COMMENDEE 2023-24: Trish’s Commendation is for all she has achieved as the first ever Head of Resettlement at HMP Huntercombe, developing from scratch a widely-praised, comprehensive resettlement service for foreign national prisoners, which sets the benchmark for the rest of the foreign national estate.

Trish’s nomination

Initial Recommendation

Trish was initially recommended by: David Redhouse (Governor, HMP Huntercombe).

Trish was appointed the first ever Head of Resettlement at HMP Huntercombe a prison for Foreign National Offenders when HMPPS changed policy in 2020 and agreed to provide resettlement support to FNO’s despite the presumption that they will be deported.

Trish made the role her own right from the start and since then has, with her Team, achieved fantastic results:

• provided 411 Resettlement inductions in the first 9 months alone;
• contacted 132 embassies to secure support including contacts to use in individual cases;
• wrote Country Factsheets subsequently taken up onto the HMPPS intranet site of the national FNO’s Hub;
• introduced Wing surgeries to respond to requests for help from men and their keyworking officers;
• made phone calls to banks, debt companies, HMRC, local councils etc to help the men resolve finance issues;
• established a clothing store to help men returning to different climates;
• travelled to Poland at her own initiative to build links with the charity BARKA (‘Lifeboat’);
• overseen production of a short film for use in Reception to reassure new arrivals about the help available;
• facilitated visits by the charity Asylum Welcome to men with unusual language needs;
• facilitated videocalls for Portuguese prisoners to the Portuguese resettlement charity Reshape;
• overseen family support provision including discreet visits for families with autistic children;
• built a partnership also with the IAG provider, Acorn, by providing co-located office space;
• found placements in over a dozen local businesses for ROTL’d men;
• rigorously processed ROTL applications and made placement checks – thousands of releases but no failures!
• provided men with access to legal support via Detention Action and other pro bono lawyers;
• shared experience with colleagues at Maidstone and Morton Hall FNO prisons.

Trish has also delivered these results in a context of quite regular staff changes; unsurprisingly in having forged a motivated and high-achieving team its members then are very attractive to people recruiting to other, higher-paying roles. All four of the original team have now moved on but Trish has found replacements and ensured the resettlement service has continued seamlessly.

The credit is therefore all Trish’s that men at Huntercombe can now access a comprehensive and resilient Resettlement service where less than three years ago they had no such option. And what is equally notable is that such a service is completely innovative for FNO’s and as such Trish has been setting a benchmark for the whole of HMPPS.

Testimonials (from HMP Huntercombe)

Trish’s nomination included the following testimonials:

 “I had been in England for 16 years and at first it was not easy to get used to Poland after such a long time. I have made friends in the Community and I feel part of Barka Family. I want to say to my friends in Huntercombe: If you are at risk of homelessness upon release, do not be afraid to make a decision to come to Barka Community. Stay close to Barka, you will get help here, it is a good and safe place. You can start a new life here.”
Prisoner A

“I thank you for your support throughout these years and for the privilege and opportunity to help to provide such an important service within Huntercombe. It was a really rewarding experience setting up the project, seeing it grow and working with you and your colleagues at Huntercombe. Very challenging at times but it was an incredible and very worthwhile opportunity.”
Clara Della Croce, Prisoner & Detainee Project, Asylum Welcome, Oxford

“Programmes such as ROTL has and is giving a lot of prisoners something to aspire to. I was able to reunite with my family on my town visits and it was a wonderful experience. The resettlement team work incredibly hard to ensure equity in the process.”
Prisoner B

“My removal process was very smooth entirely. I was so excited to be going back home and to begin a new life.”
Prisoner C

“It was pleasing to see well-developed plans to implement a resettlement hub, funded by HMPPS, where a range of services would be delivered by a new team to all prisoners being removed to other countries. Resettlement needs would be identified and assessed on arrival and again before leaving the prison.”
HMIP December 2020

“You’ve made a huge difference to this area of work in last few years. Not just to those in your care that I met today but to those FNOs across the system including those arrive next into custody due to the resettlement stuff!”
Yaser El-Borgi, Deputy Director, HMPPS Operational Services

“The team have worked hard to build up relationships with a number of charities, both in the UK and overseas, at present specifically to help Portuguese, Polish and Romanian men”
Independent Monitoring Board Annual Report 2021

“Trish has been an incredible ally in the FNO world. She has made strong relationships with international partners to support FNOs at Huntercombe, and has shared her learning with us and the wider HMPPS to ensure that staff and FNOs can benefit from the innovative resettlement work for FNOs being reintegrated abroad. Trisha’s engagement with external partners, to support the resettlement of FNOs, has provided real outcomes for this group and often has relied on her determination and expertise to overcome barriers and keep the individuals at the forefront of her focus and work. She is thoroughly dedicated and committed to providing those in custody with the resources they need to better their situation, whilst simultaneously meeting the wider needs of HMPPS.”
Sophie Lovejoy, Deputy Head of Foreign National Offenders Service and Delivery, HMPPS

“It has been great to work with Trish. Trish’s work with foreign prisoners comes out of vocation. She is like a sister or a mother to the men she works with in prison. She has their well-being at heart. Trish will do anything to help out and to improve the conditions and prospects for prisoners both in prison and upon release. She is constantly searching for new appropriate assistance for foreign prisoners and this motivation has led her to discover Barka UK, a charitable organisation which provides foreign nationals with a network of supported living communities throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Her thorough research methods meant that she even travelled to Central Eastern Europe to analyse the Barka social and professional reintegration model. Amazing lady and beautiful personality. And she bakes the best cake!”
Ewa Sadowska, CEO Barka-UK

Sign off

The nomination was signed off by the Governor, David Redhouse.

It may be unusual for me as Governor also to have made the original recommendation. However lack of Resettlement provision for Foreign National Offenders returning to their countries of origin has been a national issue and critical to the operation of this prison as an FNO establishment. In 2017 HMIP scored us a ‘1’ for Resettlement. For several years therefore this issue was a priority of mine as Governor. After much lobbying and policy discussion a resettlement budget for FNO prisons was agreed in July 2020.

But having a budget and making something happen are two very different things. This is where Trish came in having been successful in the competition for our new Head of Resettlement position. She hit the ground running recruiting a team of two officers and two administrators within weeks and on 4th January 2021 launched our Resettlement service meeting every man on reception and then again 12 weeks before departure. In-between those times her Team oversees Releases on Temporary Licence from risk assessments through to placements with external employers. The availability of ROTL in an FNO prison in particular is almost unique and creates a powerful sense of hope and belief in the possibility of progress and a better life amongst our men.

Trish’ dynamism and commitment to Resettlement are greater than my words can do justice but I do want to acknowledge that not only is she having an impact on individuals as their testimonials make clear but she is also advancing the national agenda for decency and procedural justice as they relate to FNO’s. Both Maidstone and Morton Hall have visited to take her advice on establishing their own Resettlement Teams while the national FNO policy team visit her monthly to keep up with the astonishing pace of her work. Trish has put Resettlement on the Huntercombe map and so made a dream come true!