Working with Families and Carers in Prison Healthcare

Families and carers are a vital yet often underused resource in prison healthcare. When they are actively involved, they can provide valuable insight into a person’s health history, support continuity of care, and help reinforce treatment and wellbeing plans. This collaboration can lead to better patient outcomes, improved engagement with services, and a more holistic understanding of an individual’s needs.

Involving families and carers also plays an important role in reducing health inequalities. People in prison often experience complex and overlapping health challenges, and many come from communities that already face barriers to accessing care. By working more proactively with families and carers, healthcare teams can help ensure that individuals receive more consistent, coordinated, and person-centred care.

Supporting you to put policy into practice

This toolkit has been designed to help prison healthcare teams operationalise the NHS England Family and Carers’ Charter within the unique context of custodial settings. It translates the Charter’s principles into practical, achievable actions, supporting teams to embed meaningful family and carer involvement into everyday practice.

Rather than adding to workload, the toolkit aims to support more efficient and effective care by strengthening communication, improving information-sharing (within appropriate boundaries), and building trust between services and families.

Recognising the challenges

We recognise that involving families and carers in prison healthcare can be complex and, at times, challenging. Patients may not always give consent for information sharing, and not all family involvement is helpful or appropriate. Healthcare teams must also navigate prison security processes and information governance requirements, which can make engagement difficult and time‑consuming.

However, where this is done thoughtfully and well, it can ultimately save time, improve communication, and lead to better patient outcomes. By building stronger partnerships upfront, services can reduce avoidable issues, support more coordinated care, and improve experiences for patients, families and staff alike.

Built on real-world practice

The guidance and tools included here are grounded in real-life examples from prison healthcare teams who have already piloted approaches to involving families and carers. These examples demonstrate what can work in practice and offer adaptable ideas that can be tailored to local needs.

By sharing these tested approaches, the toolkit provides a realistic and practical foundation for change.

Using this toolkit alongside family resources

This toolkit is designed to be used alongside Pact’s resource, Your Guide to Prison Healthcare, which is available on our website for families and carers. That guide equips families with the knowledge and confidence they need to act as effective advocates for their loved ones.

Together, these resources create a shared framework:
supporting healthcare teams to involve families more systematically, and enabling families and carers to engage constructively and confidently with services

A shared goal

At its heart, this toolkit is about recognising families and carers as partners in care. By embedding their involvement into routine practice, prison healthcare teams can enhance the quality, safety, and equity of the care they provide - helping to achieve better outcomes for patients both in custody and beyond.

Note on terminology: Throughout this document we will refer to ‘families’ as a shorthand for family members, partners, significant others, or close friends: any person with a close relationship to the patient who acts as an unpaid carer or supports the patient to manage their health and wellbeing, with the patient’s consent.