Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure no woman is released from prison to homelessness.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Official statistics published in July 2020 show that over 6,000 women were released from custody in the year to March 2020, with 51% going into secure, long-term accommodation and a further 7% to approved premises; 18% were recorded as rough sleeping or homeless at the point of release.
We are investing more than £20m in supporting prison leavers at risk of homelessness into temporary accommodation. Individuals released from prison will be provided up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation and will be supported into long-term settled accommodation before the end of that 12-week period. Initially launching in five national probation regions, the service will support around 3,000 offenders in its first year and will be commencing this Summer. It will be in operation during the next financial year 2021-22, with a view to scaling up and rolling out nationally.
The service will take account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs and accommodation provision will be dedicated to single gender usage as required. Community Probation Practitioners, working together with local partners, will be responsible for ensuring that vulnerable female prison leavers receive appropriate support and are provided with housing beyond the 12 weeks’ emergency accommodation.
HMPPS will work in conjunction with MHCLG’s announced funding to support both male and female prison leavers at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Funded schemes to support women will be developed to recognise their specific needs and will be part of plans to secure settled accommodation by the end of the 12 weeks’ temporary accommodation provided by HMPPS.
In 2020, Hestia Battersea was changed from male to female Approved Premises (AP) to give better geographic spread of AP for women, becoming the first AP for women in London since 2008. In addition, Eden House, the first new AP in over thirty years, will open in June supporting female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the suggestion by the Howard League for Penal Reform that prison officer training should be developed into a vocational degree.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Currently, initial training of newly recruited prison officers begins with an eight week Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) course. This includes two weeks officers spend in their prison, an induction week and a week of prison based learning. The training provides new officers with a foundation level of training in all core skill areas including interpersonal skills, mental health awareness, equality, violence reduction and safer custody, alongside the more traditional security awareness and practical skills needed to be a prison officer.
In recognition of the complexity of the role of a prison officer, NOMS plans to increase initial training to twelve weeks. Newly recruited officers will spend 10 weeks at a NOMS learning centre and 2 weeks at their designated prison. This revised course will have an expanded content in relation to safer custody and mental health issues, and there will be a bespoke supporting qualification aimed to prepare new entrant officers to deliver in a rehabilitative culture. There will be more emphasis on building stronger staff-prisoner relationships, with prison officers acting as motivating role models and positively reinforcing values, attitudes and behaviours in order to change their lives.
NOMS attaches great importance to the continuing professional development of prison officers, and the range of learning and development opportunities available to staff supports this. NOMS provides specialist training in areas such as Offender Management, Safer Custody, Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator and Intelligence while generic training is available via Civil Service Learning. Each prison is responsible for assessing the training needs of its officers in order to achieve its business objectives.
The content of all NOMS’ learning programmes is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect policy and legislative changes and the changing needs of the organisation. We are adopting a more flexible approach to learning, for example, e-learning has been introduced to support face to face learning programmes; prison officers complete knowledge based workbooks during their initial training.
There are currently no plans to consider a vocational degree programme for prison officer training.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how prison officer training has changed in the last five years.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Currently, initial training of newly recruited prison officers begins with an eight week Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) course. This includes two weeks officers spend in their prison, an induction week and a week of prison based learning. The training provides new officers with a foundation level of training in all core skill areas including interpersonal skills, mental health awareness, equality, violence reduction and safer custody, alongside the more traditional security awareness and practical skills needed to be a prison officer.
In recognition of the complexity of the role of a prison officer, NOMS plans to increase initial training to twelve weeks. Newly recruited officers will spend 10 weeks at a NOMS learning centre and 2 weeks at their designated prison. This revised course will have an expanded content in relation to safer custody and mental health issues, and there will be a bespoke supporting qualification aimed to prepare new entrant officers to deliver in a rehabilitative culture. There will be more emphasis on building stronger staff-prisoner relationships, with prison officers acting as motivating role models and positively reinforcing values, attitudes and behaviours in order to change their lives.
