPP prisoners lack a regime tailored to their needs for a determinate sentence or a speedy release.
Mental Health
The new secondary mental health contract is providing only limited therapy, and a wider range of interventions needs to be developed.
Healthcare
Increased complaints about healthcare, mainly with regard to waiting times for dental care, opiate medication and external hospital appointments.
Overcrowding
A rising prisoner population is putting a strain on staffing and course provision and making it harder for prisoners to fulfil sentence plan requirements.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Lack of convenient times for prisoners to contact their families via a social video call.
Overcrowding
Lack of appropriate resourcing to prevent overcrowding and allow the means to educate and provide skills to reduce reoffending.
Safety
Prison Service needs to ensure that all prisoners are not carrying drugs/illicit items before being transferred to another prison.
Staffing
Prison Offender Managers (POMS) are under immense pressure and prisoners complain about a lack of contact, requiring adequate resourcing of the offender management unit.
Safety
The Governor needs to review the strategy for violence reduction to make the prison a safer place.
Complaints/Property
The Governor needs to improve the system to inform the IMB about deaths in custody in a timely manner.
Board Commentary
Staffing
A rising prisoner population is straining staffing and course provision, despite the prison having its full quota of officers. The offender management unit is under immense pressure due to staff shortages and increased workload from early release schemes, leading to a lack of contact with prisoners. While 24% of officers are non-effective due to detached duty or sickness, the key worker scheme is now adequately resourced, with 48% of prisoners seen weekly. The prison has also seen a net gain of 15 officers over the past year.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision saw increased complaints regarding dental and external hospital waiting times, and opiate medication issues. While paramedic recruitment has improved acute emergency responses and HAWCs are a valuable asset, the secondary mental health contract offers limited therapy, needing broader interventions. The healthcare building itself requires urgent updating, suffering from poor maintenance and accessibility issues due to a frequently broken lift. Positively, a hepatitis C elimination initiative was successful, and dental waiting times improved.
Regime & Daily Life
While there's a strong focus on increasing purposeful activity, with more employment and educational opportunities leading to increased time out of cells and improved satisfaction, the rising population strains course provision. Living conditions remain cramped, particularly in double cells with a lack of privacy, which the Board views as potentially inhumane. The prison infrastructure is showing its age, with issues like an unsafe kitchen floor and an outdated healthcare building. A new core day is being introduced to improve regime structure.
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 | 12 | 19 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) | 18 | 14 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives schemes, sanctions | 38 | 12 | |
| Equality | 9 | 5 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 30 | 24 | |
| Food and kitchens | 2 | 13 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 30 | 23 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions | 10 | 14 | |
| Miscellaneous, including complaints system | 22 | 38 | |
| Property transfer or in another establishment or location | 88 | 28 | |
| Property within this establishment | 37 | 27 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell | 18 | 16 | |
| Sentence management | 44 | 37 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 66 | 79 | |
| Transfers | 28 | 54 |
Recommendations (21)
HMPPS: 6
Governor / Director: 10
Ministry of Justice: 5
9 repeated
Recommendation 4
As the safety at HMP/YOI Stoke Heath has deteriorated over the reporting year, how will the Prison Service ensure that all prisoners are not carrying drugs/illicit items before being transferred to another prison?
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 5
Prison offender managers have been under immense pressure over the last year and prisoners complain about a lack of contact. When will the Prison Service adequately resource the offender management unit?
HMPPS
Staffing
Recommendation 6
When will the Governor review the strategy for violence reduction to make the prison a safer place?
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 7
When will the Governor improve the system to inform the IMB about deaths in custody, so that we know as soon as possible?
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 8
When will the Governor prioritise the need for more social video calls during weekends and evenings, for example, to allow prisoners to have contact with their families.
Governor / Director
Family Contact
Recommendation 6
The Minister should arrange for appropriate resourcing to prevent overcrowding and allow the means to educate and provide skills to reduce reoffending.
Ministry of Justice
Overcrowding/Resourcing
Recommendation 7
The Minister should urgently look at the plight of IPP prisoners and how they can progress out of prison.
Ministry of Justice
Sentence Management / IPP
Recommendation 8
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The Prison Service should review its policy on the transference of property between prisons and ensure that it is enacted.
HMPPS
Property / Complaints
Response
HMPPS notes the Board’s concerns about the transfer of prisoners’ property, despite the implementation of the new Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework. This places an emphasis on ensuring compliance with volumetric controls, since anything within these limits will be transferred with the prisoner. Volumetric control limits apply to all prisons. The Framework introduced a new requirement that prisons must transfer excess property within four weeks unless there are exceptional circumstances which makes this impossible. Progress: Property transferred from one prison to another continues to be a major source of complaint.
