HMP Winchester

Updated 6 February 2023

HMP Winchester is a small Victorian reception prison that serves the courts in south and central England. At the time of this inspection it held 630 prisoners in the main category B prison and a small, separate category C facility. Over half of all prisoners were unsentenced and nearly 90% had been at Winchester for 3 months or less. The prison is operated by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

Practice Plus Group Health & Rehabilitation Services Limited (PPG) is the prime provider of health care at HMP Winchester, including mental health and substance misuse services, with subcontracted services including Time for Teeth, which provided dental care.

PPG is registered to provide the following regulated activities at the location: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and Diagnostic and screening procedures.

Our previous comprehensive inspection was conducted jointly with HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in January/February 2022 and published on the HMIP website on 25 May 2022. We found a breach of Regulation 17, Good governance; and a breach of Regulation 18, Staffing. The report can be found through the following link:

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/05/Winchester-web-2022-1.pdf

Updated 6 February 2023

We carried out an announced follow up inspection of healthcare services provided by Practice Plus Group Health & Rehabilitation Services Limited (PPG) at HMP Winchester on 14 to 16 November 2022. This was in response to a HMP comprehensive inspection carried out in January/February 2022 when we found the quality of care required improvement. We issued two Requirement Notices in relation to Regulation 17: Good governance; and Regulation 18: Staffing.

The purpose of this focused follow up inspection was to determine if the healthcare services provided by PPG were now meeting the legal requirements of the above regulations, under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

At this inspection we found the required improvements had been made and the provider was meeting the regulations.

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.

At this inspection we found:

• Systems and processes to ensure that onward referrals were made and tracked following the identification of mental health needs had been introduced.
• Systems aimed to ensure patients were monitored and received care and treatment in line with presenting risks.
• Processes to ensure the effective sharing of patient risks had been strengthened.
• Staff vacancies remained a challenge in the delivery of care of treatment. New systems, however, had been implemented to ensure tasks were prioritised effectively.
• Many, but not all staff, received managerial and clinical supervision in line with company policy.
• A new Practice Plus Group supervision tool had been introduced to improve quality and consistency in its delivery.
• Staff felt supported and were able to access supervision forums.
• A system to record and monitor supervision had recently been introduced.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The provider should ensure that all staff receive clinical and managerial supervision in line with company policy.
• The provider should ensure that all eligible staff who undertake the role of early days in custody practitioner are upskilled in triage and revised systems and processes.