Prison-based Call Centre will help female offenders resettle

St Giles Trust is setting up a Peer to Peer Call Centre in HMP Send to offer support to women prisoners.

It will be staffed by trained female prisoners who will be able to offer much needed information and advice on resettlement issues such as housing, benefits, ID and signpost and refer into other services.

The Call Centre, due to go live in April, will begin with four dedicated phone booths in HMP Send, initially connected to HMP Downview, then to other prisons in the South East and eventually plans to go national and connect all women prisoners to this free phone helpline.  Women in these other prisons can access the Call Centre through a secure phone line which connects directly to the Call Centre in HMP Send.

It will be staffed by around 12 specially trained serving prisoners, overseen by a supervisor who will also offer them casework support.  St Giles Trust will train the women under its Peer Advice Project, which offers serving prisoners the opportunity to gain an NVQ Level 3 in Advice and Guidance.  A handful of prisoners already in HMP Send have already trained and worked as Peer Advisors in other prisons.

“We envisage the Call Centre building on a lot of the work already underway in HMP Send,” said Maria McNicholl, Head of Development at St Giles Trust, who developed the Call Centre project. “Women prisoners have specific resettlement issues and very different requirement to those of the male prisoners.  As well as issues around motherhood, they are often more likely to be serving a long way away from home due to the fact there are fewer women’s prisons.  This can create a greater need for advice and support when approaching release.”

St Giles Trust aims to extend the service across the women’s estate within the year, enabling all women prisoners to access the services available at the Call Centre in HMP Send.