Policy paper

Supporting statement from Matt Grey, Executive Director for Rehabilitation

Published 8 May 2025

Applies to England and Wales

1. Helping HMPPS equip the workforce with health, care and wellbeing skills

1.1 The challenge

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has a diverse population with multiple health care needs, ranging from acute primary care through to chronic disease management. For some people, HMPPS is the first chance to engage with health services, and for many it can be a key to their recovery and support a reduction in offending behaviour.

As such, prison and probation staff across the service receive a great deal of training and development, designed to meet the complex needs of the environments they work within. Whilst many of these learning opportunities cover aspects of the health, care and wellbeing needs of service users - such as substance misuse awareness and training - they might not always cover core skills in recognising service user needs or signpost where to go for help and support.

HMPPS wanted to ensure that a consistent level of knowledge and understanding was being achieved by all members of the workforce, and that they were receiving training that gave them the skills to effectively work with service users and healthcare providers. 

The solution

Skills for Justice worked with staff at various levels across HMPPS to craft a competency framework, utilising a bank of healthcare competencies developed by their sister organisation Skills for Health. With a stakeholder group of subject matter experts across the UK, Skills for Justice tailored these core capabilities to meet the specific needs of staff in HMPPS who work with individuals in custody and on probation. A wider online public consultation was also held to seek the views of organisations and experts specialising in adult health and wellbeing.

The resulting framework is a robust but accessible guide to the core sets of knowledge and understanding required by prison and probation staff. It develops a set of core capability statements that identify and describe the skills, knowledge and behaviours for HMPPS staff working with service users that have health, care and wellbeing needs.

It covers areas such as how to understand, recognise and refer health, care and wellbeing needs; person-centred approaches to collaboration; managing those with health, care or wellbeing needs; and working in partnership with healthcare professionals and other support providers. It also covers skills for different levels of the workforce, with specific capabilities specified for those in leadership roles.

The impact

The framework is being used to review and strengthen existing training provision. Existing training is being mapped to the framework to ensure that the core competencies are embedded in the learning and development already in place. It may also help the service to understand any gaps or opportunities for improvement within our learning provision and develop new training as a result. Capabilities for those in leadership roles will also help employees understand progression routes through the service and ensure a system-wide application of knowledge and understanding.

The Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework is a reinforcement of HMPPS’ commitment to providing excellence in public services and responding to the healthcare needs of individuals in their care.

This competency framework sets the foundations for more effective cross-agency collaboration and support for the health and wellbeing of our service users.

Improving health and wellbeing support is critical for aiding people’s rehabilitation. This framework will help give people across HMPPS the right skills and capabilities to identify those in need and signpost them to appropriate care and support.

Matt Grey Executive Director for Rehabilitation, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service