NPM Bulletin – November 2024
Welcome
II am pleased to share the fifth UK NPM bulletin. We are keen to receive your feedback about this publication to ensure it meets your needs, and invite you to answer three questions to share your thoughts.
It has been an eventful month for the UK NPM. Chair Sherry Ralph and I have had the opportunity to meet with representatives from many of the organisations that make up the UK NPM to understand your priorities, what the NPM is doing well, and what we can do better. Those views will contribute to the 2025-26 NPM Business Plan, which will be launched at the NPM Annual Conference in April 2025. In October, representatives from the NPM Steering Group met with a delegation from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) during their UK visit, to discuss key concerns in prisons. On World Menopause Day, 18 Oct, the NPM was pleased to release a Menopause in Detention toolkit in partnership with ICVA, which you can learn more about below. We have added this toolkit to our growing repository of resources for monitors and inspectors.
As an established NPM, it is part of our mandate to share our experience and expertise with new NPMs, so I was pleased to be invited speak about NPM best practice in Dublin in October, and via a virtual address to the Australian Parliament in November. Later this month, I will present the activities of the UK NPM to the UK Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (UNSPT).
November is another busy month for the NPM Central Team. The Steering Group and Scotland Subgroup will both be convening, and our team will meet for our annual strategy day to assess our performance against our objectives and plan our work ahead. Jane continues to finalise the details of the 2023-24 Annual Report and is working on an NPM training needs analysis and a social care project. In Scotland, Chelsea has been coordinating a roundtable meeting on mental health transfer data and working on a project related to secure accommodation for children. We look forward to onboarding our new Support Officer in the coming months, which will increase our team capacity significantly.
As always, we invite you to please cascade this bulletin to your staff and volunteers so that they can stay current on the latest NPM news. If you have received a forwarded copy of this bulletin and would like to be added to the subscription list, please reply to this email.
Thank you for reading.
Sam Gluckstein, Head of UK NPM
National Subgroups
The Scotland Subgroup is looking forward to welcoming new Chair Angela O’Hagan (SHRC) at their 14 November meeting. The subgroup has been busy planning a roundtable to address the lack of accurate data on the time taken for prisoners to receive a mental health assessment, and to subsequently be transferred to a mental health bed, if referred. The group is also developing an action plan to address rising deaths in custody in Scotland.
The Northern Ireland Subgroup is preparing for its next meeting on 12 December, and continues to develop their workstreams relating to information gaps on deaths in detention and serious adverse incidents, and personality disorder in custody.
Blog: Menopause in detention settings
In this month’s blog, Claire Taylor, Independent Custody Visiting Scheme Manager in Sussex, reflects on the origins of the NPM menopause in detention toolkit, launched on World Menopause Day, 18 October. Read the blog to hear her story and access the guidance.
Spotlight reports
CQC – State of Care report
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published their annual State of Care report which finds that too many people are waiting too long for a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) authorisation, despite local authorities trying their best to reduce backlogs, and argues that the system has needed reform for over 10 years, leaving people in vulnerable circumstances without legal protection. The report also raises concerns about poor quality seclusion rooms within forensic services, citing an inspection which found a seclusion room with no natural light and intercom facilities that did not work. Read the full report here: State of Care 2023-24
ICVA – Referral pathway for detainees experiencing symptoms of Menopause
The Independent Custody Visiting Association has published an impact report on recent work in collaboration with Sussex Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (SOPCC) and national stakeholders to establish a menopause referral pathway to support female detainees in police custody, which is now included in best practice national guidance part of the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) – an important step towards ensuring all detainees are treated humanely and with dignity in police custody. Read the full report here: Menopause Impact Report.
CJI – Inspection report on the Governance and Operation of the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland
CJI published an inspection report on the Governance and Operation of the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland (PCNI) which found that the proportion of decisions made to release prisoners from custody where release was an option had declined and the number of prisoners released and then recalled was concerning to Inspectors, especially given the size of the prison population and pressures on accommodation and resources. Read the full report here: PCNI Inspection Report
Latest news from NPM bodies
- People news:
- Kevin Barker has been appointed Deputy Chief Inspector for Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)
- Professor Angela O’Hagan, new Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, wrote an article Where now for human rights in Scotland?
