HMPPS Small Grants Scheme Official Prison Visitors project at HMP & YOI Eastwood Park
We are seeking to commission services from local or national organisations or practitioners that provide tailored support for women prisoners. This pilot seeks to shape the vital role of Official Prison Visitors (OPVs) scheme in supporting prisoners who lack family or social contact, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing by testing different VCSE-led models to identify what works best for future national delivery.
- Opening date:
- Closing date:
Contents
Summary
Background
Official Prison Visitors (OPVs) play a vital role in supporting prisoners who lack social contact, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing. Maintaining relationships and external contact is proven to reduce reoffending and self-harm, as highlighted in Lord Farmer’s reports (2017, 2019). However, the current OPV system is inconsistent, lacks diversity, and underuses volunteer skills. A 2023 survey found OPVs are predominantly White (95%), Christian (72%), and aged 61–80, with limited representation from younger cohorts. Recruitment and training is inconsistent, vetting and expense claims are cited as barriers, and OPVs’ skills for signposting and safeguarding are often limited. Foreign nationals, people convicted of sexual offences (PCOSOs), and women receive fewer or no visits, leaving them vulnerable and isolated. This pilot seeks to address these issues by testing different VCSE-led models to identify what works best for future national delivery.
Women in prison often face unique challenges, including higher rates of mental health issues and family separation.
Government data: Women make up around 4% of the prison population but experience disproportionately high levels of vulnerability and self-harm incidents.
We are particularly interested in innovative, evidence-informed approaches and culturally responsive interventions that can create meaningful, positive change in the lives of women offenders. We aim to support initiatives that foster stronger connections with wider society through regular visits, relationship‑building, and purposeful time spent with women.
Many of the existing OPVs are members of the National Association of Official Prison Visitors (NAOPV). The NAOPV has existed for over 100 years and are wholly volunteer led. The NAOPV exists to promote, implement and support prison visiting.
This project is not about replacing the long-standing partnership with the NAOPV.
Part of the commissioned activities would need to be able to identify opportunities to build on the existing provision to better meet the needs of the population including building in recruitment, support and training for volunteers.
Through this grant, we seek to pilot new ways of working, generate valuable insights, and lay the groundwork for more comprehensive and inclusive support across the Criminal Justice System.
Expected outcomes:
· Increased engagement with prison visitors’ services for women among young minority ethnic cohorts, leading to better support and more positive outcomes
· Improved induction, training and ongoing support volunteer visitors
· Greater access to culturally appropriate support, resulting in more effective support and sustained involvement in relevant programme.
· Reduced disproportionality in service provision and outcomes for women and ethnic minorities through targeted interventions
· Strengthened evidence base regarding what activities and interventions best support rehabilitation and desistance for women offenders
· The project will increase knowledge of and engagement with relevant support agencies within the prison, and community – now and upon release
Provider requirements:
Provider staff working on the grant would need to go through the HMPPS Enhanced Level 1 vetting process, in line with current HMPPS policy. We encourage applications from organisations in which individuals with lived experience are actively involved in the delivery of services.
We expect the provider to:
· Lead the successful recruitment campaign targeting young volunteers with ethnic minority background and recruit 3–10 OPVs for the identified prison
· Develop a toolkit to support ongoing recruitment that can be replicated nationally
· Provide induction toolkit
· Pilot training sessions and feedback loops and ensure newly recruited OPVs complete induction and training
· Evaluate the impact and feasibility for national rollout
This pilot will inform future national delivery and contribute to the HMPPS People Strategy by harnessing volunteer potential more effectively.
This pilot will inform future national delivery and contribute to the HMPPS People Strategy by harnessing volunteer potential more effectively.
Project duration: 7 months from 1 April 2026 to 30 October 2026.
Total funding available: £20,000.
The total grant amount will be paid in advance, provided that the grant recipient has given sufficient assurance that the grant will be used for the stated purpose.
Eligibility
The award is open to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations)
The voluntary sector organisation(s) or consortium receiving the grant from HMPPS, should be a registered charity or social enterprise.
Any organisation applying for funding must demonstrate that it meets the due diligence criteria before any award is made. The funding will only be given to organisations where their annual turnover is at least twice the amount of the funding that they are seeking.
Grant funding cannot be used to deliver core services which HMPPS should be delivering.
