Stafford Prison: Families and significant others strategy 2025
Stafford’s family strategy outlines how we support prisoners in our care to develop meaningful and constructive relationships with their families and significant others.
Applies to England and Wales
Our commitment to you
The government recognises the importance of improving the support and services available to the children and families of offenders and the financial, emotional and physical effects having a parent in prison can have on children. Maintaining relationships with family and significant other through their sentence can help to prevent former prisoners from reoffending and assist them to resettle into the community.
The Prisons inspectorate concludes in Life in Prison: Contact with Families and Friends (2016), that good family contact has an important role to play, not only in supporting prisoners through their sentence, but in supporting their rehabilitation after release.
So, at Stafford Prison we recognise we have a moral and ethical responsibility to assist any meaningful and constructive relationships in preparation for our prisoners’ releases.
We are committed to transforming our prison into a place of safety and reform, recognising the need to provide those in our custody with a stable environment, as well as chances to change their behaviour and turn away from a life of crime.
This strategy sets out the steps the we are taking and, in some cases, still need to take to make the very best provision for all aspects of the visiting experience.
We will achieve this by working in close partnership with Barnardo’s, through talking with residents, families and visitors, and by building on the knowledge and research around the needs of our population at Stafford Prison.
Teresa Wright
Acting Governor
Support and services offered
Visitors’ centre
The visitors’ centre is located immediately opposite the main gate of the prison, in the large building (right hand side) on the corner of County Road.
Our facilities include:
- a number of comfortable waiting areas
- toilets and baby changing facilities
- tea bar
- information and support service
- children’s play facilities – visitors’ Centre and visits hall
- lockers (£1 coin required, which is refundable)
We work with the charity PACT, which provides information, advice and support for the families and friends of prisoners at HMP Stafford.
The visitors’ centre will:
- process your visiting order
- answer your questions
- organise the flow of visitors across Gaol Road to the prison
The visitors’ centre email address is stafford@prisonadvice.org.uk
Children’s play facilities
We provide a dedicated children’s play area within the visits hall to support positive family engagement, reduce stress for visiting families, and create a child-friendly environment that promotes meaningful contact between prisoners and their children.
Family support meeting forums
This meeting is organised by the family engagement worker and/or the visits centre coordinator.
It allows families and significant others to meet others in a similar position to themselves and get support.
It also gives family members the chance to raise issues that they have experienced while having a loved one in custody.
The meetings have guidelines in line with confidentiality and data protection
Governor family forums
This forum is a way for the governor and senior managers in the prison to hear from family members and give feedback.
Family members provide feedback about their own experiences and assist the prison in improving processes and future development plans.
We also:
- discuss current issues
- share information about the different teams in the prison, for example: offender management unit, programmes, healthcare and education
- invite guest speakers from different teams, as requested by families, to answer questions, and provide clarity and guidance
This meeting is led by our family engagement worker and our children and family lead.
Family engagement worker
We have a family engagement worker who can help with:
- Support for offenders and their families while in custody.
- Help and support with maintaining family links.
- Family relationship help.
- Family days and enrichment activities.
- Information and guidance regarding the criminal justice and prison systems.
- Providing emotional and practical support and advice for offenders and their families.
- Signposting and referring to other agencies.
You can contact them by:
- email: stafford@prisonadvice.org.uk
- telephone: 01785 773 131
- post: Family Engagement Worker, HMP Stafford, Gaol Road
Children and family visits
We hold 6 children and family-centred visits sessions each year.
They run from 10am to 4pm, so prisoners can spend quality time with their families and children.
Hot food is available via our bistro.
Structured play sessions take place through the day. These include art and craft and games, to encourage children to play with their families and the PACT staff.
We provide a photograph facility, so children to have a lasting memory of the day to take home.
These visits are open to all prisoners and their families, subject to child protection protocols.
Safeguarding measures
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 Stafford’s main GOV.UK page for contact details, if you have a safeguarding concern.
For further details on safeguarding measures, please see the HMPPS Child Safeguarding Policy Framework.
What have we achieved?
- We offer the Step Forward visits experience to prisoners who do not receive regular visits, providing them with the opportunity to engage in a positive, structured visit-like interaction that supports social connection, emotional wellbeing, and rehabilitation.
- Neurodiversity grab bags are available to both visitors and prisoners during visits - these provide sensory tools and resources to support a more inclusive and accessible environment for individuals with additional needs.
- We are have a PACT Champion training package for our family ties reps.
You said, we did
- We are introducing an additional weekend visits session in response to feedback. This aims to increase accessibility for families, reduce waiting times, and support sustained family contact.
- We have increased the number of multi-occupancy tables and introduced smaller chairs to better accommodate single visitors attending with young children, supporting a more comfortable and family-friendly visiting experience.
- We have a new system for bookings of multiple visitor sessions. This will reduce unexplained visit cancellations.
How will we measure our success?
These monitoring procedures will make sure we continue to develop this strategy.
They will be managed on a day-to-day basis by the children and families champion (custodial manager), with oversight by the head of reducing reoffending.
Monitoring and evaluation will include:
- Get feedback from residents and their families.
- Conduct an annual data collection exercise using surveys of residents, their families and staff, collaboratively with Barnardo’s.
- Look at numbers of spaces/attendees available on visits sessions and via the Prison Video database.
- Study statistics regarding ethnicity, race and cultural attendance on family events.
- Identify residents who do not receive regular visits, and do not regularly access the telephone system and finds ways to stop them being isolated.
- Record numbers of requests for help/advice.
- Study any complaints relating to visits.
- Hold bi-monthly contract meetings between Barnardo’s and the head of reducing reoffending.
- Discuss visits as an agenda item at residents’ council meeting bi-monthly.
Staffing structure
- Governor
- Head of Reducing Reoffending – an operational manager
- Children and Families Champion – a custodial manager
- Family Engagement Worker (FEW) – stafford@prisonadvice.org.uk