Resettlement

• New College Durham
• Stockton Adult Education Service
• Middlesbrough College
• NEPACS
• Phoenix House
• North Tees Primary Care Trust
• NACRO
• Learning & Skills Council
• Inside Out Trust
• Job Centre Plus
• Legal Service Commission
• Citizens Advice Bureau

We are developing a three-year resettlement plan, which will support our local Resettlement Strategy. The plan will detail our current initiatives and will use the Resettlement Needs Analysis carried out by the Psychology Department at Holme House to focus attention on developing a regime which addresses all of the seven key resettlement components (strategic pathways) which research has shown reduce re-offending.

There have been a number of recent initiatives and more planned developments, which have already brought significant improvements in the resettlement work carried out with offenders. Examples of this work includes:

Accommodation & Support

• Two full time NACRO workers are located in the prison as apart of the Pyramid project funded by the Northern Rock Foundation. The project provides accommodation advice and support for short-term prisoners returning to the Tees Valley area. As part of this a Rent Arrears Repayment Scheme has been introduced which allows prisoners to make a small financial contribution from their prison earnings to meeting rent arrears thus enabling housing providers to look more favourably upon their attempts to secure accommodation on discharge.  

Employment, Enterprise and Learning & Skills

• Dry Lining Workshop – this workshop is one of a number of regional prototype activities for the delivery of a new integrated offender learning and skills service and is designed to give offenders skills, which will enhance their employability in an area where there is a local labour market skills shortage. The project involves partners such as Middlesbrough College, Job Centre Plus and NACRO. Two groups of 12 prisoners will have the opportunity to complete the technical certificate in construction over an 11-week course. Upon release prisoners will have opportunity to convert the technical certificate into a complete NVQ.
• Stepping Stones Project – funded from January 2005 to December 2006 - 240 prisoners will be engaged in working towards work-based qualifications. The project will see the introduction of NVQ's into prison workshops where accredited learning has not previously taken place. Additional work based learning has will also be introduced into the PE department.
• Holme House is holding two open days for prospective employers in 2005; one linked to the PE department and one run in partnership with Job Centre Plus. Both events are designed to engage local employers and raise awareness of the skills training offered at Holme House. 

Drugs & Alcohol

• During 2004 HMP Holme House introduced new first night support systems for prisoners suffering the effects of alcohol and drug withdrawl. These prisoners are fast tracked through Reception into Healthcare for a minimum of 24-48 hours where they are individually assessed and given the appropriate treatment. Care pathways are implemented and the most appropriate location in the prison identified.
• The Therapeutic Community at Holme House was successful in gaining accredited status in 2004.
• Work has begun on incorporating the new Prison Service Alcohol Strategy into the establishment's Drug Strategy and Holme House has received authority under Prison Service Order 4350 (Effective Regime Intervention) to run an Alcohol Education Programme.

Financial Management

• The ROTA Project funds a Citizens Advice Bureau worker in four prisons in the North East, one of which is Holme House. ROTA provides debt, housing and social welfare advice for prisoners. Prisoners can also access specialist family law advice from solicitors through video conferencing. The project has proved tremendously successful at Holme House and the response from prisoners has been very positive.

Holme House constantly strives to seek new opportunities that may benefit not only offenders but also the community as a whole as employment ranks high on the social exclusion agenda and is one of the key issues that can reduce re-offending.