Author: Michael Harrison

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Prisons will report the status of their regime to the Regional Silver on a daily basis. All establishments should be running to their agreed ERMP and reporting this as ‘Red’ in line with the limitations against a normal prison regime. Where establishments are unable to deliver the any of the four Key Regime Priorities, they should report this as ‘Black.’ Where it is identified that regimes are running at ‘Black,’ and it is projected that this will continue unless remedial action is taken, please contact Chris Gunderson or Michael Harrison.

All contents within this guidance are to be treated as OFFICIAL and the link to the platform is not to be shared externally.

Contingency processes have been agreed to ensure that HMPPS will be able to purchase and pay for goods and services as normal during this time; support will also be provided for purchasing via GPC and a central team.

Detailed guidance will be issued shortly but please note that at present business as usual processes should be followed. If there are any difficulties ordering goods under contract due to low stock levels, please consult with the relevant category lead in CCMD who will be able to advise further.

Signs

To meet the public sector prisons (PSP) need, Prison Industries, Catering, Retail & PE (PSPI), in conjunction with health and safety colleagues have produced a suite of COVID-19 related signs and notices.

Initial production of these signs has now commenced and distribution will be via Regional PPE Hubs. This is to ensure that availability is consistent throughout PSP and to negate the need for prisons to procure through external suppliers. The formal process for prisons to order signs via Regional PPE hubs will be shared with Governors, Regional PPE SPoCs and HS&F teams soon.

PSPI will be focusing production on central demand/supplies and therefore prisons should not place orders directly with PSPI printing workshops.

All contents within this guidance are to be treated as OFFICIAL and the link to the platform is not to be shared externally.

HM Courts have prioritised listing of Custody Time Limited and Convicted/Unsentenced hearings. To allow prisons to continue effectively servicing the courts, we have already advised that we were urgently rolling out a service across prisons with existing video capability to allow people to join video calls remotely. Thanks to governors, directors and staff in our prisons, the new service, video meeting rooms (VMR), has been rolled out and tested across the Local/Reception estate. Work is underway to rollout and test the service at remaining prisons with existing compatible video capability.

The new service went live on Monday 27 April as part of a phased rollout. The order of rollout will align with HMCTS-led work to switch on video meeting rooms across the court estate.

In anticipation of increased demand, and to alleviate pressure on prisons, the new central booking service became available on 27 April for those prisons ready to serve the courts. The slots available are limited. We are therefore focusing on supporting the highest priority work listed by the courts, namely bail and sentencing hearings and custody time limited cases. We are also making slots available for the defence and probation consultations necessary to progress these priority cases. With the exception of those consultations required for scheduled Parole Board hearings, we are not able to make them available for other categories of legal consultation. (Please note that HMP Belmarsh will continue to take its own bookings.)

The new video service does not have capacity for general consultations, and criminal justice system professionals are being directed to make use of telephone contact with prisoners for other essential consultations instead.

We will brief the defence community and NPS so they are aware once the system is ready in the additional prisons listed, and so they know how to make bookings. We will also remind them that the service is for priority work only and not for general consultations.

We are now preparing to engage with governors and staff in the training and resettlement estate to ready them to support Parole Board and court hearings, police and probation interviews and psychological consultations through their existing PCVL equipment.

Due to anticipated demand, the slots available are likely to be limited, and prisons will aim to support the highest priority work. In particular, this will include Parole Board, court, and extradition hearings. It will also include the consultations with legal advisers, probation and psychologists necessary to progress these cases and hearings. Other uses of prison CVP VMR will be at the discretion of the prison and will depend on whether they have capacity.

We will brief the Parole Board, psychologists and NPS so they are aware once the system is ready in the prisons listed, and so they know how to make bookings. We will also remind them that availability may be prioritised as equipment at many sites is limited.

