Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to provide support to prison governors providing care for the well-being of prison officers.

NOMS is committed to provide safe, decent and secure places of work and takes the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees extremely seriously. We recognise that the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of employees is paramount to attracting and retaining our staff that will build a strong and capable organisation. We aim to achieve this by engaging with our employees to provide good quality advice and support, promote responsibility for personal health and nurture a feeling of organisational pride.

In terms of direct support for our staff in NOMS, we have access to an Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programme that provides a wide range of support arrangements including: comprehensive employee assistance provision which includes 24 hour access to signposting and counselling on a wide range of issues; Trauma Support services; a wide ranging health promotion website and personal wellbeing zone including advice on weight management and stress management solutions. NOMS staff can also self-refer for confidential counselling, up to a maximum of six sessions in any 12 month period. The helpline is open for staff to do this 24 hours, 365 days a year. NOMS has adopted the Health and Safety Executive Stress Management Standards and the NOMS Stress Toolkit has been developed for use by both managers and staff as appropriate. There are also a number of resources available to support staff from Civil Service Learning including an online resilience package.