Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of contracting (a) rehabilitation, (b) therapy and (c) other similar services for frontline staff.

In full recognition of the challenging aspects of front-line prison and probations services-based work, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) provides a wide range of formal contracted rehabilitation, therapy, physical and mental health support for its staff.

The principal merits of external contracted services are firstly, that the robust Crown Service Commercial tender process requires a strict evaluation criterion and moderation exercise where all the evaluation forms and notes become public record. This means that the successful bidder has been selected fairly, on the merits of their service provision and without conflict of interest. As the largest individual customer of services through this framework, the Ministry of Justice takes a key role in defining the services that must be provided and the standards that contractors must meet before gaining access to the framework. Secondly, due to the wide geographically dispersed nature of our HMPPS working population across the UK with some overseas staff, it is imperative that the contractors are capable of delivering a range of services to 62,801 full time equivalent staff in post (HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Thirdly, contractors are subject to a series of performance measures set by both the Crown Commercial Service and the department which are reported at set intervals and managed accordingly in order to ensure staff have rapid access to services. This allows regular evaluation of service quality and effectiveness but also ensures that the correct governance structures remain in place, such as GDPR for handling employee personal data and ensuring their data protection rights. Fourthly, the contracted model of employee health services benefits from impartiality, in that independent external clinical advice is given to the employee confidentially and if appropriate with consent, to the referring line manager.

The contracted services for staff health and wellbeing include occupational health (OH), employee assistance programmes (EAP) and reflective sessions. These contracts include a variety of services which include but are not limited to therapeutic or rehabilitative interventions and are aggregated based on specialisms to ensure the MoJ has access to the most relevant services. Working with subject matter experts employed by the third-party providers, the department has the benefit of being able to explore and implement innovative and value-adding employee health and wellbeing services for front-line staff. This model is also vital to ensuring that the breadth of services can be delivered consistently across the prison and probation estate. The merits of contracted services can be evidenced upon illustration of the wide range of services that are hereby listed:

Occupational Health

• Prison officer pre-employment health assessments at national Fitness Centres

• Performance and Attendance management referrals for advice on fitness for work and reasonable adjustments due to ill health, disability and/or following an accident/injury at work

• Post-Covid Syndrome Referral Service

• Fast track Trauma referrals

• EMDR and CBT (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

• Immunisations and vaccination history checks.

• Health Surveillance

• Physiotherapy

• Workstation and workplace ergonomics

• Dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions assessments  13

• Occupational Therapy

• Ill-health retirement and advice on eligibility for ill-health early retirement

• Body Fluid Exposure & Sharps Injury Support

• Online Physio Support

• Online Health Condition Management

Employee Assistance Programmes

• Employee self-referral to 24/7 confidential telephone helpline staffed by qualified counsellors

• Face to face or online counselling Services, including therapeutic interventions

• Bullying and harassment support

• Management support services

• Support and advice on personal matters e.g. health, relationships, family, financial, emotional, legal, anxiety, alcohol, drugs and other issues.

• Support for work matters - work demands, working relationships, work/life balance, stress and other related issues

• Reflective Sessions

• Trauma and Critical Incident Support

• Health and wellbeing promotion, such as wellbeing and mental health related workshops and training programmes

• Mediation