HMP & YOI Downview: 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 Downview Prison main page.
Our commitment to you
We are committed to providing a wide range of opportunities that meet the diverse needs of the women in our care.
We use data, insight and prisoner feedback to shape our education, employment and wellbeing services, ensuring they remain responsive, meaningful and effective.
Our aim is to create a positive and supportive environment where women are encouraged to develop the skills, confidence and resilience needed for successful rehabilitation. By promoting learning, emotional wellbeing and greater financial independence, we support women to prepare for sustainable lives beyond custody.
Recognising that every woman’s circumstances are unique, we provide support that is tailored to individual needs while maintaining fairness, consistency and equal access to opportunities.
Through collaboration with specialist partners and community organisations, we help women address the factors that can contribute to reoffending, including housing, employment, family relationships and emotional wellbeing.
An important part of this approach is maintaining and strengthening positive relationships. We believe that strong family and social connections can play a significant role in rehabilitation, reducing reoffending and creating safer communities.
By working together with staff, prisoners, families and external partners, we aim to support women in rebuilding relationships, making positive choices and achieving lasting reintegration into their communities.
Throughout this strategy, we use the term ‘family’ to refer to anyone whom a prisoner identifies as their next of kin or primary source of support.
This may include relatives, legal guardians, close friends or support workers.
We recognise that many women in custody have experienced complex and non-traditional family circumstances, including a range of caring responsibilities and childcare arrangements.
So, we seek to support and strengthen all positive and constructive relationships that contribute to a woman’s wellbeing, rehabilitation and successful resettlement.
Support and services offered
Our main partner for families and significant others is the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT).
PACT aim to support the women in our care to make a fresh start, and minimise the harm that can be caused by imprisonment on people who have committed offences, on families and on communities.
Visits centre
Our staff explain the whole visits process to all first time visitors. They will aim to put you at ease and talk you through everything you need to know about visits.
They can also answer any questions you may have.
In the visits centre we have information on a range of support services, including on:
- debt advice
- children’s services
- housing
- substance misuse
- health and wellbeing
We have leaflets, literature, posters, IT and other support.
Staff also share up-to-date prison information, when required.
We also offer refreshments, which can be ordered at the visits centre, and in the visits hall.
Children’s play facilities
The visits centre has a selection of books and games to keep young children busy.
Within the main visits hall we have a dedicated children’s play area both inside the visitor’s centre and outside.
Family engagement work
We have a family engagement worker.
Their role is to support women with any individual issues they may have about contact and communication with their families.
They can provide:
- one-to-one emotional and practical parenting support
- support with maintaining family ties and improving communication and positive relationships
- family mediation
- support for contact issues with children
They can also speak up on behalf of our women and their families and support with signposting to other agencies too.
Family support
We have several partners and agencies that support this strategy.
Their support ranges from one-to one interventions to family forums and group work, family engagement and outreach work.
We also have a custodial manager known as the ‘FaSO champion’ who promotes our vision and drives the agenda. They support the FASO Lead and have direct oversight of visits 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.
Our main partner for families support is PACT.
Family days
We hold 12 family visits each year that women may apply for.
These visits are more relaxed. The women in our care can take part in crafts and structured play together with their visitors.
The dates are advertised across the prison, and in our visits hall and visitor centre for women and their families to see.
Lunch is provided and crafts, face painting and a variety of other activities run by both prison and PACT staff.
The days are themed, for example: Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and so on. They usually have gifts for the children to take away with them.
Our staff can be taken at family days, when consent is given. We understand photographs can be very precious and sometimes rare for those with a family member in prison.
Care leavers
We recognise that individuals with care experience may face additional challenges.
We are committed to providing a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for care leavers in our care.
By working across departments and partner agencies, we seek to:
- identify and address the specific needs of care-experienced prisoners
- promote access to appropriate support services
- strengthen family and community links, where appropriate
- ensure that individuals are treated with dignity, respect and understanding
We continue to develop our approach through engagement with care leavers, staff awareness initiatives and partnership working to improve outcomes and opportunities for those with care experience.
Library
We recognise the important role that reading, learning and access to information can play in supporting wellbeing, personal development and rehabilitation.
The prison library is a welcoming and inclusive environment where prisoners can access a wide range of books, educational resources and information services.
Through working with education providers and library staff, our prisoners are encouraged to:
- develop literacy skills
- engage in purposeful activities
- pursue personal interests
- maintain a positive connection with learning
The library supports individuals from diverse backgrounds and abilities, promoting a culture of reading, lifelong learning and personal growth.
Neurodiversity
We are committed to recognising and supporting neurodivergent prisoners through a whole-prison approach that promotes inclusion, accessibility and individualised support.
We aim to identify neurodivergent needs at the earliest opportunity and provide appropriate interventions, reasonable adjustments and support plans that enable women to engage fully with prison life, education, employment and rehabilitative activities.
Our Neurodiversity team, staff awareness initiatives and partnerships work across our departments.
We aim to create an environment where neurodivergent individuals are understood, supported and empowered to achieve positive outcomes during custody and in preparation for release.
Safeguarding measures
Creating a safe environment is fundamental to ensuring that the women in our care can achieve, grow and remain hopeful, without the fear of threat or harm during their time here at HMP&YOI Downview.
Our Safety team works in partnership with internal and external agencies that support everyone working and living in HMP&YOI Downview.
See our main Downview Prison GOV.UK page for contact details if you have a safeguarding concern.
You can formally register a concern using the Prisoners’ Families Helpline HMP Downview Safer Custody Form (the team will respond within 72 hours)
For further reference to safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework
What we have achieved
Over the past year, HMP&YOI Downview has continued to strengthen family ties and support positive relationships between women and their families.
We have:
- provided family engagement events
- promoted the use of video visits
- worked closely with PACT and other partner organisations
- improved support for women with limited family contact
- increased opportunities for women to share their views through forums and engagement activities
- continued to develop support for care-experienced women
- maintained a strong focus on meeting families standards and improving outcomes for prisoners and their families
You said, we did
Women told us that maintaining family relationships is important, having clear information about support services, and having greater opportunities to share their views.
In response, we have:
- continued to promote video visits
- organised family engagement events
- improved access to support through PACT and other partner organisations
- strengthened support for women with limited family contact
- provided forums where women can share feedback and help shape the services we provide.
How we will measure our success
Through:
- increased engagement between prisoners and their families
- improved access to family support services
- positive feedback from prisoners and visitors
- continued compliance with families audit requirements
We will:
- monitor participation in social visits, family days, video visits and family learning opportunities
- gather feedback through prisoner forums, visitor surveys and partner organisations
- evidence success through: improved support for women with limited family contact, stronger partnership working with agencies such as PACT, and the achievement of agreed actions identified through audit, inspection and local governance processes.
Our focus for the year ahead
We will continue strengthening family ties and family engagement across HMP&YOI Downview by:
- increasing access to visits and family support services
- improving support for women with limited family contact
- embedding the requirements of the new families audit measures, supporting care-experienced and vulnerable women
- work collaboratively with PACT and partner agencies to improve outcomes for prisoners and their families
Staffing structure
- Overall oversight of FaSO - the Governor
- Families and Significant Others’ (F&SO) strategy is overseen by the Head of operations, who is also our local F&SO lead
- Care experienced lead – Head of business assurance
- FaSO champion – Custodial manager - operations