Policy paper

Updates on the implementation of recommendations resulting from the Farmer Review

Published 30 October 2019

1. Farmer recommendation updates October 2019

The Farmer report made 19 recommendations, however, many of them have sub-recommendations such as recommendation 1, which is broken down into 7 sub recommendations. In total there are 28 separate main and sub-recommendations.

100% of the recommendations are in the process of being implemented. 18 of these recommendations have rated as complete and monitored on a quarterly basis.

6 recommendations are rated amber and are expected to be completed by mid – 2020. These are indicated below:

2. Pending Recommendations - Ongoing

Recommendations with sub-recommendations still to be completed are indicated in the report as amber – Ongoing. There are 10 of these which are being addressed. Some will not be realised until changes in policy have been implemented. These include the following recommendations

2.1 Recommendation 1.7:

Governors to be held to account for positive family work outcomes.

2.2 Recommendation 5:

Prison performance measures, which would enable comparisons to be made with similar prisons for the purposes of learning from practice, should include a family related measure such as rate of prisoners who receive visits on entry and exit and rate of prisoners engaged with their family, or other supportive relationships, on entry and exit.

• A Families Performance Measure was developed and a shadow measure was set in April 2019. Lesson learnt from the process will be utilised to set a performance target in 2020.

2.3 Recommendations 1:7 and 5 will be met by April 2020

2.4 Recommendation 6:

Contact details of family and significant others should be mandatorily requested by prisoner escort services before a prisoner leaves court and immediately added to his prison file, with this and other information on key relationships updated on an ongoing basis and sent with him when he moves establishments. * This recommendation has been addressed, pending full roll-out of the new Prisoner Escort Record by end of January 2020. Once implemented, this recommendation will also be subject to ongoing monitoring.

2.5 Recommendation 7:

If a prisoner cannot name anyone he will want to contact on the first night this should be flagged and active steps taken to try to reconnect him with family or others with whom he might be able to develop a supportive relationship. * This recommendation is related to recommendation number 6, which refers to prisons gaining next of kin information or a significant contact. If information is collected by the PER process, there should be fewer prisoner’s records without an external contact.
* The new Offender Manager in Custody (OMIC) Key worker system will support the collection of information and encourage prisoners to establish or develop relationships where there are gaps in this information.
* The quality of collecting this information will continue to be monitored.

2.6 Recommendations 6 and 7 will be complete in January 2020

2.7 Recommendation 13:

The Ministry of Justice should make a fund available that governors can bid for to trial innovations that engage with families specifically in order to prevent suicide. * HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is shortly launching its next grant funding programme for 2020-2022. Clinks and HMPPS are holding three information events in September and October to provide further details on the grant programme to voluntary organisations who may wish to apply. This recommendation will not be signed off until a grant has been awarded to meet its aims.

2.8 Recommendation 14:

Development of leaders and staff must support governors in fulfilling their Performance Agreement requirement to provide a staffing structure that makes family work an operational priority * Working closely with the HMPPS Leadership Development, Talent and Succession Planning Team, we will deliver the first of a series of Action Learning Sets that will support Families Leads and their teams. The aim of these programmes is to help us improve prisoner’s relationships with their families and significant others and the quality of services that we offer using a whole organisational approach.

This recommendation refers to staff training. It is expected to be completed by April 2020 with continued updates.

3. Recommendations that will be completed over a longer term and those requiring structural reform as follows:

4 of the Farmer recommendations and sub-recommendations are likely to remain rated amber, due to the time required to make infrastructural or other changes. These are in the process of being addressed.

3.1 Recommendation 4:

Family work should be included in all four standards in the White Paper (1. Public Protection; 2. Safety and Order; 3. Reform; 4. Preparing for life after prison) * This recommendation is being addressed collaborating with policy leads on various reform areas as indicated. These are also reflected in the reports reference to the ‘third leg of a stool’ Education and Employment, also health, safer custody and links with through the gate and probation services.

3.2 Recommendation 11:

Governors should be intentional about ensuring all prisoners who do not have family or other support – for example if they have been in the care system – are helped to form relationships with people outside or peers inside. * This recommendation is wide ranging as it includes all areas of reform including prisoners with care experience, older prisoners, prisoners convicted of sexual offences.
* How prisons ensure that the range of services provided for prisoners to establish or develop positive relationships externally and where these relationships are not available, how well the OMIC key worker system and other services such as the National Association of Prison Visitors, peer initiatives and other services will continue to be monitored.

3.3 Recommendation 14

As part of their Performance Agreement, each prison should establish a clear, auditable and responsive ‘gateway’ communication system for families and significant others – a dedicated phone line that is listened to and acted upon. * This is an area of concern as an internal survey alongside feedback from stakeholders and the results of work undertaken by Clinks as part of the 10 Prisons Project demonstrate that urgent action is required to improve establishment performance in this area. * This area requires rigorous address of policy and implementation of practice to ensure that this recommendation is addressed. The Family Performance measure will also consider the outcomes of this recommendation, expected to be implemented as a performance target in April 2020.

3.4 Recommendation 19

Virtual visits using video calling technology should be available for the small percentage of families or individual family members who cannot visit frequently or at all due to infirmity, distance or other factors. * We are continuing to explore the options for the use of Internet Based Video Solutions in establishments to facilitate family contact. * As part of this, we are proposing to pilot the use of video messaging in selected establishments including women and foreign national prisons. * Piloting this technology in these locations will ensure that we have a cross section of offenders and we can be sure that we are including those groups who are more likely to be placed far away from their families.  

Angela Christopher – HMPPS National Families Advisor Tim Lloyd – Head of Family Services