Recommendation 9
The Prison Service should ensure that all prisoners are not carrying drugs/illicit items before being transferred to another prison.
HMPPS
Safety / Substance Misuse
Recommendation 10
The Prison Service should adequately resource the offender management unit.
HMPPS
Staffing / Offender Management
Recommendation 11
The Governor should review the strategy for violence reduction to make the prison a safer place.
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 12
The Governor should improve the system to inform the IMB about deaths in custody, so that we know as soon as possible.
Governor / Director
Complaints / Transparency
Recommendation 13
The Governor should prioritise the need for more social video calls during weekends and evenings, for example, to allow prisoners to have contact with their families.
Governor / Director
Family Contact / Regime
Recommendation 14
Repeated
Prev. addressed
It would be encouraging if men in resettlement prisons could be actively engaged in resettlement activities, i.e. they should spend less time in their cells and more in purposeful work and training for vocational qualifications.
Ministry of Justice
Regime / Purposeful Activity
Response
Response given: As there is no central requirement governing the amount of time prisoners should spend out of their cells, Governors are instead afforded the flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell for purposeful activities. Prisons are currently operating to individually agreed Regime Progression Plans (RPP), which are based on the resources available. Progress: Primarily due to the actions of the new Governor, there are more employment opportunities for prisoners and staffing levels are at target levels. Prisoners have greater opportunity to spend more time out of their cells.
Recommendation 15
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Can the Minister provide a clear statement of what society expects from resettlement prisons, together with a list of clear, challenging, measurable targets?
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement / Policy
Response
Response given: Regional Probation Directors (RPDs) are responsible for delivery of resettlement services, with key interventions delivered by Commissioned Service Providers Progress: No clear answer was given to measure progress
Recommendation 16
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Can prisoner wages rise in line with inflation so that they can afford everyday essentials and have less chance of getting into debt?
Ministry of Justice
Fairness / Finance
Response
Response: Inflationary pressures affecting prisoners are under constant review and are being managed across several areas. In September 2022, a national approach to the rising cost of living was agreed and a 10% uplift in private cash allowances (money that can be sent in by family and friends of prisoners) was introduced to help mitigate against price increases. The national prisoners' pay policy sets out the national minimum rate of pay for employed activity; however, Governors have the discretion to set pay to reflect their population needs, the type of prison and the jobs and educational/vocational training available. Progress: Wages for employment remain the same as in 2021. High inflation of canteen items continues in 2023, making items such as food and vapes less affordable. The uplift in private cash allowances benefits only those prisoners with the private means to do so. Many prisoners do not have such luxury.
Recommendation 17
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Can the process for prisoners to rejoin their community upon release be reviewed to ensure all prisoners are offered accommodation upon release?
HMPPS
Resettlement / Accommodation
Response
Response: The embedded Pre-Release Team at HMP/YOI Stoke Heath is responsible for identifying and addressing immediate resettlement needs and is involved in work to remove barriers to resettlement and reviewing the basic screening tool 12 weeks before release. The current target is for 90% of individuals to be housed on release from prison. Progress: The provision of accommodation on the day of release is between 88-96% housed. The Board is concerned that early release schemes may lead to vulnerable prisons being without accommodation.
Recommendation 18
Repeated
Prev. addressed
Can the key worker role to support offender managers in their work for all prisoners be made a priority in the future?
Governor / Director
Staffing / Key Workers
Response
Progress: The Governor has been committed to the key worker scheme and around 48% of prisoners are seen every week.
Recommendation 19
Repeated
Prev. addressed
Can the prison be creative in finding more places for prisoners to be trained or employed and less time in their cells?
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity / Regime
Response
Progress: The Governor has created many more places for prisoners employed and prisoners are spending less time in their cells. Unemployment has fallen from 39% to 11% at the end of the year.
Recommendation 20
Repeated
Prev. addressed
Can there be a clear plan of action to address the poor performance of education and training to rehabilitate prisoners back into the community?
Governor / Director
Education / Rehabilitation
Response
Progress: Progress in prisoners’ maths and English has improved over the year. 73% of prisoners gain a maths and/or English qualification.
Recommendation 21
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Can prison complaints be answered clearly in a timely manner, by the right person and at the appropriate level?
Governor / Director
Complaints
Response
Progress: The Board still has seen instances where answers to complaints are returned late, especially if made to other prisons. However, at Stoke Heath, it is pleasing to note that internal processes to address late responses have been improved.
Other IMB Reports for Stoke Heath
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
9 Jan 2023
Unannounced
Safety: 4
Respect: 3
Activity: 1
Release: 2
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.
Prevention of Future Deaths Reports
Coroner PFD reports issued to this establishment.