HMP YOI Deerbolt

HMP YOI Deerbolt is a Category C, male adult training prison. The prison is located in Barnard Castle, County Durham. The healthcare services are provided by Spectrum Community Healthcare C.I.C. (Spectrum).

We carried out a joint inspection with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in December 2024, where we found the quality of primary healthcare, medicines and staffing needed improvement. We issued action plan requests in relation to breaches of regulations relating to safe care and treatment, governance and staffing. We followed up these concerns as part of a joint independent review of progress with HMIP in October 2025; the provider had made some improvements, however there was more work to be done. A further action plan request was then issued in relation to governance.

The purpose of this focused assessment was to determine if the provider was now meeting the legal requirements of the relevant regulations. This was carried out alongside a joint inspection with HMIP in August 2026. At this assessment, we assessed 2 quality statements in the safe and well-led key questions. We found the provider had made the required improvements.

We do not currently rate services provided in prisons. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.

Improvements had been made to incident reporting and oversight. Incidents were reviewed during the daily safety huddle which enabled managers to check that staff had appropriately reported them. There was better oversight of trends and themes in incidents being reported locally, which was reported to the provider. Investigations were allocated for investigation and dealt with in a timely manner, with any learning shared with the staff team.

Records relating to additional training completed by staff were now in place. There was a clear structure in place for governance and oversight meetings which were held regularly. These included medicines management and clinical governance meetings.

HMP Deerbolt is a Category C men’s training prison operated by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The prison is located near Barnard Castle, County Durham in the Northeast of England, and can accommodate around 500 prisoners.

Spectrum Community Health C.I.C. is the provider of healthcare services at HMP Deerbolt. The provider is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities at the location: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and Diagnostic and screening procedures.

At our previous joint inspection with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in December 2024, we found the provider was in breach of 3 regulations:

• Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment
• Regulation 17: Good governance
• Regulation 18: Staffing

We issued the provider an Action Plan Request in relation to the above breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This required the provider to detail how they planned to meet the relevant legal requirements of these regulations.

The previous joint inspection report was published on the HMIP website on 24 March 2025. The joint inspection report can be found at: https://cloud-platform e218f50a4812967ba1215eaecede923f.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/19/2025/03/Deerbolt-2025-web.pdf

On 13, 14, and 15 October 2025, we accompanied HMIP during their Independent Review of Progress (IRP) and carried out a focused inspection of healthcare services provided by Spectrum Community Health C.I.C. at HMP Deerbolt, to assess progress against the concerns previously identified.

During this inspection we looked at 3 quality statements. We found the provider had made some improvements. The provider was no longer in breach of Regulation 12, Safe care and treatment, or Regulation 18, Staffing. However, the provider remained in breach of Regulation 17, Good governance.

We found that processes around medicines had improved, and people were now receiving their medicines on time. Complaints were managed confidentially, in line with the provider’s policy and independent of the prison service. The provider worked well in partnership with the prison to improve access to healthcare. Staffing had also improved: agency staff were reintroduced to support rota gaps, a new shift pattern increased clinical time and improved skill mix, and zone working enhanced access for service users.

However, governance remained a concern. We were not assured by the progress made in clinical incident reporting and risk monitoring, particularly the analysis and use of this data to accurately inform service risks and track improvements.

We do not currently rate healthcare services provided in prisons. Instead, we highlight good practice, identify areas for improvement, and take regulatory action where necessary.