Women's Services: The Primrose Project

The Primrose Project/DSPD Women’s Service is designed to deliver more effective healthcare interventions for dangerous women to reduce risk of harm to self and others. It is a collaborative pilot programme based at HMP/YOI Low Newton involving the Ministry of Justice, Department of Health, the Prison Service and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust as its key stakeholders. It serves the needs of women who primarily pose a risk of serious harm to the public emanating from their own complex clinical presentations. It is recognised that the issues affecting service provision for women may be different from those of men. The project has drawn on the best practice from both the Prison Service and the NHS in developing a hybrid model of intervention.

This service is designed to deliver specialist healthcare interventions within a female prison setting and provides an expansion to the already established male DSPD Programme offering a national resource for the assessment and treatment of women prisoners with severe personality disorder. (Planning and Delivery Guide for Women’s DSPD Services – Primrose Programme)

The Primrose pilot is housed within the 40 bedded ‘F’ Wing of HMP Low Newton, which has 12 places allocated to ‘Primrose DSPD women’. The women’s pilot therefore differs from the male projects in that the women will not be segregated from the ordinary prison population, an integrated service is considered the best approach to meet the needs of these women. A purpose-built (non-residential) unit has been attached to ‘F Wing’ for the delivery of therapies, however daily activities (such as meals, recreation and education) will be delivered by the mainstream prison services.

The group of women likely to meet the DSPD criteria is thought to be very small and currently almost exclusively within the prison estate.

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