Reducing reoffending means addressing key, often interconnected areas of an individual’s life. Across our Sodexo prisons, we focus on seven key pathways to support rehabilitation and safe reintegration into the community:

1. Accommodation:
   Safe, secure, stable housing is essential for community reintegration and reducing and individuals’ likelihood of reoffending. We work with Probation and Local Authorities to support referrals into housing pathways.
2. Attitudes, Thinking & Behaviour:
   We promote pro-social behaviour through staff modelling and a range of accredited and non-accredited interventions.
3. Children & Family:
   Family and significant others are crucial. We embed family services and specialised family interventions through targeted interventions and activities.
4. Drugs & Alcohol:
   We work with healthcare partners to address substance misuse through specialist interventions.
5. Education, Training & Employment:
   We offer meaningful activity, education and training varied learning and work opportunities, plus initiatives like Starting Fresh to support employment after release.
6. Finance, Benefit & Debt:
   We provide financial guidance and support through dedicated advisors and Job Centre partnerships to reduce financial stress.
7. Health:
   We ensure prisoners can access vital healthcare through strong partnerships with local health providers.

The Family Matters team is based in the visits entry area and provides support to both visitors and prisoners. They help to maintain or rebuild relationships, working with both internal and external agencies.

Prisoners can request 1-to-1 support through the kiosk or be referred by staff and partner agencies. Support includes general advice, liaising with social services, courts and adoption teams. They can also supervise family contact sessions.

The Family Matters team hosts Family Days events throughout the year to strengthen family bonds. These include interactive sessions with children and families, games and seasonal events.

The Family Matters Team also support prisoners who are not in contact with their families while they are in custody. Prisoners who don’t have family contacts can arrange to meet with a peer support worker (another prisoner) to enable them to experience the environment and opportunities of the visits hall.

Following release, Outside Links offers ‘beyond the gate’ support to former prisoners, helping them to access the services they need to successfully settle back into the community.

We work with a range of partners to provide support each weekday and at vulnerable times such as Christmas Day and bank holidays. Each week we offer a ‘Women only Wednesday’.

Outside Links service locations

We provide our Outside Links service in the following locations:

• Peterborough - HMP Peterborough Visits Centre
  (08:30 – 10:15 Monday to Friday)
• Peterborough - 1st floor Bradfield House, Westgate, Peterborough
  (10:30 – 17:00 Monday to Friday)

Funded by Cambridgeshire Constabulary, we also provide support to those on conditional caution in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Wisbech via telephone.

Freephone support line

We offer a Freephone support line that is available Monday to Friday from 10:30 to 17:00. For assistance call 0800 587 7745 or 07789 615048.

Just leave a message, including your contact details, and we will call you back.