February Shining Star: HMP Frankland

HMP Frankland is a high-security men's prison, located in Brasside, County Durham. HMP Frankland were awarded the Bronze Better Health at Work Award (BHAWA) last year, and have since made significant efforts to take on the next level! Read on to find out more about their journey on the award so far.

Why did you decide to sign up to the BHAWA?

Our Equalities governor became aware of the BHAWA through colleagues at HMP Durham, who had just received their bronze award. Although HMP Frankland had wellbeing initiatives, and activities in place, ‘wellbeing’ overall lacked direction and structure. It was felt that working towards the BHAWA would provide the direction and structure we needed. Also, staff wellbeing has become a priority of HMPPS over recent years and the BHAWA has helped us at HMP Frankland drive forward our local wellbeing policies and strategies and link into the developing National Wellbeing Strategy.

How do you find that the award benefits the organisation, and its employees?

Being part of the award has enabled us to get access to resources and support that we previously did not know about, the majority of which has been free.

We now have a staff wellbeing committee, as well as a staff wellbeing mailbox, which allows staff to have an input on what they would like to see within the establishment, as well as allowing information and support to be shared on a wider scale.

Feedback from staff about having external organisation coming in to offer awareness sessions and training as been positive, stating they feel this show a real commitment to their overall wellbeing from the establishment mangers.

It has also resulted in our staff training days being refocused into staff development days. Engagement levels have increased across the establishment due to all staff feeling the benefit of including sessions that are not just for our operational staff.

What kind of activities have you organised in line with the award so far?

In January we held a full staff wellbeing day where outside organisations came into the establishment to offer information to staff. These included NHS Oral health, NHS wellbeing for life team, county Durham Resilience to name a few and various charities also attended with us doing fundraising activities for If you care, Share” and St Cuthberts Hospice. If You Care Share also held awareness sessions for staff and we had yoga and Pilates classes running as well as massages session which the staff could book onto. This has been as massive hit with the staff and our objective is to run one every year going forward.

Throughout 2023/24 we have had the NHS wellbeing team attending monthly to deliver various awareness sessions to staff as well as staff delivering nutrition awareness, health checks, diabetes awareness.

The biggest support to staff has been the development of the Wellbeing Functional Mailbox, this has allowed us to share all kinds of information from awareness days, support networks, healthy eating options etc but has also allowed staff to share their own support networks or hobbies/clubs in the areas they live with others. This continues to grow and develop with more staff sharing what has been beneficial to them. It has also allowed us to share what support can be accessed within HMPPS and how to access it, increasing the awareness and allowing managers to better support the staff in their areas.