HMP Ranby Family and Significant others strategy
HMP Ranby’s family 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 Ranby Prison main page.
Our commitment to you
Families come in all shapes and sizes so when we talk about ‘families’ we include blood relations, legal guardians, friends, and those that have been identified as a next of kin.
Lots of our people have experienced ‘non-traditional’ upbringings and we want to make sure that everyone is included.
Positive family contact can act like a comfort blanket and really help to make someone feel like they still matter. It can help prevent someone returning to crime, drug and alcohol misuse and prison.
Coming to prison can be a scary time. Some prisoners struggle with the impact of losing their freedom and can become withdrawn, turning to substance misuse or self-harm as methods of coping when they are missing their family and friends.
Working together to help maintain your relationships means we can reduce that anxiety and frustration.
Government research has shown that people in custody who receive visits from a family member are 39% less likely to reoffend.
We will:
- support prisoners and families in maintaining good relationships
- help improve parenting skills for prisoners and guide them through their children’s educational experiences
- provide advice and guidance to families and prisoners, keeping the family friendly focus
- offer support with troubled relationships
- help to reduce and remove barriers for family members wanting to visit the prison so they can experience quality visits in a welcoming environment
- establish links with local authorities in the support of families and children
- inform and train staff about children and family issues
To tailor HMP Ranby’s approach of family practice and ensure its effectiveness, we need to understand the needs of the prison population.
To achieve this, we will conduct regular information gathering exercises from which we can identify specific areas, such as:
- annual establishment needs analysis which will be shared with the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) to help inform the service provision and ensure alignment with need
- 2 visitor surveys per year
- forums with prisoners held at Ranby
- forums with the families and/or significant others of prisoners
- Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) key worker and Prisoner Offender Management feedback sessions linked to sentence plans
- national and regional data sources, for example, Office for national statistics
- His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons inspection reports, Measuring the Quality of Prison Life (MQPL) surveys and Operational and System Assurance Group (OSAG) visits for independent audits of our approach
Support and services offered
Visitors centre
Our visitors centre is run by Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT).
On your arrival at the visits centre your paper identification will be checked by security staff. You will then be asked to comply with our biometric process.
This means we will take your fingerprint and photograph for our records only - these will remain on our records while you continue to visit our establishment.
You are still required to bring your paper ID, each time you visit the prison in the event of any technical issues.
See our main prison page on GOV.UK for details on:
- visits booking
- visiting hours
- other ways to keep in touch
Children’s play facilities
There is a dedicated area for children to play within the visits hall. There is access to play equipment, reading materials and craft materials.
There is also a private area available for breastfeeding.
Family engagement work and casework
PACT staff work within the prison to support both prisoners and families.
We have a full-time family engagement manager and a team of family engagement workers, who spend their time helping prisoners to maintain family contact while they are in custody.
They also help with rebuilding those relationships which may have broken down over time and support prisoners who do not receive visits from their families.
To contact PACT directly you can either speak to one of their staff during your visit or drop them an email: ranby@prisonadvice.org.uk.
To help prisoners return to a stable, supportive family environment on release, it is important that we encourage families to include prisoners in important family decisions to help maintain their valuable role within the family.
Where it is identified that difficult, lengthy or complicated discussions are necessary for the family, staff will host sessions in a suitable environment.
These sessions can be supported, where required, with professional advice linked to identified issues.
PACT will provide a range of one-to-one courses covering the topics:
- Families (My Family Matters, Going Home)
- Relationships (Anger and Stress in Relationships, Good Relationships)
- Parenting including Parenting Teenagers and Interventions working on themselves (Managing your Worry, Confidence and Assertiveness)
Sony funding is used to strengthen families affected by a loved one’s imprisonment, by creating consistent, compassionate, and collaborative engagement between families, prison staff and wider support systems.
Regular family forums are a space to share their thoughts, concerns, and ideas
Family days
In partnership with the prison, PACT run 6 family days throughout the year.
Some are aimed at children with families, others are for those with only adult family members.
These visits are usually themed, especially at a certain time of the year, for example, Christmas and Easter. They are full of fun with activities that you can all join in together as a family.
We understand photographs can be very precious and sometimes rare for those with a family member in prison.
When consent is given, our staff can take photographs at family days by.
We can’t always grant applicants a place on every family visits day as numbers are restricted. We do all we can to ensure they are shared out fairly.
We try to run some of these days during the school holidays so that education and routine is not disrupted.
Care leavers
Those with experience in the care system are more likely to have experienced significant trauma, abuse and other disadvantages that can put them more at risk of violence, self-harm and suicide when in prison.
Many also have experiences of being failed by their corporate parents and can come to prison feeling extremely isolated and angry.
Care leavers are entitled to support up to the age of 25 years old and so linking in with local authorities is vital in supporting these types of prisoners in our care.
We will take guidance from the HMPPS Strategy for Care Experienced People, learning from best practice and lived experiences within the document.
The document highlights the importance of linking in with local authorities to enable as much information as possible to given to those within our care.
Safeguarding measures
At HMP Ranby we have a safeguarding policy that ensures safeguarding measures are in place for people in our care, vulnerable adults and children.
All adults in need of safeguarding have the right to live their lives free from abuse of any description. All agencies and individuals that have contact with adults in need of safeguarding have a duty to protect them from abuse.
Where abuse is reported to or suspected by any person the response will be prompt and in line with prison service policies.
The prison works as a multi-agency team to meet the needs of prisoners in ensuring that they remain safe.
See our main GOV.UK page for contact details if you have a safeguarding concern
For further reference to safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework
You said, we did
- Provided take away bags
- Access to better quality hot drinks
- Refreshed play equipment for children on visits
- Added additional homework books
How will we measure our success?
- Prisoner Family Needs questionnaire.
- Prisoner Consultative committee.
- Reducing Reoffending meetings.
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) inspection reports.
- Prisoner Measuring the Quality of Prison Life (MQPL) questionnaires.
- Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reports.
- Safer Prisons team to invite families or significant others to Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) reviews or provide palliative care support.
- Performance measure indicators.
Staffing structure
- Overall oversight of FaSO - The Governor
- Families and Significant Others’ (F&SO) Strategy is overseen by the Head of Reducing Re-Offending, who is also our local F&SO lead
- Care Experienced Lead - Head of Offender Management Delivery
- FaSO Champion - Activities custodial manger