Substance Misuse Treatment Framework (SMTF) and Mental Health (MH) Standards for Prisons

Tender description

Welsh Government consulted on a new draft Substance Misuse Treatment Framework and new Standards for Mental Health Services for prisons in Wales between 22 July 2022 and 14 October 2022. The new standards are delivering priorities in the partnership agreement for prison health and directly support priorities in the Mental Health and Substance Misuse Delivery Plans, providing support to underserved groups. On 31 January 2023, Welsh Government published a summary of consultation responses and Ministers have committed to working with the health boards and the prison health teams to implement the new standards. In the consultation summary report, we stated that baseline assessments and gap analyses would be undertaken to assess the extent to which the prisons in Wales were already reaching core standards set out for substance misuse and mental health in the prisons – with the view to then addressing key issues identified. Welsh Government has therefore awarded a contract that will undertake those baseline assessments for each of the prisons in Wales and provide ongoing support, assessment and review through Membership of the RCPsych quality network.