Space dedicated to supporting prison health commissioning

It is worth noting that during this time the government has launched a number of consultations under the title "Liberating the NHS", many of these consultations will impact on the governance of prison health commissioning. More information about this is available on our home page and on our resources and links page.

The information on this page will help local commissioners improve the provision of the services and the prison health partnership boards that they are involved in.

Prison Health Partnership Board Support - click here

Prison Health Provider Contract Specifications - click here

Prison In-Patient Guidance and self assessment - click here

Prison Health Partnership Boards

We have produced 2 guidance documents, the first has reviewed the national provision of prison partnership boards in late 2008. The second document provided recommended good practice and a self assessment process for boards to benchmark their provision.

Review of Prison Partnership Boards

Prison Partnership Board Good Practice guide

Prison Health Provider Contract Specifications

Below (and left) is a link to our service specification for prison nursing.  We developed this in response to requests to define what is expected from the "generic" primary care prison healthcare service provided in the prisons.  We have also included some anonomised service specifications for other aspects of prison health.

Prison Nursing Template Specification

Optician Specification

Provider Arm Service Specification 

Primary Care Medical Services Contract

Primary Care Medical Services KPIs

Primary Care Medical Services Specification

Pilot Phyisotherapy Specification

GU Medical Services SLA

Counsellor SLA

Prison Mental Health In-reach Specification

Prison In-Patient Guidance and self assessment

During 2009 Mental Health Strategies (MHS) undertook work for the West Midlands Regional Development Centre, part of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, to develop a self-assessment document for prison inpatient services.

MHS developed the ‘self-assessment tool' based on a background literature review including national standards and best practice guidance across both health and prison service as well as key performance indicators. The areas of assessment were broken down into the following key areas:

• Assessment and Care Planning and Admissions
• Medication, Pharmacy and Medications Management
• Staffing and Resource Management and Training
• Multidisciplinary Planning and Joint Working
• Environment
• Therapeutic Activities and Activities of Daily Living
• Equality and Diversity
• Discharge Planning and Throughcare

The NHS West Midlands Offender Health and Social Care Programme outlined a piece of work to be undertaken to undertake an audit of prison inpatient facilities and practice using the self assessment tool in order to consider the equivalence of provision to community based mental health in-patient services. It was expected that this process would offer opportunities for reflective practice and support providers of in-patient facilities develop the knowledge and skills to identify the improvements themselves.

The audit tool and the outcome of the audit commissioned by NHS West Midlands and undertaken by Mental Health Strategies can be found by clicking on the relevent document.