Social Visits

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Visit Testing Updates (22.04.22)

Refreshments in Social Visits

Visits Accrual

Identification Required for Visits (23.04.21)

The forms of ID that social and official visitors need to provide to enter a prison have been updated. 

If you are a social visitor (friends, family members or Official Prison Visitors (OPVs)), you must take with you a valid visiting order plus one form of photo ID from the following list (List A):

• Passports
• Identity cards from an EU or European Economic Area (EEA) country
• UK photocard driving licences
• EU or EEA driving licences
• NI Electoral identity cards
• US passport card
• Proof of age card recognised under PASS with a unique reference number (This includes the Citizen ID card)
• Armed forces identity card
• UK biometric residence permit (BRP)

If you don’t have any of the above ID documents from List A, you can bring one ID document from List B, supported by one document from List C:

List B:

• Home Office travel document (convention travel document, stateless person’s document, one-way document or certificate of travel)
• Older person’s bus pass
• Freedom Pass
• Proof of age card recognised under the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) without a unique reference number (please refer to List A where a unique reference number is present)

List C:

• Birth or adoption certificate
• Education certificate from a regulated and recognised educational institution (such as an NVQ, SQA, GCSE, A level or degree certificate)
• Rental or purchase agreement for a residential property (signed and dated) Marriage or civil partnership certificate Bank, building society or credit union current account card (on which the claimed identity is shown)

If you are not able to take any of the above forms of ID with you to the prison but still need to visit, please contact the prison in advance to discuss the options and your request to visit will be considered by the governor. An eight-week transitional period before the ID requirement changes are fully enforced, beginning the day visits are restarted at individual establishments, should allow you enough time to acquire the necessary ID.

If a Governor uses their discretion to allow a visit in the absence of appropriate ID, it will only apply on that one occasion, and visitors should take suitable ID in future. The cheapest option is the Citizen ID Card which can be applied for at www.citizen.card.com. Prison visitors are eligible for a 50% discount, making the cards cost £7.50 instead of £15.

The full policy is on Gov.UK here.

Family Support Work

With sites re-starting social visits, establishments may look reintroduce family support work as an addition to their existing social visits model where the following caveats are met:

1) The establishment must have a Local Operating Procedure for social visits already approved by Gold and their PGD.
2) The establishment must have PGD support for reintroducing family support work
3) The establishment must be able to deliver family support work with existing resources
4) The establishment must have a pre-existing contract for family support work. New services should not be developed at this point

Provided these conditions can be satisfied, establishments are able to develop a model for reintroducing family case work or support workers. A model for operating this service must be developed collaboratively between the establishment and their contracted provider of family support services. Trades Unions must also be actively involved in this process.

The agreed model must be incorporated into the prison’s existing LOP for social visits. Any accompanying risk assessments and safe systems of work must be updated to incorporate the mitigation for any risks introduced by this activity. We have developed guidance on undertaking one-to-one interviews with prisoners and an associated SOP as this is an element of family support work at some sites and must be undertaken safely. Having amended their LOP and associated risk assessments/SSOW establishments need their respective PGD to sign off the addition. As this is an additional element bolted onto a pre-approved LOP, establishments do not need additional Gold sign off to reintroduce this service.

As we recognise the value of family support work in both stages 3 and 2, establishments remaining at stage 3 are able to follow this process for reintroducing family support before they progress to stage 2. Those prisons working towards stage 2 can follow the same process either now or wait until they have attained stage 2 status, at which point the same process for gaining PGD approval would be activated automatically

Support Materials

The following material has been produced to support communications. Additional material will be shared when available.