The Care Quality Commission
  • Prison healthcare

Archived: HM Prison Blantyre House

Blantyre House, Horden, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 2NH (01580) 213200

Provided and run by:
The Forward Trust

All Inspections

17 September 2013

During a themed inspection looking at Offender Healthcare

We carried out this inspection in conjunction with Her Majestys Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP). During our visit we found that prisoners felt respected by staff. They told us that they were involved in discussions with the provider and were given information about what was available to them. One prisoner told us "I was given information about the service when I arrived". We found that consent was gained through both informal and formal processes and staff understood the importance of gaining consent before embarking on any programme of support.

There was a lack of detailed and individualised planning documented within the service and the range of services that prisoners could access was limited at the time of our inspection. There were also some gaps in whole service planning, communication and cohesive approaches to working with the prison service which could have impacted on the effectiveness of any interventions. However, links with other services outside of the prison were in place.

The provider undertook auditing and action planning within the service. This required some improvement through needs analysis and there needed to be more cohesive approaches for ensuring that the service offered was meeting the needs of the prison population. Prisoner feedback was gathered although this required some improvement in terms of wider engagement.