Trauma-informed accredited programmes in His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service

The landscape of rehabilitation for those in the care of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has undergone significant transformations over the past few decades, particularly in the realm of offending behaviour programmes. Growing insights from psychology, criminology and neuroscience have seen offending behaviour programmes evolve to increasingly integrate trauma-informed principles into the design and implementation. In this chapter we provide a perspective on the evolution of offending behaviour programmes, often referred to as Accredited Programmes (AcPs), in HMPPS over the last 30 years. We start by describing how HMPPS programme developers have built on the foundations of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) framework ( Bonta & Andrews, 2017 ) to deliver a biopsychosocial model of change and the opportunities (bit more strengths based) this presents to incorporate a trauma-informed approach. We then discuss the integration of a set of widely acknowledged trauma-informed principles into programme content and delivery. We conclude with a discussion about the challenges and mitigations to implementing a trauma-informed programme approach within the complex context of HMPPS.