HMP Buckley Hall, a men’s training prison near Rochdale in Lancashire, was found by inspectors to be a “very safe prison” in which violence and use of force by staff had fallen over the last three years.

The prison, during the inspection in July 2019, held a population ranging in age and sentence length. Nearly a third of prisoners were serving indeterminate sentences and 45 men were serving life.

Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said it was an excellent inspection “and we are pleased to report that we judged outcomes for prisoners to be ‘good’ – our highest assessment – in three of our four tests of a healthy prison.” Those tests were for safety, respect and rehabilitation and release planning. “Our one concern was that more work was still needed to improve the quality and outcomes of education and work,” Mr Clarke added.

The 2019 assessments overall, however, reflected significant improvement at Buckley Hall since the last inspection, in 2016. Only seven per cent of prisoners said they felt unsafe, which was much lower than in comparable prisons. Recorded violence and use of force had reduced since 2016 and work to reduce it further was robust and multi-disciplinary. Mr Clarke said: “The rehabilitative ethos that pervaded the prison was, in our view, key to the quality of engagement seen among prisoners, which in turn was reflected in the calm and settled atmosphere.”

Self-harm had increased since 2016 but remained comparatively low, though there had been one self-inflicted death. The key worker scheme was embedded and effective with nearly all prisoners reporting they had a personal officer and 78% saying that they thought their personal officer was useful. Living conditions were generally very good.

Time out of cell for prisoners remained very good and much better than inspectors often see. The quality of education, work and skills provision had, however, deteriorated and Ofsted inspectors rated the overall effectiveness of provision as “requires improvement”. Engagement by prisoners in activity and learning was excellent, but recent improvements to provision had yet to have sufficient impact and the quality of teaching and learning, as well as achievements and progress made by learners, needed to be better.

In contrast, work to support and promote family ties was excellent and work to reduce the risk of reoffending was similarly very good, despite many prisoners presenting a high risk of harm. In the inspection survey prisoners thought their experiences at the prison had made them less likely to offend in the future.

Overall, Mr Clarke said:

“Buckley Hall is a very good prison. It had got the basics right and there was meaningful attention to detail that supported good outcomes for those detained. Prisoners could see this, and were personally incentivised to respond positively. Work undertaken throughout the prison was usually multi-disciplinary, and often based on useful evidence and an effective use of data and subject to effective governance and oversight. A culture of respect and rehabilitation, led from the top, permeated all aspects of the prison’s work and culture, and was a quality that seemed to be embraced by all departments. Good leadership and a confident and respectful staff had achieved much through hard work, underpinned by an ethos and culture they had created. They should be congratulated.”

Phil Copple, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Director General for Prisons, said:

“This is an extremely pleasing report that rightly recognises the hard work of staff at HMP Buckley Hall, and reflects the excellent progress that they have achieved. The management team deserve praise for creating a safe and respectful prison, where violence is falling and prisoners are encouraged to make positive changes. The prison has recently appointed a new education provider and manager to give prisoners even better support in turning their lives around.”

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Notes to editors
1. The full report, published on 5 November 2019, can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website.
2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment, and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
3. Buckley Hall was rebuilt and reopened in 1995 as the fourth contracted-out prison in the UK. It came into public sector management in 2000 and in 2003 it became a closed female training prison. In 2005 it was re-roled to become a male category C prison.
4. Notable features from this inspection: the prison held 448 men at the time of the inspection; levels of violence had halved in the last 12 months; almost 60% of prisoners were serving sentences of more than 10 years; almost 70% of prisoners were assessed as high risk of harm to others; the Aspire unit was one of four national progression regimes for indeterminate sentence prisoners.
5. This unannounced inspection took place between 15 and 26 July 2019.
6. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons on 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk, if you would like more information.