Rivendell service at HMP & YOI New Hall receives award | Awards and accreditations

Rivendell is a specialist residential treatment service based at HMP & YOI New Hall. It offers intervention to female offenders from the North of England and Wales who have been identified as having Personality Difficulties. It is part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway and is jointly commissioned between NHS (England) and the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

In December 2024, the service was awarded with the Enabling Environments award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Having previously been awarded this in 2016, this was a huge achievement for the service, prison, and GMMH. Collaboratively, staff, service users and graduates contributed to the evidence submitted to achieve this award.

^{Gardens at the Rivendell service}

The Enabling Environments award is a mark of quality and recognises healthy psychosocial environments and supports the development of good practice in creating and sustaining them. The award recognises good practice in a variety of situations, across sectors and care pathways and will enable potential employees, recipients of care, referrers, commissioners, and customers to locate good quality services that have a similar approach.

The Enabling Environments Standards are designed as a quality improvement mechanism to support more services to achieve a level of excellence in the way the relationships function within their environment. Ten standards outline the core values of a healthy psychosocial environment with criteria demonstrating how the values can be achieved in practice. The standards were developed by the Enabling Environments Advisory Group, whose professional backgrounds cover housing, psychiatry, and social research.

There is evidence to suggest that psychologically informed planned environments within forensic settings are supportive in managing those that present with “personality difficulties” ( Kuester, Freestone, Seewald, Rathbone & Bhui, 2022 ). Creating environments which are both safe and supportive are key to the OPD pathway, allowing service users to form quality relationships with staff and peers ( Turner & Bolger, 2015 ). It is suggested that the environment has a big impact on the effectiveness of intervention, and the maintenance of change across different settings ( Player, 2017 ).

This award is a brilliant achievement for the team, well done to all involved for your hard work and for receiving this recognition.

 

 

References

^{Kuester, L., Freestone, M., Seewald, K., Rathbone, R., & Bhui, K. (2022). Evaluation of psychologically informed planned environments (PIPEs): assessing the first five years. Ministry of Justice Analytical Series. HM Prison & Probation Service, available at: https://assets. publishing. service. gov. uk/media/63467b7fd3bf7f6184a293c2/evaluation-of-psychologically-informed-planned-environments-pipes. pdf.}

^{Player, E. (2017). The offender personality disorder pathway and its implications for women prisoners in England and Wales. Punishment & Society, 19(5), 568-589.}

^{Turner, K., & Bolger, L. (2015). The provision of PIPEs–psychologically informed planned environments. Prison Service Journal, 218, 41-46.}