Greener on the Outside for Prisons

Prison Service staff and local communities within the North West of England. Forming part of the Target Wellbeing Portfolio, managed by Groundwork UK and funded by Big Lottery’s Wellbeing2 Programme will deliver a range of integrated strategic environmental initiatives that will improve wellbeing and quality of life, reduce health inequalities and have a positive impact on the drive to reduce re-offending.

Aims

The aim of the programme is to:

Reduce inequalities and achieve sustainable improvements in health, wellbeing and learning outcomes for offenders and their families, with a particular focus on mental health, physical activity and healthier eating.

In order to meet these aims, the programme will work towards the following objectives:

Provide opportunities to increase physical activity levels through practical activities
Increase knowledge and understanding of food and the food growing process

Increase measures to build competence and encourage learning, training and employment
Build capacity to increase health literacy
Address the poor lifetime employability prospects of those with few qualifications and skills
Build social and interpersonal skills and competence to maintain family relationships
Promote models of good citizenship for all participants for their future roles in society
Develop collective, collaborative and sustainable approaches to delivery.

The programme is working with most of the North West prisons and developing partnerships with Probation particularly the ACHIEVE project and Approved Premises. This enables the programme to be developed in an integrated way and to explore the value of explicitly working across the whole offender system. Thus, the programme seeks to work across the whole ‘offender pathway’ – taking a ‘whole system approach’ and working not only with prisoners, but also with staff, families, ex-offenders and wider communities (including those at risk of offending).

Reflecting guidance from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), this approach acknowledges that prisoners’ health cannot be addressed in isolation from the health of the general population since there is a constant interchange between prison and the broader community.

Lead investigator

Dr Michelle Baybutt

Collaborators

Public Sector Prisons North West
ACHIEVE
Forestry Commission
Lancashire County Council
Trust for Conservation Volunteers
Manchester City College
Groundwork UK

Timeline

2013 - [ongoing]

Funding organisation

Big Lottery Wellbeing 2 Programme
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service

Public Outputs

GOOP Network

GOOP Network meeting - 23 February 2017

Flo Seymour - Horticulture, hypermasculinity and mental wellbeing the connections in a male prison context
Phil Thomas - Community Partnerships for Biodiversity on the Justice Estate

GOOP Network meeting - 29 September 2016

It's ok to talk Outside Time GOOP September 2016

GOOP Network launch meeting - 3 July 2013

GOOP July 2013 Blue Sky
GOOP July 2013 EU Programme
GOOP July 2013 Mark Dooris
GOOP July 2013 Michelle Baybutt
GOOP July 2013 Transforming Rehabilitation
Offenders and Nature Policy Into Practice
Styal Prison Garden Leaflet

Publications

Natural health service - wildlife volunteers get mental health boost
Wellbeing impacts of volunteering with the Wildlife Trusts
Baybutt, M. (2019) Nature-based health promotion: a valuable tool in prison partnerships. European Journal of Public Health, 29 (S4).
Devine-Wright, H., Baybutt, M. and Meek, R. (2019) Producing food in English and Welsh prisons. Appetite, 143 (104433).
Farrier, A., Baybutt, M. and Dooris, M. (2019) Mental Health and Wellbeing Benefits from a Prisons Horticultural Programme. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 15 (1). pp. 91-104.
Baybutt, M., Dooris, M. and Farrier, A. (2018) Growing Health in UK Prison Settings. Health Promotion International, 34 (4). pp. 792-802.
Baybutt, M. and Chemlal, K. (2016) Health Promoting Prisons: Theory to Practice. Global Health Promotion, 23 (1). pp. 66-74.