For those prisons currently using VMR, or about to have it installed, to enable the content sharing over Cloud Video Platform VMR, all video end points across HMPPS require a remote update to the video equipment. This update will take place on the evenings of 17, 18 and 19 June from 17:00 onwards and does not require any on-site user interaction. To enable this update video equipment needs to remain powered on. Please ask video staff to ensure that all video equipment is left powered on at the end of the day over these 3 days. If you have any CVP vmr video calls booked for after 5pm on these days please can your video staff contact reconfigurationpmo@digital.justice.gov.uk. I attach a wallchart that can be displayed to discourage anyone from turning off the equipment.

If you have any questions, please contact reconfigurationpmo@digital.justice.gov.uk.

All contents within this guidance are to be treated as OFFICIAL and the link to the platform is not to be shared externally.

With regard to existing PPO investigations, investigators will make contact with prisons and seek to continue them – perhaps by obtaining documents or holding out telephone calls. The PPO understand that, at certain points, prisons may not be in a position to assist them due to the exceptional pressures arising from covid-19. If that is the case then Governors have the discretion to explain that to the investigator. If Governors are able to support investigations, at the time of the request or at a subsequent point, then they should endeavour to help as usual.

Meanwhile, prisons should continue to ensure that evidence and other items relating to deaths, or incidents which might lead to complaints, are preserved so that the PPO can access them when they are in a position to resume normal service. The standard list of items that the PPO request when they open an investigation into a death is included below – it is tailored according to each case, so they may not need everything in every case and they may add other case-specific items where relevant, but this may be a helpful guide for the things you should preserve. The items marked in red are those that the PPO think are most at risk of being destroyed, and therefore where special action may be needed to ensure they are preserved. With regard to incidents which might lead to complaints, the types of evidence most likely to need preserving might be CCTV or BWVC evidence.

Where possible, investigators would prefer to receive documentation electronically during the COVID-19 period due to increased home working and therefore a lack of secure storage facility for sensitive documents. Please contact your investigators to discuss a safe and practical process of sharing documents electronically where possible.

The PPO wrote to all prison Governors on the 6th May requesting information about current capacity for complaints handling. The letter is available below.

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Pregnant staff should refer to the HR guidance available at Pregnancy – HMPPS Intranet (gsi.gov.uk) for advice.

 

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Prison PPE supply and ordering of disposable gloves and aprons for business as usual tasks (22.10.21)

There are large central stocks of nitrile gloves and disposable aprons for BAU use held at NDC Branston, sourced in bulk earlier in the pandemic to cover for supplier shortages.

Establishments are advised these items should be ordered on SOP from Branston via the Branston i-proc catalogue and not ordered via the Arco portal until further notice.

When placing the order search the i-proc catalogue for the codes listed below:

Product codes;

Disposable Nitrile Gloves – EN374:5:2016

Unit price £10:50 per box of 100

• Medium – item 7065
• Large –     item 7066
• X Large – item 7067

Disposable Aprons  – Overhead loop apron with back waist ties, suitable for use in i.e. food production areas / healthcare to shield clothing from stains caused by splashing and dirt in the workplace.

Unit price zero,  per pack of 1000

• White Disposable  – item 7061
• Red Disposable    – item 7062

It is worth noting there are no caps on these products, please order as required.

Reminder

• The COVID PPE hub will continue to supply gloves and aprons to meet the appropriate requirements for use in-line with COVID SOP’s .

Please direct any queries related to the above to the following email;  Health-Safety.national@justice.gov.uk

Hot Weather and Heat Control Guidance (17.06.21)

IPC & PPE Training (23.04.21)

Delivery of the PPE & IPC training continues to remain part of the HMPPS combined measures for our COVID controls. Prisons will still be required to ensure this delivery is maintained. Local training outcomes however do not restrict a Prison’s ability to progress to Stage 3. The use of HMPPS SOPs and H&S COVID guidance documents all include the necessary  information for the use of PPE and hygiene measures in activities and settings. This will have been further specified with Prison LOPs and the EDM process. Prisons are requested to ensure staff have sufficient knowledge of PPE & IPC protocols via the use of both training and procedural information. Local TU colleagues must continue to be part of the COVID workplace inspections and also part of the discussions of local COVID controls and actions. During this period Prisons are requested to ensure the current face to face training continues at pace and also captures non-operational colleagues. Using a variety of face to face training options should be explored where possible to increase training figures where needed.

