Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what post-natal (a) depression and (b) trauma support is available for women in custody.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed a specific perinatal pathway across the entire estate, which will support women for twelve months pre and post-delivery providing specialist midwives within the secure environment, including mental health midwifery services and specialist substance misuse midwifery services. The expectation is that this pathway will begin to be fully rolled out across the estate from 2020 onwards.

All services across the secure estate are working to a trauma informed agenda. All service providers should be aware that any patient might have previous trauma that impacts on their presentation and experience of services. Care should be taken that potential trauma is taken account of in all interventions with an individual. Any intervention must be made in a way that prevents triggering or re-traumatising an individual during engagement.