Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy Mentoring Scheme: an evaluation

Monitoring & Evaluation report, October 2013

Frances Bromley

Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy,

HMP Wormwood Scrubs, London

Executive Summary

Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy (WSCC) is a mentoring scheme that provides through the gate support by trained volunteer mentors to suitable prisoners at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The purpose of this evaluation was to measure the effectiveness of the mentoring scheme and determine how WSCC mentors alongside other professional and third sector agencies can help someone to reduce their re-offending behaviour. Data collection tools have been used to monitor a group of WSCC mentoring relationships and the personal progress made by WSCC service users or ‘mentees’ before and after their release from HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The data collection methods for this evaluation report included colleting quantitative data from two Spider Assessment forms, which reflect the well-documented Seven Resettlement Pathways and qualitative evidence in the form of written reports provided by mentors after each session with their mentee. Several key findings were determined from the evaluation:

A proportion of mentees were not met at the gate by their mentors and consequently did not stay in contact with their mentor once they had been released in to the community.

The length of the mentoring relationship correlated with the amount of progress the mentee made.

Data collection tools showed that the majority of mentees made progress overall, but that working with other agencies was needed for greater progress and stability in a number of the Seven Resettlement Pathways.

Following the findings from the evaluation, it is recommended that Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy review and emphasise the significance of their through the gate service and extend their monitoring by including a third data collection of Spider Assessment results and by implementing the Mentee feedback questionnaire in order to gain feedback from the service users as well as the mentors.

Acknowledgements

With grateful thanks for the input of those who helped to design and establish the Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy evaluation framework and data collection tools. To the WSCC mentors who give their time to support prisoners at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, particularly to those who participated in the data collection process for this evaluation; and finally to the Mentoring & Befriending Foundation, for their support and guidance throughout the evaluation process.

Table of Contents PAGE

1.0Introduction1

2.0Evaluation methodology2

3.0Evaluation findings4

3.1Community Chaplaincy: The mentoring relationship4

3.2Accommodation5

3.3Education, Training & Employment6

3.4Health, Drugs & Alcohol7

3.5Debt & Finance7

3.6Relationships8

3.7Attitudes, Thinking & Behaviour9

3.8Overall progress9

4.0Conclusion11

5.0Recommendations12

6.0Annexes13

6.1Bibliography13

6.2WSCC Evaluation framework14

6.3Community Chaplaincy Spider Assessment17

6.4Mentor Spider Assessment19

6.5WSCC Mentor report form 21

6.6Mentee feedback questionnaire22

1.0 Introduction

The purpose of this evaluation was to monitor and evaluate how Wormwood Scrubs Community Chaplaincy evidences its outcomes to show that the aims and objectives of the charity are being achieved.WSCC offers a through the gate mentoring scheme to suitable adult male prisoners at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The WSCC mentors are trained volunteers and WSCC service users are those with either short-term sentences or those who are coming to the end of their sentence. Prisoners on remand, sex offenders or those who are of interest to the immigration authorities are not eligible for the WSCC mentoring scheme. The two main objectives of the charity are to match suitable prisoners with a WSCC mentor and to subsequently reduce the likelihood of those prisoners re-offending. This feeds in to the overall aim of the charity, which is to promote healing, forgiveness, personal growth and development in order for those who leave prison to become contributing members of society. Monitoring the WSCC mentoring relationships that occur, play a crucial role in determining whether or not the aims and objectives of the charity are being met. It is not always easy to measure the outcomes of an effective mentoring relationship, especially when working with vulnerable adults in the prison system, as each person’s circumstances and needs vary greatly. However, evidencing the results produced by charities such as WSCC is becoming increasingly important in the changing climate of the Criminal Justice System, where funding opportunities are becoming more competitive. WSCC have therefore developed four different data collection tools, which provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence in order to determine the progress that a prisoner, soon to be released back in to society, can make with the support of a WSCC mentor.

2.0 Evaluation Methodology

The question that is becoming increasingly common from funders is: can your organisation reduce re-offending behaviour? In order to demonstrate that the WSCC mentoring scheme can help to reduce someone’s re-offending behaviour, it is important that we provide evidence to show the progress that our WSCC mentees make in key areas identified as supporting factors for offending behaviour. Research suggests that there are common factors that affect a person’s offending behaviour and therefore reflect the needs of the person. The Home Office Reducing Re-offending National Action Plan, 2004 devised The Seven Resettlement Pathways from these common factors (Gojkovic, Mills and Meek, 2011, p3). These Seven Pathways are as follows: Accommodation; Education, Training & Employment; Health; Drugs & Alcohol; Debt & Finance; Children & Families (Relationships) and Attitudes, Thinking & Behaviour (Gojkovic, Mills and Meek, 2011, pp11-14). As well as indicating what a person’s needs might be, the pathways can also help to track progress and therefore WSCC have incorporated the Seven Resettlement Pathways in to their monitoring activities.