NOMS attaches great importance to the continuing professional development of prison officers, and the range of learning and development opportunities available to staff supports this. NOMS provides specialist training in areas such as Offender Management, Safer Custody, Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator and Intelligence while generic training is available via Civil Service Learning. Each prison is responsible for assessing the training needs of its officers in order to achieve its business objectives.
The content of all NOMS’ learning programmes is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect policy and legislative changes and the changing needs of the organisation. We are adopting a more flexible approach to learning, for example, e-learning has been introduced to support face to face learning programmes; prison officers complete knowledge based workbooks during their initial training.
There are currently no plans to consider a vocational degree programme for prison officer training.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that prison officers in prisons in England and Wales receive the in-service training they require to support them in their role.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Currently, initial training of newly recruited prison officers begins with an eight week Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) course. This includes two weeks officers spend in their prison, an induction week and a week of prison based learning. The training provides new officers with a foundation level of training in all core skill areas including interpersonal skills, mental health awareness, equality, violence reduction and safer custody, alongside the more traditional security awareness and practical skills needed to be a prison officer.
In recognition of the complexity of the role of a prison officer, NOMS plans to increase initial training to twelve weeks. Newly recruited officers will spend 10 weeks at a NOMS learning centre and 2 weeks at their designated prison. This revised course will have an expanded content in relation to safer custody and mental health issues, and there will be a bespoke supporting qualification aimed to prepare new entrant officers to deliver in a rehabilitative culture. There will be more emphasis on building stronger staff-prisoner relationships, with prison officers acting as motivating role models and positively reinforcing values, attitudes and behaviours in order to change their lives.
NOMS attaches great importance to the continuing professional development of prison officers, and the range of learning and development opportunities available to staff supports this. NOMS provides specialist training in areas such as Offender Management, Safer Custody, Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator and Intelligence while generic training is available via Civil Service Learning. Each prison is responsible for assessing the training needs of its officers in order to achieve its business objectives.
The content of all NOMS’ learning programmes is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect policy and legislative changes and the changing needs of the organisation. We are adopting a more flexible approach to learning, for example, e-learning has been introduced to support face to face learning programmes; prison officers complete knowledge based workbooks during their initial training.
There are currently no plans to consider a vocational degree programme for prison officer training.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that new prison officers in prisons in England and Wales receive sufficient training to fulfil their role effectively.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Currently, initial training of newly recruited prison officers begins with an eight week Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) course. This includes two weeks officers spend in their prison, an induction week and a week of prison based learning. The training provides new officers with a foundation level of training in all core skill areas including interpersonal skills, mental health awareness, equality, violence reduction and safer custody, alongside the more traditional security awareness and practical skills needed to be a prison officer.
In recognition of the complexity of the role of a prison officer, NOMS plans to increase initial training to twelve weeks. Newly recruited officers will spend 10 weeks at a NOMS learning centre and 2 weeks at their designated prison. This revised course will have an expanded content in relation to safer custody and mental health issues, and there will be a bespoke supporting qualification aimed to prepare new entrant officers to deliver in a rehabilitative culture. There will be more emphasis on building stronger staff-prisoner relationships, with prison officers acting as motivating role models and positively reinforcing values, attitudes and behaviours in order to change their lives.
NOMS attaches great importance to the continuing professional development of prison officers, and the range of learning and development opportunities available to staff supports this. NOMS provides specialist training in areas such as Offender Management, Safer Custody, Use of Force, Hostage Negotiator and Intelligence while generic training is available via Civil Service Learning. Each prison is responsible for assessing the training needs of its officers in order to achieve its business objectives.
The content of all NOMS’ learning programmes is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect policy and legislative changes and the changing needs of the organisation. We are adopting a more flexible approach to learning, for example, e-learning has been introduced to support face to face learning programmes; prison officers complete knowledge based workbooks during their initial training.
There are currently no plans to consider a vocational degree programme for prison officer training.