In December, we were delighted to celebrate the end of a successful first year supporting people across the 10 male estate prisons in the South West. Our goal is to help each person who accesses our services to regain control, make positive changes, grow as a person, and live life to its full potential.
We do this by providing a broad range of one to one and group-based interventions including:
- Initial advice and support
- Harm minimisation
- Treatment reviews with clinical partners at Oxleas
- Recovery planning
- Programmes and workshops
- Peer led mutual aid
- Family work
- Preparation for release
- Through The Gates support
So far, we have provided this support to 3,759 people within South West prisons and the feedback we have received has been incredibly positive.
Throughout our first year we have also had the opportunity to refurbish many of our workspaces within the prisons which has really enhanced the working environment.
We are committed to making our services as accessible as possible and are currently undertaking an exciting piece of work around becoming more user-friendly for people who are neurodivergent. We’re also excited to be launching our accredited peer mentoring programme and developing our volunteering package to further harness the power of lived experience.
We can’t achieve any of this without the ongoing support from our valued partners in the prisons and communities that we serve.
Matt Wall
Head of Services – Midlands and Southwest Prisons
Improving outcomes for people who are neurodivergent
Change Grow Live, in partnership with NHS and Oxleas, are leading the redesign of a specialist pathway to develop services and make it easier for people with autism or other neurodivergent conditions to use our services across the South West.
A recent joint review by criminal justice inspectorates estimates that around half of those entering prison have some form of neurodivergent condition which impacts their ability to engage. This is much higher than in the outside community and makes it even more of a priority to address.
Our key objectives include improving health and justice outcomes for neurodivergent people in the criminal justice system through improved accessibility, inclusion and drug and alcohol outcomes.
The project will pilot the pathway within 4 prison sites, before rolling it out into other regions. Pilot sites include: HMP Dartmoor, HMP Exeter, HMP Guys Marsh and HMP Leyhill.
Our partner – Genius Within – a largely neurodivergent led consultancy organisation, will support specific project milestones, including a comprehensive audit of all key service user touch points, to identify areas where we can make improvements.
Recommendations will inform a ‘test and learn’ approach, re-designing service elements and testing them with staff and the people who use our services before delivering a finalised pathway across all 10 prison sites. We are passionate about ensuring people with a lived experience are at the centre of all design and redesign activity, understanding that their voice must drive the change we want to see to achieve meaningful impact.
“With the journey I have personally been on I believe my lived experience with substance misuse is valuable and can encourage others to take time to think about and make changes to their lifestyles” Sully, HMP Leyhill.