PPE Guidance

Establishments should remain up to date with current Government guidance around social distancing and self-isolation and ensure that local operating procedures are updated to address the issues posed during the COVID-19 period. This can be found at GOV.UK. Public Health England (PHE) have also published guidance on outbreaks in places of detention, attached below.

Safe Operating Procedures which detail the PPE requirements for individual activities/tasks are available at: Safe Operating Procedures.

Additional guidance has been produced around the use of PPE by those with beards or stubble and is attached below.

PPE Expectation of Health Delivery Partners

Governors and Probation Managers are reminded that decisions on levels of PPE are the responsibility of the respective employer.

Following the Health Secretary’s announcement that face masks are required at all times for staff in hospitals last week, NHS trusts and hospital providers have now updated their guidance on PPE and infection control expectations for their employees. This includes a number of trusts who have issued the requirement that all staff in their employment ‘in any role in any setting’ are required to wear PPE at all times, with some exceptions, for example eating, drinking or in a designated COVID19 safe area. This has an impact therefore on any health service employees working in Prison and Probation settings.

It is acknowledged that health provider employed staff and HMPPS may deploy different levels of PPE for the same settings/situations/tasks. This applies to health staff working in residential healthcare departments (in-patient units), but also health partners in other health settings such as OPD Services or Stabilisation Units.

It is important that Governors/Probation Managers mitigate the impact of this difference by working in partnership with their health providers to communicate with staff and prisoners/residents why the difference exists, that no one approach is inferior to the other, and that different employers have the right to determine different levels of PPE they wish their staff to wear, based on the type of activity, location and frequency of contact.

It is important to remind staff and prisoners/residents that HMPPS PPE instruction is based on specific Public Health guidance for prison and probation settings, and to reinforce messages that regular hand washing and social distancing continue to be essential as part of our infection control measures. In many cases partner organisations will apply their organisational policy to all employees, regardless of the setting they work in. Health partners must be made aware that they can be requested by HMPPS staff to remove face masks temporarily for identification purposes.

Recent announcements for hospital settings do not apply to HMPPS employed staff working in HMPPS settings. HMPPS is working with PHE and the NHS to consider additional guidance for people working outside of hospital settings in response to changes within the health sector.

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09/05/22: Please use the following link to the Post National Framework page for all up to date guidance following the exit of the National Framework

Access to Wellbeing Funds (17.12.2021)

As per the Gold Brief that went out today and the communications from last week – regime mitigations will be introduced nationally as a result of the national move to Stage 3.  As part of this announcement, the £5 weekly PIN Credit will be reinstated (whilst continuing to retain the cap). Credits will be applied nationally from the center with the first credits actioned on Thursday 23 December and will continue to be applied on Thursday’s going forward.

• If your establishment had previously introduced PIN credits in response to local circumstances using local budget it is important that this is no longer implemented at a local level in order to avoid duplication or overpayment once it is introduced centrally (from Thursday 23 December). This national credit supersedes any prisons that have requested the implementation of credit in the last few days as this national introduction will apply across all prisons (including those privately managed).

Secure Video Calls

Video Call Monitoring (13.07.21)

Regime Mitigations

Temporary Mobile Pin Phones

HMPPS have provided temporary mobile PIN phones (TMPPs) to assist in maintaining positive contact between prisoners and their family and friends in the face of COVID related regime restrictions and infection management. These have been provided to establishments without in-cell technology and to sites with temporary accommodations units. The TMPPs have been well received by prisoners and colleagues and to date over 630k calls have been made and monitored appropriately. Usage and users continues to increase with a very low rate of breach. In the face of continuing COVID challenges, it has been agreed that the TMPPs will remain in place until April 2021.

