Background Research suggests that young people involved in offending are more likely to experience multiple, traumatic or parental bereavements than the general population (Vaswani. Persistent offender profile: focus on bereavement. Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre for Scotland; 2008), leading to negative outcomes in education, self-esteem and risk-taking behaviour (Ribbens McCarthy & Jessop. Young people, bereavement and loss: Disruptive transitions? 2005). This underlines the importance of addressing bereavement effectively within the prison population. Prisoners experiencing complicated grief, layered loss and unresolved grief ‘can cause the prison significant challenges in managing behaviour, may make reintegration back into the community more difficult to accomplish and ultimately may have an impact on reoffending rates.’(Vaswani. Howard J Criminal Justice. 2014; 53(4): 341–359).

Aims To increase knowledge and confidence in prison staff, enabling them to have informed, compassionate conversations with prisoners who are experiencing layered loss and grief.

Methods Five face-to-face Grief, Loss and Bereavement training sessions were delivered, engaging staff/volunteers at HMP Northumberland. Additionally, bespoke resources, appropriate for a prison setting, were developed and ongoing telephone advice from hospice bereavement staff was made available.

Results The project, made possible with funding from the Linder Foundation, resulted in 56 staff/volunteers gaining enhanced knowledge, skills and confidence to offer good quality support to bereaved prisoners. This newfound expertise equips them to offer timely and appropriate assistance.

Conclusion The project has yielded positive outcomes. Significantly, staff have indicated that they feel better equipped to identify and discuss grief. Furthermore, the provision of bespoke bereavement resources ensures that all prisoners have information on how to access additional support. Following the collation of participant feedback, further gaps in knowledge have been identified which we are hoping to address by developing the programme in this regard.