Strategic Grant - Emotional Support to Prisoners in Distress or Crisis 2022-2025

Description

***THIS IS FOR GRANT FUNDING NOT A CONTRACT*** Over several years, Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Ministry of Justice have provided a grants programme for voluntary sector organisations, including charities and social enterprises, working to reduce reoffending. We are now inviting applications for this Strategic grant from 2022 - 2025 to support key objectives. The purpose of this grant project is to provide and/or enable the provision of emotional support to prisoners in distress or crisis and to ensure that such support is available across England and Wales. This scheme makes a significant contribution to HMPPS' safer custody agenda of keeping prisoners safe and reducing self-inflicted deaths. This grant will provide the provision of the following activities across both England and Wales: - Providing emotional support to prisoners throughout their time in custody, including on first reception. This includes supporting and helping prisoners who are at risk of self-harm or suicide, or experiencing other forms of crisis, to find alternative routes through their distress. Emotional support is provided face to face and through peer support as far as possible, and through other methods where necessary; - Providing training and ongoing support to those individuals who are themselves providing the emotional support to prisoners; - Improving safer custody policy and practice by: - Providing expertise, knowledge and tools to prisons and prison staff; - Sharing learning with prison establishments to enhance understanding of prisoners' needs at times of emotional distress; - Providing anonymised information about the service (which does not breach any confidentiality of the support) to prisons and at national level, to assist the wider safer custody agenda; - Providing evidence and evaluation of the impacts of the emotional support provided; and - Providing a postvention service to prisons, including a proactive offer of support to prisoners, as well as information for staff and prisoners and guidance for Governors and other managers.