HMP&YOI Foston Hall – most violent prison in the women’s estate

In 2021, inspectors had been concerned to find that leaders had no strategy to tackle the high levels of self-harm and violence in the jail. In this independent review of progress (IRP), inspectors followed up on the 12 recommendations made at the 2021 inspection.

Violence had increased and was now higher than at any other women’s prison in England and Wales. Inspectors found that leaders had no credible action plan to reduce it, nor had done enough to understand the causes. Self-harm also remained high, although inspectors noted that women with the most complex needs were well supported.

Commenting on the findings, Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said:

“Outcomes in our safety test remained a major concern. Self-harm was still very high and although women with very complex personal needs were supported well through specialist services, others who self-harmed often had too little practical, emotional or therapeutic support.”

Another area that remained of concern was the number of women released homeless. Since our last visit, 20% of women had left the prison without accommodation to go to. It was difficult to assess the true extent of the problem, however, because the quality of data was poor, including on how many women were being discharged into very short-term or temporary accommodation.

Inspectors did note some areas of improvement including work to improve time out of cell, meaning women in employment, training, and education had between 3.5 and seven hours unlocked during the week. However, acute staff shortages often limited this in practice, which frustrated women.

Notes to editors

1. Read the HMP&YOI Foston Hall independent review of progress, published on 27 September 2022.
2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
3. Foston Hall near Uttoxeter was built in 1863 as a family home and was acquired by the Prison Service in 1953. Since then, it has been used as a detention centre, an immigration centre and a satellite prison for nearby HMP Sudbury. Shut in 1996, it reopened on 31 July 1997 as a closed women’s prison following major refurbishment and building work. HMP Foston Hall is now a local women’s resettlement prison serving courts in the Midlands. It holds a complex mix of women, from those recently remanded in custody to those with lengthy or indeterminate sentences.
4. Independent Reviews of Progress (IRPs) began in April 2019. They were developed because Ministers wanted an independent assessment of how far prisons had implemented HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ recommendations following particularly concerning prison inspections. IRPs are not inspections and do not result in new judgements against our healthy prison tests. Rather they judge progress being made against the key recommendations made at the previous inspection. The visits are announced and happen eight to 12 months after the original inspection. They last two and a half days and involve a comparatively small team. Reports are published within 25 working days of the end of the visit. We conduct 15 to 20 IRPs each year. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons selects sites for IRPs based on previous healthy prison test assessments and a range of other factors.
5. At this Foston Hall IRP we followed up 12 of the recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up three themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in three recommendation, reasonable progress in four, in sufficient progress in three, and no meaningful progress in two. Ofsted found reasonable progress in one theme and insufficient progress in two.
6. A report on the most recent full inspection of HMP&YOI Foston Hall is available on our website, as is the accompanying media release.
7. This IRP visit at HMP&YOI Foston Hall took place between 15 and 17 August 2022.
8. Please contact Tamsin Williamson at tamsin.williamson@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.