WSCC have developed four data collection tools. The first tool is the Community Chaplaincy (CC) Spider Assessment form (see Annex 6.3). The CC Spider Assessment form is used once at the first meeting between a prisoner and one of the WSCC In-reach worker’s. It is the first assessment used to discover the needs of the prisoner and his suitability for the mentoring scheme. The front of the sheet includes general details to identify the prisoner and on the back of the sheet is the Spider Assessment. The Spider is made up of the Seven Resettlement Pathways, with the addition of a Community Chaplaincy ‘leg’ to map the progress of the relationship between the mentee and the mentor. The second data collection tool is the Mentor Spider Assessment form (see Annex 6.4). This tool is similar to the CC Spider Assessment. However, it is for the use of the mentor rather than a part of the WSCC suitability assessment process. This tool has been designed for the mentor to use twice throughout the mentoring relationship, once before the mentee is released and once after they are released. As a result, three Spider Assessments would be completed over the course of the mentoring relationship. Progress can therefore be measured over the three assessments, either in each individual leg of the spider, which ranges from one at the lowest to five at the highest or an overall score can be measured by adding the score on each leg to get a total number out of 40. The third data collection tool is the Mentor report form (see Annex 6.5). Mentors complete this form throughout the mentoring relationship, after each meeting with their mentee. The mentor report allows WSCC to monitor the progress of the mentee as well as the progress of the mentoring relationship itself, in a qualitative form. These are to be used in conjunction with the quantitative data collected from the Spider Assessments. Finally, the fourth data collection tool is the Mentee feedback questionnaire (see Annex 6.6). The questionnaire, to be filled in by the mentee in the weeks leading up to his release, includes six questions about their experience of having a WSCC mentor and can be answered by circling the five point scale, which ranges from Never to Always. The questionnaire is simple to avoid being too laborious and time-consuming, but gives a healthy snapshot of the mentee’s perspective and can be used alongside verbal feedback to the WSCC team.

For this evaluation report a group of nine WSCC mentors and their mentees were involved in the data collection. All mentees were matched with a WSCC mentor whilst serving time at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Four of these mentoring relationships include mentee’s who are still inside prison. There are a further five relationships that include mentee’s that have been released from HMP Wormwood Scrubs. For the purposes of this evaluation report, only two Spider Assessments have been completed for each mentee and the Mentee feedback questionnaire has not been included as part of the data collection, but has been developed as a tool that is to be implemented in the near future. As we move on to the Evaluation Findings, it is important to note that each of the nine mentoring relationships started at different times and have continued for varied lengths of time. This will be explored further throughout the report. Additionally, the differing personal circumstances and type of criminal behaviour for each mentee should be considered when evaluating the data.

3.0 Evaluation Findings

The WSCC Evaluation framework (6.2) displays the charity’s three main outputs. The first is one-to-one mentoring sessions inside the prison. Out of the nine WSCC service users that where a part of the data collection for this evaluation report, all nine have had one-to-one mentoring relationships inside the prison. Three of these service users are still receiving support inside the prison, and five have since been released in to the community. One service user decided whilst they were still inside that they no longer wanted a mentor and so their mentoring relationship ceased while they were still in prison. Despite this, there was progress made in areas of the Spider Assessment during the mentoring relationship; therefore it is appropriate to continue to include him in the evaluation. The second output is that mentors will meet their mentee at the gate on the day of their release. Out of the five service users that have been released from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, 40% (n=2) were met at the gate, 20% (n=1) met by a WSCC In-Outreach worker in place of the mentor and a further 40% (n=2) were not met at the gate (one because the mentor was unavailable and the other because the mentee was being met by his family and chose for the mentor not to be there). Finally, the third output is the one-to-one mentoring sessions outside the prison. 60% (n=3) of the five mentees released have stayed in contact with their mentor upon release; this includes the one mentee that was met by a WSCC In-Outreach worker, as the mentor was unavailable. Interestingly, those mentees that were not met at the gate have not stayed in contact with their mentor upon release. These results confirm that the mentor meeting their mentee at the gate is paramount and highlights why one of our main outputs is to offer a through the gate mentoring service. Still, it is not uncommon for a mentee to lose contact upon release as when they are inside; the internal containment of the prison in effect means that they don’t hold the responsibility over meeting with their mentor. It is for the mentor and the WSCC team to arrange the meetings. However, once they are released they have more of a responsibility to contact the mentor. This can prove difficult or unlikely when there are other things in their life, which may distract from the mentoring relationship.