- The Care Inspectorate has released a statement regarding “serious and significant concerns about the quality of care experienced by young people at St Mary’s Kenmure,” a secure accommodation service in Scotland, after the setting received the lowest score of “1 – Unsatisfactory” in a recent unannounced inspection. They have also released their Q2 Statistical Summary Report and annual Whistleblowing disclosures report.
- CIW and the Welsh Government have launched new national guidance for registering a care home for children.
- Criminal Justice Inspectorate NI (CJI) has published an Inspection report on the Governance and Operation of the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland (PCNI). Interviews for the role of Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice at CJI will take place week commencing 11 November.
- CJI, RQIA and the NIPB Human Rights Advisor are finalising a Follow-Up Review of the 2020 Police Custody inspection. A protocol in being developed between CJI and NIPB ICVS to prevent sanctions in police custody.
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its annual State of Care report which includes findings on the operation of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in 2023-24 as well as its Annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA) and their findings from a Special review of mental health services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which included a focused review of Rampton High Secure Hospital. These reports contribute toCQC commitment to publish findings on good and poor practice in relation to human rights, as outlined in CQC Human Rights Approach to regulation.
- Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) has published its 2023-24 annual report, highlighting recurring themes related to deaths in custody, mental health bed shortages, and delays to the authorisation of DoLS applications, resulting in people being deprived of their liberty with no legal protection or opportunity to challenge.
- HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland has published a Custody Inspection Report of Argyll and West Dunbartonshire, which was conducted jointly with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons has released several publications, including:
- Urgent notifications for HMP Manchester and HMP Winchester
- Inspection reports: HMP Garth, HMP/YOI Drake Hall, HMP/YOI Hatfield, HMP Bedford, Short-term holding facilities at Western Jet Foil, Manston and Kent Intake Units, HMP The Verne
- ICVA has published its 2023-24 annual report (Welsh version), as well as a menopause update report.
- IMB has published its Annual Report 2023-24, as well as several annual monitoring reports, highlighting population pressures at HMP Pentonville, challenges with violence and disruption at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, and a lack of purposeful activity at HMP Belmarsh.
- The Independent Custody Visiting Scheme NI published Its Annual Report 2023-2024.
- The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has published reports following visits HMP Addiewell, HMP Dumfries and HMP Edinburgh. Commission visitors talk to patients, relatives and staff, and examine records. The Commission expects a response to each of its recommendations within three months of the reports being published. MWCS also published the Mental Health Act Monitoring Report for 2023-24, which shows that numbers of detentions of people in Scotland for compulsory mental health care and treatment rose during the year, while safeguards fell.
- OFSTED has launched OFSTED Academy, which offers training, learning and professional development to inspectors. They have also published a blog with regards to children’s homes: Regulation 45 reviews and reports – what you need to know.
If we missed anything, or if you have a report, blog post or news story you would like to share in the next bulletin, please send us an email.
Training and external reports of interest
This month we would like to once again highlight the new Menopause Toolkit jointly launched by the NPM and ICVA, which contains a video and guidance document, and can be found on the UK NPM Training Resources page.
We would also highlight Penal Reform International’s training on the UN Bangkok Rules on women offenders and prisoners, which has two options:
- Free e-learning course Women in Detention: putting the Bangkok Rules into practice (requires free account creation)
- Free PDF workbook for self-directed learning
Upcoming events and activities
12 Nov: NPM Central Team will participate in UN SPT “Independence of the National Preventive Mechanisms”, Online
14 Nov: NPM Scotland Subgroup meeting, Edinburgh
20 Nov: CQC National Safeguarding Weeksession “The UK National Preventive Mechanism – Monitoring Under OPCAT” by Jane Kilpatrick, Online
25 Nov: NPM Steering Group meeting, London
26 Nov: NPM Central Team strategy day, London
12 Dec: NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup meeting, Online
Thank you for reading!
This bulletin is compiled each month by the NPM Central Team. If you have any news you would like to share, please let us know.
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