Objectives
· Make a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals seeking positive change.
· To improve people’s experience of prison and probation through the rehabilitation activities.
· To support an individual’s rehabilitation and desistance journey; and
To improve our knowledge about what activities, work to support people and to encourage rehabilitation and desistance
Dates
Project duration: 7 months from 1 April 2026 to 30 October 2026.
Application closing date 2 March 3pm
How to apply
In order to submit a compliant application, applicants must complete all questions in the Apply for a Grant application form. Please note and do not exceed the word counts for each answer. Any information that is included once the word count is exceeded will not be evaluated and will not count towards the evaluated score. Responses must not include diagrams, tables, images or similar.
Applicants are permitted to submit clarification questions via email to HMPPSGrants@justice.gov.uk. For transparency, this advert will be updated throughout the competition to include any responses to questions asked by applicants.
Further information from clarification questions:
No further information.
To be eligible for funding under this grant applicants must achieve the minimum threshold score of 3 across all technical questions otherwise they will be removed from the competition process. The scoring criteria is outlined below:
Score Interpretation
5 Exceeds the requirement. Exceptional demonstration shown for the proposal, how the project will be delivered, and extensive past experience detailed.
4 Satisfies the requirements and has minor additional benefits. Above average demonstration across all questions.
3 Satisfies the requirements. Demonstrates understanding and ability to a satisfactory standard.
2 Satisfies most of the requirements with some minor reservations relating to the experience, understanding and/or ability. Whilst mostly the question has been answered in a satisfactory way, one element has been omitted/offers insufficient evidence.
1 Major reservations about the experience, understanding or ability demonstrated, with little to no evidence to support the questions. More than one element has been omitted.
0 Does not meet the requirement. Does not comply or offer sufficient information to demonstrated experience, ability of understanding. Significant elements of the question has been omitted or not addressed to a satisfactory standard.
The Authority reserves the right to ask clarification questions about any elements of an application. These questions will not give applicants the opportunity to expand on the response and may only be used where applications contain minor errors or to clarify where the information presented is unclear.
The grant, if awarded, shall be awarded to the Applicant(s) who:
· has submitted an application in compliance with these instructions
· meets the eligibility criteria
· meets the minimum quality threshold of 3 questions
· achieves the highest technical score
Due diligence checks will be carried out before the award can be made. These checks may include, but are not exclusive to, financial, brand, assurance, and charitable status.
Supporting information
Conflicts of Interest
The Authority is required to prevent conflicts of interest occurring in this competition and may disqualify applicants if an actual or potential conflict of interest occurs in connection with the competition which cannot be satisfactorily avoided or mitigated. The Authority may disqualify any applicant which attempts (or whose advisers attempt) to influence the competition in any way.
MoJ Disclaimer
The Authority shall not be committed to any course of action as a result of:
• issuing the competition documents
• communicating with an applicant or an applicant’s representatives or agents in respect of this competition exercise; or
• any other communication between the Authority (whether directly or by its agents or representatives) and any other party.
All applicants accept and acknowledge that by issuing the competition documents the Authority is not bound to accept any bid and reserves the right not to award or conclude a grant for all or any of the costs for which bids are invited.
The Authority reserves the right to apply its discretion on the amount of funding that is to be awarded to the successful applicant(s). If only part of the application is acceptable, in terms of the stated deliverables, then the Authority may only award funding on that basis.
The Authority reserves the right to amend, suspend or terminate all or any part of the competition or its documentation at any time during the ITT.
The instructions in this advert, together with any other tender documentation are designed to ensure that all applicants are given equal and fair consideration. Applicants should read the instructions carefully to ensure they understand them and the conditions of participation before submitting their applications.
Failure to comply with these instructions regarding submission of the application response may result in its rejection. The Authority may reject Tenders which are substantially and materially incomplete, non-compliant, inconsistent, or vague.
Applicants should answer all questions as accurately and concisely as possible. Applicants are solely responsible for ensuring that their applications are free from error and accept that these cannot be modified after the submission deadline.
Costs incurred in submitting applications will be borne by applicants and will be defined as ineligible expenditure under the terms of the grant.
All information supplied by the Authority to applicants must be treated in confidence (unless already in the public domain) and must not be disclosed to third parties other than as is necessary for the purposes of preparing a Tender.