Welcome to issue 11 of The Investigator!

As the Acting Prisons and Probation Ombudsman I am very pleased to welcome you to Issue 11 of The Investigator which focuses on awareness of the PPO. In my previous role as one of the PPO’s Deputy Ombudsmen, I understood the importance of raising the PPO’s profile. We want people in prison to know who we are, what we do and to know how to complain to us if they need to. We want families to know what and how we will investigate, and we want prison staff to understand our role, feel able to engage with us and learn from our investigations.

In Issue 11 we will look at some of the ways we are reaching out to people inside and outside prison, and staff. We work in partnership with organisations who help us to amplify our message. I remember how important this was at the start of the pandemic when we worked with National Prison Radio to let people in prison know swiftly that we would continue to investigate complaints.

One of the articles talks about the ‘Insights’ event, where the PPO spoke to staff from across the criminal justice system and I was pleased to be able to speak at it. I am looking forward to the launch of a training package for prison staff that will provide useful knowledge of the PPO’s work and prepare them for what to expect from an investigation.

In addition to the awareness work highlighted in this issue, we have been going out to prisons in the women’s estate. We know we receive fewer complaints from women than we would expect so it is important that we continue to raise our profile with them.

Thank you for reading The Investigator; as always, we welcome your interest and are happy to have your feedback.

Kimberley Bingham, Acting Prisons and Probation Ombudsman 

 

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HMPPS Awareness Project for new prison staff

Working with National Prison Radio and Inside Time

HMPPS Insights22 Festival