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Guidance

HMP Onley Families and Significant Others Strategy

HMP Onley family strategy outlines how we support prisoners in our care to develop meaningful and constructive relationships with their family or significant others.

From:
HM Prison and Probation Service
Published:
8 September 2026

Applies to England and Wales

Our commitment to you

You can find visiting information and book a visit on the Onley Prison main page.

At HMP Onley, we recognise that positive relationships with families and significant others play a vital role in supporting rehabilitation, reducing reoffending, and promoting the wellbeing of those in our care. We are committed to fostering a culture that values and strengthens these relationships as a core part of our custodial environment.

Our Commitment

We will:

  • Promote meaningful connections
    Encourage and support prisoners to maintain regular, positive, and constructive contact with their families and significant others through visits, digital communication, and correspondence.
  • Create a welcoming and respectful environment
    Ensure all families and significant others are treated with dignity, fairness, and respect when engaging with HMP Onley, recognising their important role in a prisoner’s rehabilitation journey.
  • Provide safe and inclusive family engagement opportunities
    Deliver and support family-focused interventions, visits, and events that strengthen relationships, promote parenting roles, and support family unity where appropriate.
  • Communicate clearly and effectively
    Provide accessible information and guidance to families about processes, policies, and support services, ensuring transparency and consistency.
  • Work in partnership with key stakeholders
    Collaborate with community organisations, support services, and partner agencies to enhance provision for families and ensure continuity of support beyond custody.
  • Support staff to deliver this vision
    Equip our staff with the skills, knowledge, and understanding to recognise the importance of family ties and to actively promote family engagement in their daily work.
  • Safeguard all individuals
    Balance the importance of family relationships with our duty to protect victims, children, and vulnerable individuals, ensuring all contact is safe and appropriate.
  • Continuously improve our approach
    Seek feedback from prisoners, families, and partners to evaluate and enhance our family engagement practices and ensure they remain responsive to need.

Our aim

Through this commitment, HMP Onley strives to create a rehabilitative environment where maintaining strong, positive relationships supports personal responsibility, resilience, and successful reintegration into the community.

Support and services offered

Visitors’ centre

At HMP Onley a meet and greet service is provided by PACT (Prison Advice and Care Trust). The PACT team also provide support for families, friends and significant others.

This includes:

  • emotional and practical support before and after visits
  • additional reassurance for first time visitors, particularly for those who are anxious about visiting prison
  • an inclusive service that is culturally sensitive and responsive to diverse needs of prisoners and visitors
  • advice and support around secure video calling

Family and friends can also approach PACT staff if they have safety concerns about their loved one in prison, who in turn will liaise with the Safer Custody team within the prison.

Children’s play facilities

Toys and resources for children are available to keep them occupied while waiting for their visit.

Visitors also have access to light refreshments within the visitor centre.

Family engagement work/casework

At Onley, we have a PACT Family Engagement Worker (FEW) to support prisoners, their families and significant others, to help build relationships.

The caseworker will support release planning and expectations for loved ones as prisoner supporters.

They also provides a link across prison departments including the Offender Management Unit, Public Protection, Safer Custody and Health Care.

In addition to casework, PACT organise events for prisoners who don’t have visits. They organise activities for them in groups to create a community for them and to reduce feelings of isolation.

Secure video call support for families

For visitors who are not confident using technology, or for parents who want to include children in this visits option, PACT staff can support you to make this process easier.

Family support

PACT work with the Mothers Union at Onley to provide additional resources, Christmas presents for children and Easter eggs.

Staff at Onley also donate new and used gifts at Christmas that are wrapped and can be requested to be handed out to children and younger siblings of prisoners over Christmas periods.

This has been a huge success over the past 2 years.

Family days

Family days are run once per month, often on the fourth Wednesday of the month.

They are longer than domestic visits and lunch is provided by the prison.

They start at 11am and finish at 3pm.

Family days are themed and designed to support parenting from prison. The days are a more relaxed type of visit and fathers are encouraged to play with their children and take part in the organised and pre-planned activities.

Gym staff also run events four times a year, offering additional structured activities to help strengthen relationships.

Depending on weather conditions and attendance numbers, events are held in either the sports hall or on the outdoor sports fields to further offer a more relaxed environment for families.

These have previously been very popular with families and loved ones.

Care leavers

At HMP Onley, individuals identified as care leavers are recognised and provided with consistent and meaningful support.

We have developed a strong working relationship with Warwickshire County Council, who offer both in-custody support and continued engagement upon release, helping to ensure continuity of care.

We hold monthly forums in partnership with council colleagues, giving opportunity to share information address emerging needs, and offer tailored guidance to those with care experience.

Each wing at the prison has a dedicated care leavers noticeboard, displaying relevant information about available support, entitlements and upcoming opportunities.

We have plans to further strengthen peer support by introducing a care leavers representative role, enabling individuals to support one another, share lived experience and help build a more inclusive and supportive environment within HMP Onley.

Library

The library staff run the following courses:

  • Storybook Dads

    Gives the participant the opportunity to record a story for their children/grandchildren. To participate, they must choose a book to record. Storybook Dads then have the chance to add music and different sound effects during the editing process. The completed storybook is then posted to the family.

