Scottish Prisons Assessment and Review of Outcomes for Women (SPAROW): executive summary

Encouraging practices

1. A conducive environment: It is clear that the CCUs are physically designed and equipped in such a way that they provide a conducive environment for the operationalisation and implementation of gender-specific and trauma-informed practice. Living and communal areas reflect the values of the SPS Strategy for Women and the therapeutic ethos of the CCUs. For the most part, women living in the CCUs found the physical environment, including the garden areas, to be peaceful and quiet and most felt safe living there (see Chapters 5 & 7 in the full report for details).

2. On-site access to health and social care staff: The presence of primary care and mental health support in the CCUs meets the principle of equivalence and ensures that women’s rights to health care are unaffected by their incarceration. Women consider that the provison of health and social care in the CCUs is gender specific, accessible, and personalised. As such, women’s access to assessment, treatment and ongoing care ensure that their gendered health needs are addressed. Regular visits by social workers and housing officers provide opportunity for women’s social care needs to be acted upon (see Chapter 5 in the full report for details).

3. Committed and well-intentioned CCU prison staff: Despite wide variation in the experience of staff deployed to the CCUs, and their ambivalence about the value of training, on the whole officers demonstrated commitment to their role and a shared view about wanting to do their best for the women in their care. Many work outside their comfort zones to fulfil that commitment to ’do things differently’, and many use their own resources to buy materials for women when they were not provided by SPS. CCU officers constitute a potentially very strong staff base for the embedding of gender-sensitive and trauma-informed practice for women in their care (see Chapter 8 in the full report for details). For the most part, officers enjoy their work and wish to remain working in the CCUs. However, high levels of staff absence are impacting CCU operations, leading to increased workloads and adversely affecting officer wellbeing. This, in turn, is having an effect on women and the ways in which they perceive their needs to be addressed (see Chapter 7 in the full report).

4. Women’s relationships with CCU prison staff: On the whole, women considered that CCU officers had their best interests at heart and provided support and assistance to them throughout their time in the CCUs. They were particularly appreciative of the help they received from officers upon their arrival at a CCU. For the most part, women spoke positively of the relationships that have been built with staff, in particular but not exclusively, their Personal Officer. However, as time went on, some women felt that the amount of time their Personal Officer spent with them decreased. Women were pleased and grateful for the respect that they are shown by officers, that they are listened to and that officers try to answer any questions that they might have, with some going ‘the extra mile’ to help them. Feeling that recognition, receiving positive encouragement and having their strengths recognised was highly valued by women and some reflected that it had inspired their confidence and motivation and made them feel more equipped to move on (see Chapter 7 in the full report for details).

5. Goal setting: Some women, particularly those serving longer sentences in the CCUs, had the opportunity to be involved in the setting of their own goals and development plans. This was done in collaboration with their Personal Officer and their social workers. It promoted a sense that they were being treated with respect and bolstered the development of interpersonal relationships with officers. It also reassured women that they were being prepared for the decisions they would be required to make upon release.

6. Family visits: The importance of maintaining family ties, in terms of women’s wellbeing and motivation, is key to their reintegration into the community. The CCU family visitor facilities are viewed positively by those women who have maintained good relationships with their families and whose families visit them. Opportunities for frequent family visits are considered a key benefit of the CCUs. In particular, women are able to see and interact freely with their children and grandchildren in a relaxed setting that is conducive to maintaining and strengthening family relations (see Chapter 7 in the full report).

7. Delivery partner engagement: In principle, the engagement of statutory and third sector delivery partners to deliver services into the CCUs is a positive development that enables partners with different remits and skill-bases to work with the women and support community reintegration (see Chapter 5 in the full report). However, delivery partners anticipated that their engagement with women would extend into the community. The limited space in the CCUs for some activities (for example no library, very small gym space) encouraged a view that the CCUs would support greater community interaction. This was not the case in practice. delivery partners who had secured SPS partnership status, after a lengthy process, were often limited to delivering their services within the CCU. This was managed as effectively as possible. Some delivery partners tried to focus on connecting with women (where they met the criteria for their service) and to encourage them to follow up the service on release (see Chapter 9 in the full report).

This was recognised as a challenge and one that throughcare provision may previously have addressed. Delivery partners highlighted this issue of throughcare and reintegration in the context of the closure of services such as the 218 Centre (a Glasgow-based service offering a comprehensive programme of support for women as an alternative to a custodial sentence). They noted that CCUs appear to be seen (in some settings) as a substitute for 218 but clearly constitute a prison setting rather than a community setting (in contrast to the recommendations from the Commission for Women Offenders Report (2012)).