Workshop Report: Improving Outcomes for Prison Leavers in Lincolnshire

The University of Lincoln agreed to independently facilitate a series of workshops to enable an exploration of the barriers and challenges stakeholders face when either commissioning, delivering, or accessing services for prison leavers. Additionally, the workshops were intended to provide an opportunity for those taking part to share suggestions that could improve outcomes for people leaving prison. To facilitate an open conversation, Commissioners, Managers and Practitioner groups were invited to separate sessions. To maximise attendance some commissioners also attended virtually and those who were unable to attend were afforded the opportunity to share their thoughts via email. Mentimeter (an anonymous interactive presentation tool) was used to make it easier for the audience to be candid and also enable those attending virtually via MS Teams to play a meaningful part in the workshop. All workshop participants were advised that the findings of the day would be summarised in this report and fed back to commissioners to help inform future bidding developments. The report recommended the following: 1. Seek consultation with individuals with lived experience; 2. Conduct a Needs Analysis to identify why and when prison leavers drop out of service; 3. Establish a multi-agency steering group to improve partnership working by raising visibility of available services and sharing good practice; 4.Increased navigator provision within a hub and spoke model of delivery; 5. A No First Night Out Policy for Lincolnshire: Funding to support short term reservation/increase of available bed spaces for prison leavers in Lincolnshire; 6. Create a Personal Development Fund that practitioners can access to support needs of prison leavers; 7. Work with local employers to showcase opportunities presented by prison leavers for local business and explore what gaps in skills remain for prison leavers that could be addressed by training.