We will now begin to transfer the some monitoring of the TMPPs back to establishments. This has previously taken place offsite, but due to the need to strengthen security and business continuity, a number of establishments will now be required to resume their own monitoring. Installation of the necessary servers and additional cabling will begin in December 2020. Establishments will receive further guidance on this once the required equipment is ready to be installed. We are also taking the opportunity to review monitoring in lower risk groups to ensure limited resources are targeted at highest threats.

Additional guidance has been provided for the safe management of the temporary mobile pin phones for staff anf management:

Access to iPads

iPads were issued to facilitate emergency compassionate contact between residents and family when establishments were unable to escort residents to funerals and/or to see dying relatives. The use of iPads has been extended to allow ‘live-letters’ to be recorded and emailed to family – a short 30 second video of a resident letting family know that they are in good spirits.

iPads now have MS Teams installed and Governors and their teams can use teams to attend meetings, additional iPads were provided to Executive Directors and PGDs to allow them to facilitate meetings with their teams.
We continue to identify other beneficial ways in which the iPads can be used and are working with Psychology Services to consider how iPads might support psychological assessments and other mental health services.

Digital and Technology Purchases

With the current challenges COVID 19 has brought, there has been an increase in establishments looking to locally purchase (or be gifted) non-assured or non-approved hardware or software for use ‘in-cell’ or within prisons. Whilst we remain sympathetic and welcome the innovation colleagues are displaying during these difficult times, maintaining a responsibility to ensure we continue to protect the public continues to be of the upmost importance.

As you will appreciate, the requirement for all IT provision within prisons, and especially that which is placed in a prisoner facing situation, must still undergo the appropriate Information and IT security processes, including that of Information Assurance and IT Security. Prior to committing to any technology purchases or the utilisation of free devices being offered via third party organisations, please ensure the process outlined in the below letter is adhered to.

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In the event of COVID-19 shortages, establishments must determine at a local level the priorities within their Business and People hub operations that must be maintained. Administration of essential prisoner processes such as prisoner pay, prisoner applications, complaints and canteen should be maintained to a normal level wherever possible to ensure local stability within establishments. Consideration should be given to identifying these essential tasks at the earliest opportunity and to train a small number of staff from other areas to undertake these duties if required.  

All contents within this guidance are to be treated as OFFICIAL and the link to the platform is not to be shared externally.

Faith services and pastoral care are an important part of prison life. Current guidance from religious leads in the UK are that corporate worship is to be suspended and prisons will reflect the same during the period of COVID-19 in order to prevent the spread of the virus where possible.

We are approaching a busy period for Chaplaincy teams with Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, Easter and Passover all falling during the minimum predicted COVID-19 period. It is paramount that the faith needs of those in our care are dealt with sensitively and effectively and this will involve radically adjusting the way pastoral care is delivered. Governors are encouraged to make arrangements with their chaplaincy team to support prisoners with their faith needs during this time. Chaplaincy Headquarters are providing ongoing updates to local Chaplaincy teams. Below is a useful Q&A from Chaplaincy Headquarters to assist establishments in their planning:

Currently, we are trying to make as much alternative provision as possible. A number of the Faith Advisers have produced worship material and sermons/meditation notes which can be given to prisoners and used in cell. Please make sure that you make use of these. If you have not received these please speak to the relevant Faith Adviser.

In addition there is a daily slot on National Prison Radio which has been shared out amongst the different Faiths providing reflection and spiritual guidance. This includes a Friday lunchtime Muslim sermon and a Sunday morning Christian service. There are also programmes taking place on Wayout TV which have Chaplaincy input for those prisoners who have access to this facility.