HMP North Sea Camp, HMIP Inspections

The prison was last inspected in May/June 2023 At the last inspection the report summary said:

North Sea Camp is a small, open prison on the Lincolnshire coast near Boston. Holding up to 300 adult prisoners, more than half of those in residence had been convicted of a sexual offence. This was our first inspection of the prison since 2017, and we again found an institution that was very safe, with reasonably good or good outcomes against all our healthy prison tests.

New prisoners were received well into the prison and violence was very rare. The mix of those convicted of sexual offences with other prisoners raised some low-level issues, but leaders were not complacent in their efforts to keep the prison calm and well-ordered. All other aspects of safety were encouraging; absconds and temporary release failures were very infrequent and compared favourably with other open prisons. The prospect of temporary release or the potential to live in accommodation outside the prison gate were effective incentives for many prisoners.

Positive staff-prisoner relationships, enhanced by good use of peer support and very good consultation and communication arrangements, underpinned much of the good work in the prison. But while the rural backdrop and the pleasant grounds encouraged a sense of well-being, many of the buildings, in particular the accommodation blocks, were showing their age and required refurbishment. The governor expressed some frustration about the delays and impediments in securing new investment and agreeing firm plans to address this problem. There was clear evidence to suggest that the promotion of equality at North Sea Camp was improving, but more needed to be done to reassure black prisoners. Health care provision and outcomes were generally very good.

As an open prison, prisoners were never locked up and nearly all were engaged in purposeful activity, including some 60 prisoners who participated in paid work or other resettlement activity outside the prison each day. Sadly, this good work was undermined by insufficient provision in education, which our colleagues in Ofsted judged as ‘requires improvement’, their second lowest assessment. The prison had a well-resourced and capable offender management unit which maintained good contact with prisoners, although there were some surprisingly poor prisoner perceptions about the quality of communication from the team. We also identified some specific weaknesses in public protection work, although more was being done to assist the resettlement of those about to be released.

North Sea Camp continues to do much to meet the needs of the men held there. The mixing of those convicted of a range of offences was well managed and prisoners’ time was purposeful, despite some shortfalls in education. The governor understood the prison and provided confident, balanced leadership, predicated on a determination to achieve the best with the resources available. A full staff complement, good communication and consultation, proportionality in decision making, and a strong local culture all underpinned this success.

Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
June 2023

 

The inspectors provided a short list of their key concerns

 

What needs to improve at HMP North Sea Camp

During this inspection we identified 10 key concerns, of which 4 should be treated as priorities. Priority concerns are those that are most important to improving outcomes for prisoners. They require immediate attention by leaders and managers.

Leaders should make sure that all concerns identified here are addressed and that progress is tracked through a plan which sets out how and when the concerns will be resolved. The plan should be provided to HMI Prisons.

Priority concerns

  1. Almost all prisoners lived in shared cells that were far too cramped, with not enough space for even a table or chair.
  2. Too few of those who needed to improve in mathematics and English could access those subjects, and the standard of teaching did not enable enough of them to achieve real progress.
  3. Support for prisoners to maintain family ties was still poor.
  4. There were some significant failings in public protection arrangements. Departments in the prison were not communicating properly and some risks were being missed.

Key concerns

  1. Prisoners with protected characteristics lacked the confidence to raise concerns, particularly those from black or minority ethnic backgrounds.
  2. Leaders did not offer a broad enough range of ROTL placements.
  3. Leaders had not fully implemented a reading strategy across the establishment.
  4. Staff did not identify and recognise the transferable skills that prisoners gained in work roles.
  5. Patients requiring a psychiatry appointment never saw the psychiatrist face to face. This was contrary to commissioning arrangements and to expected practice.
  6. Most OASys (offender assessment system) assessments were not completed soon enough after the prisoner’s arrival. On some occasions, temporary release had occurred without an OASys review

 

Return to North Sea Camp

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