HMP North Sea Camp: Families and significant others strategy
This strategy outlines how we support prisoners in our care to develop meaningful and constructive relationships with their family or significant others.
Applies to England and Wales
You can find visiting information and book a visit on the North Sea Camp Prison main page.
Our commitment to you
At HMP North Sea Camp, we recognise that maintaining strong family and community ties are vital in supporting rehabilitation and that these contribute to emotional wellbeing, stability and positive progress towards resettlement.
We treat family contact as a vital part of your time in custody. This reflects national evidence, including HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ thematic review, Safety, wellbeing and hope: The untapped potential of family contact in prisons (March 2026), which highlights the importance of family relationships in building hope, supporting change and reducing reoffending.
We are committed to providing a visits experience that is:
- welcoming and respectful, with a relaxed environment where families can sit together and maintain appropriate physical contact
- accessible and consistent, ensuring all visitors are treated fairly and with dignity
- supportive of strong relationships, helping you maintain positive connections with family and friends
We will:
- balance effective security with the importance of family contact through clear and proportionate local procedures
- provide extended social visits on Fridays (up to 6 hours) to help reduce the impact of long-distance travel
- offer video visits of up to 40 minutes or more to ensure continued access where in-person visits are not possible
- ensure catering provision meets a range of dietary needs, with advance ordering available to support individual requirements
- prioritise clear communication with visitors, so expectations are understood and visits run smoothly
We will continue to work in partnership with relevant agencies to improve the visits experience and ensure it supports rehabilitation, dignity and fairness.
Support and services offered
Our main partner for families and significant others is Lincolnshire Action Trust (LAT).
Visitors’ centre
You can find the visitors centre just outside the gate area at the entrance to the prison.
Within the centre we have information on a range of services to support visitors. These include debt advice, children’s services, housing, substance misuse, health, and wellbeing.
These are signposted through leaflets, literature, posters, IT, Support, and staff distribute up to date prison information as and when required.
We also offer refreshments, which can be ordered within the visits centre on your arrival.
Children’s play facilities
The visits centre has a selection of books and games to keep young children occupied and within the main visits hall we have a dedicated children’s soft play area.
Family engagement work
We have a family engagement worker (FEW) at North Sea Camp.
Their role is to support prisoners and families with any individual issues they may have regarding contact and communication with their families.
They provide:
- one-to-one emotional and practical parenting support
- support to prisoners with maintaining family ties and improving communication and positive relationships
- family mediation and support for contact issues with children
- support with signposting to other agencies and can advocate on behalf of our prisoners and their families
Secure social video call support
Social video calls are available all week at multiple times during the evenings.
Prison video visits sessions remain under constant review and are adjusted to suit the needs of the prison population.
Parenting/relationship courses
Courses take place throughout the year lead by Lincolnshire Action Trust.
Family support
We have several partners and agencies that support our Families and Significant Others (FaSO).
Their support ranges from one-to-one interventions, family forums and group work, family engagement and outreach work.
Our partners maintain links with our Offender Management unit and other functions to ensure any work or contact with families meets all safeguarding requirements.
Family engagement casework
Family engagement workers via LAT provide various themes of support and engagement methods.
Family days
Family visits are held on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays as well as Sunday mornings.
All of our family days are themed and are listed four times per year, for example Easter, Christmas, Valentines day and so on and usually have related gifts for children to take away with them.
Care leavers
At North Sea Camp, individuals identified as care leavers are recognised and provided with consistent and meaningful support.
We work collaboratively with personal advisors from the local authority to support those with care experience and associated complexities. Forums are facilitated by our Safety colleagues and outcomes shared through functional meetings
For those in custody that have come from a care experienced background we offer ongoing support.
We also have in place a care leaver flat, this is set up as you would find on the outside of prison and we teach our care leavers basic skills such as:
- cooking
- washing clothes
- ironing
- other useful guidance to prepare them for release and, perhaps, living on their own for the first time
Library
Our library staff run the following family projects:
- Storybook - open to any prisoner with young children in the family, not just Dads. Younger siblings, nieces and nephews can also receive stories.
- Storybook ‘Me and You’ - this is an activity sheet for our prisoners to complete and send out to their young family members
Safeguarding measures
In an emergency
Call 01205 769 300 if you think a prisoner is at immediate risk of harm. Ask for the ‘orderly officer’ and explain that your concern is an emergency.
For non-emergency concerns where you have concerns about a prisoner’s safety or wellbeing which are serious but not life-threatening, you can:
- call 01913 323 695
- complete a Safer Custody Contact Form on the Prisoner’s Families Helpline website
HMP North Sea Camp is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults at risk.
All staff will proactively safeguard and promote the welfare of children to help prevent harm before it occurs.
For further reference to safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework
What we have achieved
We continue to help support prisoners and their families in maintaining their family ties as our family visits continue to be extremely popular; and we are aiming to enhance this experience for those attending moving forward.
In line with our reading strategy every prisoner is offered a book on induction to encourage reading, this is continued in family visits.
You said, we did
Following feedback we:
- introduced more varied hot food offer in the visits hall, as well as other items
- moved to cashless payments in visits
- moved and painted the children’s area
- increased visits capacity to allow more visits
- created a single longer day on Fridays, to allow space for more meaningful visits
How we will measure our success
- Prisoner council meeting
- Reducing reoffending meeting
- Prisoner family needs questionnaire
- Prisoner MQPL
- Visitors advisory board
- Performance measures
Staffing structure
- The Head of Reducing Reoffending - prison lead and overall oversight of the family and significant others strategy
- The Reducing Reoffending Custodial Manager - direct management of the visits facility