Prison
Cat YOI (Women's)
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Peterborough (women)
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 7 November 2024
HMP/YOI Peterborough (Women) struggled significantly with a lack of decent regime and severe staffing shortages during the reporting year, impacting prisoner morale and increasing violence. While management of self-harm and staff-prisoner relations remained commendable, issues with the new healthcare provider regarding medication, complaints, and mental health waiting lists persisted. The Board expressed strong concerns about the slow progress on mental health legislation and the critical need for improved purposeful activity and resettlement accommodation for women.
Positive Findings
The Board commends the prison for its efforts to create a safe environment and the professional, compassionate management of prisoners at risk of self-harm, despite extreme staff pressure. Staff-prisoner relationships remain generally good, and new prisoners are received humanely. Education, work, and skills provision has seen improved leadership with early positive signs. Mental healthcare provision has also improved with enhanced triage and self-referral, and the social visits process is well-organised and supported by the Family Matters team. The Outside Links resettlement facility successfully relocated and expanded, demonstrating positive progress in community support.
Key Concerns
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
The impact of population pressures, staff shortages, management changes, and lack of good quality purposeful activity is adversely impacting on prisoners. As well as planned restrictions of regime, exercise and time out of cell is too often curtailed at short notice. Prisoner morale is suffering due to the lack of basic regime.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Facilities in the women’s prison are closed ahead of closures in the men’s prison. This has been a consistent cause for concern over a number of years.
Safety
Violence and prisoner officers using force have increased due to prolific perpetrators, population pressures and lack of regime.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Key work is, however, still not consistently of a high enough standard.
Healthcare
The new primary physical and mental healthcare provider has taken a long time to settle. Their staffing was initially restricted, which impacted services, particularly the timely issuing of medication. The Board sees gaps in the way the healthcare unit deals with patient complaints, and that communications are not addressing prisoners’ concerns.
Education/Purposeful Activity
A critical area, with significant change needed in education, work and skills.
Mental Health
Repeated
Delay in the enactment of the Mental Health Bill.
Other
The number of women serving very short sentences.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Lack of provision or licensing of approved accommodation to which women can be safely released.
Other
Lack of better use of best practice models across the women’s estate.
Staffing
Staff shortages have been severe and worrying. Staff sickness levels are high, both for short-term sickness and long-term absence. Staff have left in greater than normal numbers, often to work in other prisons locally. Additionally, staff have recently been seconded to support with issues in other Sodexo prisons.
Staffing
Considerable instability in the management team, with senior staff seconded and several new, inexperienced middle managers.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Poor, unpredictable and restricted regime, added to external factors such as national prison population pressures and greater use by courts of remand, has led to poor prisoner morale.
Estate/Conditions
The gym is too small for the size of prison and there is only a cardio room. A large gym hall was taken out of service many years ago and a dance studio built, which was condemned several years ago, and its repair/replacement has not started.
Complaints/Property
Prisoners are unhappy with the way their complaints are dealt with by the healthcare unit; communication regarding complaints has been poor, and there is little transparency about numbers or outcomes.
Healthcare
Too many occasions when personal care appointments were missed due to a lack of NHFT staff. It has been difficult for community offender managers (COMs) to ensure that those with social care needs are released into suitable accommodation; too many vulnerable prisoners are released without accommodation.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Insufficient ESOL provision for foreign national prisoners and insufficient provision of advanced education and use of distance learning.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Just not enough good-quality work, which leads to too many women spending too long locked-down and not able to earn reasonable amounts of pay.
Resettlement/Release
Delays in third-party agencies approving post-release accommodation.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Severe staff shortages, high sickness levels, and significant turnover of staff to local prisons have destabilised all aspects of prison life. Frontline Prison Custody Officer (PCO) staffing is particularly challenging, with new recruits often leaving due to a lack of support and experienced officers, leading to inexperience on wings and frequent cross-deployment. The management team also experienced considerable instability, with senior staff seconded and an increase in workload for experienced middle managers. These factors have hindered the provision of a reasonable regime for prisoners.
Healthcare
The new primary physical and mental healthcare provider, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), faced initial staffing restrictions that impacted services like timely medication. While a CQC inspection found care to be reasonable, prisoners remain unhappy, especially regarding complaint handling and communication, making healthcare the primary concern brought to the IMB. Staffing challenges persist, though a new patient engagement lead has improved feedback. Mental healthcare has improved triage and self-referral, but waiting lists are long, and the prison was without a psychiatrist for four months. Social care also saw missed appointments due to staff shortages and difficulties in securing suitable accommodation for vulnerable prisoners upon release.
Regime & Daily Life
The lack of a decent and rehabilitative regime is the Board's principal concern, adversely impacting prisoners due to population pressures, staff shortages, and management changes. Planned restrictions and short-notice curtailment of exercise and time out of cell are frequent, leading to poor prisoner morale. Lockdowns disrupt work, education, and association. The range and quality of work are narrow, with insufficient spaces and vocational qualifications. Furthermore, gym facilities are inadequate, and a condemned dance studio remains unrepaired, contributing to a significant lack of appropriate activity provision.
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 | 11 | 21 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 12 | 9 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 1 | 0 | |
| Equality | 4 | 5 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 13 | 19 | |
| Food and kitchens | 11 | 2 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 66 | 54 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 24 | 21 | |
| Miscellaneous | 36 | 24 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 4 | 4 | — |
| Property within the establishment | 18 | 17 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 16 | 14 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, re-categorisation | 13 | 24 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 37 | 48 | |
| Transfers | 3 | 4 |
Recommendations (4)
Other: 2
HMPPS: 1
Governor / Director: 1
2 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Will the Minister be working with colleagues to enable the enactment of the Mental Health Bill as soon as possible?
Other
(minister)
mental_health
Response
A draft Mental Health Bill was published in June 2022, which seeks to address this issue. The draft Bill has yet to go through parliament. It was included in the King’s Speech in July 2024.
Recommendation 2
The Board remains concerned at the number of women serving very short sentences. What does the Minister plan to do about this issue?
Other
(minister)
other
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
When will HMPPS increase the provision or licensing of approved accommodation to which women can be safely released?
HMPPS
resettlement
Response
A range of measures are being put in place covering from remand to release. The release of prisoners remains a concern.
Recommendation 4
How and when will the Director ensure the prison makes better use of best practice models across the women’s estate?
Governor / Director
other