Health and Social Care Needs Assessments for Five Prisons in Surrey 

Task 

In line with the requirement that every NHSE Health and Justice Team commissions Health Needs Assessments (HNAs) for all services within their statutory responsibility, TONIC was asked to undertake a Health and Social Care Needs Assessment across each of the five prisons in Surrey. These prisons were female establishments HMP Bronzefield, HMP Send, HMP Downview, and male category B and C prisons HMP High Down and HMP Coldingley. 

HNAs play an important role in ensuring organisations balance their efforts in achieving goals specific to their strategic direction with government policy of the time. The HNAs conducted by TONIC were intended to help inform the commissioners and key stakeholders of current met and unmet needs of the prison populations.  

TONIC’s Approach

TONIC implemented a mixed methods approach, making use of both qualitative and quantitative data. To collect quantitative data TONIC visited each of the five prisons and conducted surveys, 1-to-1 interviews, focus groups and pop-ups with both prisoners and stakeholders.  

TONIC engaged with a total of 908 prisoners across all five prisons, 425 completed the survey and 483 participated in focus groups, interviews or pop-ups. Furthermore, 176 stakeholders completed the survey and 32 took part in 1-to-1 interviews.  

Quantitative data was collected from a variety of sources including a demographics snapshot from June 2019 and Public Health England Fingertips data. Wherever possible, comparisons were made between each prison and its comparator prison, as well as to the South East and National prison averages,  

Outcome

From the qualitative data collected, TONIC identified three cross cutting gaps that were present in all five prisons: learning disabilities, dentistry, and substance misuse. Mental health support and provision for those prisoners with autism spectrum disorder were also common gaps identified across the prisons alongside podiatry and wheelchair access.  

TONIC utilised the results of the quantitative and qualitative research combined to produce 28 comprehensive cross cutting recommendations alongside prison-specific recommendations that were presented to the commissioner.