Prison ICAS
Since April 2006, healthcare in the majority of prisons in England has been provided by the local NHS. As an Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) provider POhWER is committed to ensuring that our ICAS service is available to everyone who needs our support, including those in prison.
We recognise that providing an ICAS service to prisoners poses special challenges and we are continually working towards building our relationships with prisoners, those who help or support prisoners and directly with prison staff. We are carrying this work forward in the following ways:
- We have a prison co-ordinator who is responsible for liaising on prisons work across POhWER and who oversees the development of this part of our service.
- We have a selection of leaflets and posters tailored specifically for prisons which are available in a range of formats including "Easy read" and a number of languages on request. We engage translators, signers and other communication specialists to help us with our prisons work. We also use the prisons email system "Emap" to speed up the communication process with prisoners.
- Each region has an identified prisons lead, who is a regular ICAS advocate, and who helps to co-ordinate the prisons networking process in that region. The leads can also provide useful information about national and local help and support for prisoners.
- We have advocates in all three regions who have received prison training, and have a caseload of prison clients, as well as community clients. These advocates are developing an expertise around prisons work and are able to support and help other colleagues with prisons cases.
- We regularly contact prison staff and offer meetings and/or presentations to update them on our service. These meetings and training events also give us the chance to receive feedback about our services in prisons.
- We have our number on the PIN system in all prisons in our areas, so that prisoners are able to contact us by phone if they wish.
- We run regular surgeries at a number of prison visitor centres and are seeking to expand this programme of surgeries over time.
- Our advocates support prisoners by helping them write letters of complaint and can also help to arrange and attend Local Resolution Meetings with healthcare providers if needed.
Contact
If you would like to know more about our Prison ICAS service, please contact us on:
POhWER
iBIC Holt Court South
Jennens Road
Aston Science Park
Birmingham
B7 4EJ
Tel: 0300 456 2370
Minicom: 0300 456 2764
Fax: 0300 456 2365