  • Raising Readers

    The aim is to connect families through books and reading.

Parents are invited to choose a book from the library, fill in a bookplate with a personal message and send it home.

There are over 18 titles across different age ranges and a handout to help parents choose their book.

One copy is sent to the child, another is given to the parent so that they can read together over the phone or during a visit.

The participants must have permission to have contact with their families.

During family days, library staff are present in the visits hall to read a story to the children who are visiting.

Safeguarding measures

In an emergency, you can call 01788 523 400 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:

HMP Onley is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults at risk.

Safeguarding is central to all our work and underpins how services are designed and delivered across prisons, courts, and communities.

For further reference to safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework

Our approach is underpinned by a commitment to:

  • prioritising the safety and wellbeing of children, families, and vulnerable adults in all services
  • embedding safeguarding responsibilities within all roles, ensuring staff and volunteers understand their duty of care
  • creating safe, supportive environments where concerns can be raised and addressed promptly
  • working in partnership with prisons, probation, social services, and other agencies to protect individuals effectively
  • ensuring compliance with statutory safeguarding requirements and best practice guidance

Core elements of the PACT safeguarding approach

  • Clear safeguarding policies and procedures that are regularly reviewed and updated.
  • Mandatory safeguarding training for all staff and volunteers, appropriate to their roles.
  • Robust, safer recruitment practices.
  • Designated safeguarding leads within services and regions.
  • Clear reporting pathways and escalation processes for safeguarding concerns.

Practice in delivery

  • Staff are trained to recognise signs of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
  • Safeguarding is integrated into family engagement work, including visits, casework, and group interventions.
  • Services actively support families to build resilience and reduce risk factors. Concerns are recorded, reported, and followed up in line with policy.

Culture and accountability

  • A culture of openness where safeguarding is seen as everyone’s responsibility.
  • Regular supervision and case review to ensure safeguarding is actively managed.
  • Continuous learning from safeguarding incidents and feedback.
  • Strong leadership oversight at service, regional, and organisational level.

What we have achieved

HMP Onley has developed a strong collaborative working culture across the prison to support the delivery of a high-quality service for prisoners and their families and loved ones.

Our achievements in the last 12 months include:

  • an education forum supported by Sony Music UK
  • Funding from Sony Music has also enabled PACT to increase staffing for Family Forums. The partnership between PACT and HMP Onley has strengthened significantly in recent years. The service provides casework, Family Days and ‘Making positive Connections’ sessions for men who don’t receive visits.
  • Welcomed professionals from local authority Family Hubs and schools to increase understanding of the impact of imprisonment on children and families.

Through presentations and a guided visit experience, attendees gained insight into the emotional and financial effects of custody, the challenges families face when a loved one enters the prison, and the experiences of children, parents, and neurodiverse families during visits.

Colleagues from chaplaincy, reducing reoffending, OMU, education, and the dog handling team showcased their roles and answered questions.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees describing the event as valuable and thought-provoking.

  • HMP Onley and PACT have a strong partnership with Mothers’ Union, which regularly donates Christmas presents, Easter eggs, and other items. They also provided breakfast for men attending Positive Connections, including pastries, toast, fresh fruit, and juice. The Chaplaincy Listeners, Forward Trust, and the Neurodiversity Manager work alongside PACT to support these events and the men who take part.

  • For National Children with a parent in Prison Day, we organised an event in the library supporting prisoners to write letters to their children, nieces, nephews and loved ones to send home to help strengthen family ties. All involved enjoyed creating pictures & poems, they found it therapeutic which boosted their well-being.

  • Futures Unlocked Rugby and Warwickshire (FURW), a mentoring charity provides support to prison leavers. Starting in July 2026 we will run a Pilot Community Transport Scheme to provide a free of charge minibus from Rugby Train Station to and from the prison. This will run on Tuesdays for the duration of the pilot. PACT are working in partnership with FURW to advertise the pilot to prisoners and their families.

  • Christmas gifts are available (where requested) for men to hand out to their loved ones and children at Christmas during visits. This has been well received by all.

You said, we did

We run surveys twice a year to collect feedback for continuous improvements and to be aware of the needs of prisoners families and significant others.

Family forums that encourage families to have their say and put forward suggestions hosted by HMP Onley and PACT.

There is a ‘We did’ achievements board in the visits centre, showing what we have progressed within the prison.

How we measure our success

  • Family Forums
  • Surveys
  • Prisoner Council meetings
  • Quarterly Reports are provided to the regional lead
  • Pact Management Dip sample casework and monitor standards of Family Days
  • Visits Advisory Board
  • Feedback from HM Inspectorate of Prisons
  • Prisoner MQPL
  • Reducing Reoffending Meeting

Staffing structure

Governing Governor - Overall oversight
Head of Reducing Reoffending - Oversees strategy and is the Family & Significant Others Lead
Head of Offender Management Delivery - Care Experienced Lead
Head of Chaplaincy
Family Engagement Worker - PACT

Updates to this page

Published 8 September 2026

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