NIPS - Pilot Programme to Tackle Substance Misuse in Maghaberry

Tender description

The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) intends to pilot a 12 week substance misuse programme within Maghaberry. This pilot will assess how a therapeutic substance misuse unit would work and NIPS is seeking providers to outline how they would operate this service. NIPS intends for the pilot to run within the 15 bed Glen House unit in Maghaberry, which is self-contained and isolated from the rest of the prison population. The programme should be jointly facilitated by NIPS staff and those from the successful provider. NIPS will provide three officers to work on the unit per day along with one officer to staff the unit at night. These officers will be selected based on their ability and willingness to work on the pilot programme. Building on the success of NIPS ‘Family Matters’ programme (Annex A), NIPS envisage that the substance misuse programme should run 7 days per week for a 12 week period and should be built around the principles of the National Offender Management Service’s Building Skills for Recovery (BSR) programme (Annex B), which has replaced Prisoners Addressing Substance Related Offending (PASRO) as best practice for addressing substance misuse. The Substance Misuse Pilot Programme should ensure that after 12 weeks NIPS would expect that NIPS staff have a clear understanding of the rational and benefits of the programme and have the foundations in place to begin to assist with delivery with future programmes.