Lessons for commissioning and health outcomes from Her Majesty’s Prison Birmingham
| Pages | 224-227 |
| Published date | 17 December 2018 |
| Date | 17 December 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-10-2018-0067 |
| Author | Jan Cassidy,Woody Caan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Lessons for commissioning and health
outcomes from Her Majesty’s
Prison Birmingham
Jan Cassidy and Woody Caan
Abstract
Purpose –This study of HMP Birmingham was part of a much larger investigation of health needs
assessment (HNA), in the context of a new “HNA Toolkit”developed by Public Health England for use in the
prison service. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach –In 2015, details of prison healthcare in HMP Birmingham had figured in
the authors’analysis of documents. In 2018, a crisis in Birmingham typified problems developing more widely
in England and Wales. Was the crisis predictable from the initial HNA?
Findings –Recommendations embodied in the 2015 HNA were not acted upon; the eventual problems that
combined to overwhelm the running of HMP Birmingham were predictable.
Originality/value –Lessons from this case study could inform more coherent commissioning of prison
health services. This in turn could promote timely developments for improved health and morale in the prison,
amongst prisoners and staff. Longer term, this might help to avoid future crises.
Keywords Commissioning, Community public health, Health needs assessment (HNA), Prisoners’health
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Why now?
Her Majesty’s Prison Birmingham became the first pr ison in the UK to be run b y
a private provider (G4S) in 2011. That provider’s contract was commissioned to operate
until 2026.
HMP Birmingham is a Vi ctorian local priso n built in 1849, in the ce ntre of Birmingham.
It held 1,450 adult male prisoners (either sentenced or on remand from the courts).
For more informati on see https://hm pbirmingham.co .uk/. However, thi s year the Prisons
Minister announced “What we have seen at Bir mingham is unaccept able and it has
become clear that d rastic action is re quired to bring abo ut the improvement s we require”
(Ministry of Jus tice, 2018). In the week of that announce ment the total priso n population was
79,045 men and 3,801 w omen in a total of 118 in stitutions. Short ly afterwards, for safety at
work, prison officers took widespread industrial action over unprecedented violence (Scott and
Sim, 2018). In 2017, the 28,165 assaults documented had been a record and that rate
continued to escalate (Townsend and Savage, 2018). A week after the action by prison
officers, the chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service was asked to leave “amid
growing concern ab out drugs and viole nce in jails”(Gibb and Ames, 2018). Gibb and Ames
(2018) referred to a riot at Birmingham in December 2016 in relation to the departure of the
chief executive and this 2016 riot also figured in a new letter from the Chief Inspector of Prisons
(Clarke, 2018) who reported that Birmingham had experienced “adramaticdeterioration”in the
last 18 months.
Received 3 October 2018
Accepted 8 October 2018
Jan Cassidy is Former
Specialist Commissioner
(Retired) based in
Cambridge, UK.
Woody Caan is Professorial
Fellow at the RSPH,
Duxford, UK.
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VOL. 17 NO. 4 2018, pp. 224-227, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729 DOI 10.1108/JPMH-10-2018-0067
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