3.1 Community Chaplaincy: The mentoring relationship

The success of the WSCC mentoring scheme is heavily reliant on the mentor and mentee building a strong relationship in order for the mentee to recognise their mentor’s suggestions and alter their behaviour, this is therefore one of our main aims. The results from the data collection show that 89% of the nine mentees in the data collection have developed strong relationships with their mentors. Five out of the nine relationships improved by 60% from a score of two ‘Prepared to engage’, to a score of five ‘Strong mentoring relationship – starting to make good independent choices’. We would expect all mentees to progress in this area between the two Spider Assessments, as all are scored a two on their first meeting with our In-Outreach worker and then as a consequence progress automatically when they are matched with a mentor. However, Table 1.0 below shows that there was a negative change for the mentee who decided to end the mentoring relationship inside prison. Consequently, his score on the Mentor Spider Assessment decreased from two to one ‘Not interested’.

Table 1.0
Change in relationship between the mentor and mentee of nine WSCC mentees (%)
Positive change / Negative change / No change
No. of mentees / 89% (n=8) / 11% (n=1) / 0%

3.2 Accommodation

WSCC aim to enable mentee’s to improve their ability to find long-term accommodation, the outcomes being that mentees are pro active in searching for housing and are able to find stable accommodation. It should be noted here that it is not our aim to provide accommodation for our mentees, as this is the role of other organisations. Instead the role of the mentor is to support the mentee in his search for accommodation, which may involve liaising with or referring them to appropriate agencies or charities. Activities like helping to fill in a housing application form may also benefit the mentee.

Table 2.0
Change in accommodation circumstances of nine WSCC mentees (%)
Positive change / Negative change / No change
No. of mentees / 44% (n=4) / 22% (n=2) / 33% (n=3)

As you can see from Table 2.0, whilst working with a WSCC mentor, four of the mentees accommodation circumstances improved, for three there was no change and for two mentees their circumstances unfortunately deteriorated. However, it is important to try and put these figures in to a national social context, where the amount of housing available to people leaving prison is severely limited. ‘Surveys indicate 30% of people released from prison will have nowhere to live. This is despite the fact that stable accommodation can reduce re-offending by over 20%’ (Prison Reform Trust, 2013).The additional support that our mentors can offer prisoners leaving HMP Wormwood Scrubs can therefore be vital, especially for those with No Fixed Abode. For example, one mentor report reveals:

‘His main concern remains accommodation...He asked me to get in contact with his probation officer with a view to convincing her of his reformed mentality and need for housing support. He believes there are deposit schemes and that they start lookingfor accommodation for clients 6 weeks before release and he is now 10 weeks from release. He also wants me to ask the Probation officer to try to convince his mother of his genuine determination to give it his best shot this time. Will do.’

3.3 Education, Training & Employment

WSCC aim to encourage their mentee’s to gain qualifications and experience so that as a result they are more motivated to improve their education and chances of finding employment. Our mentors support their mentees with employment opportunities by helping them to think about what they would like to do and where their skills lie, while they are still in prison. Furthermore, this support often includes the mentor bringing in application forms for potential jobs or training, or simply giving their mentee a list of organisations that work with people who have been in prison. The results from our Mentor Spider Assessments show that out of the nine mentees, 22% have a desire for employment, 56% are seeking employment and 22% have potential employment, which is positive. Our mentor reports give us a good understanding of the progress that each of these mentees are making in this area. For example, the two extracts below are from a mentor’s reports about the same mentee and show exactly how a WSCC mentor can offer their support and encouragement to a prisoner preparing for release:

Extract 1: ‘I’d done what I’d said: presented the application pack for a3 month unpaid internship at KewGardens. I was impressed with his willingness to put in the effort of filling out a lengthy application, getting references + photo etc. He affirmed his desire to work out of doors with plants and of his own volition, again raised the issue of further education…He may not get onto the Internship. It is popular. But the fact and practice of putting in an application and giving the matter thought, is in itself very worthwhile.’