Cancer Champion Training: Stoke Heath Prison

Cancer Champions at HMP Stoke Heath

The Cancer Champions team has trained and supported Cancer Champions at HMP Stoke Heath for over a year.  The outstanding dedication of the prisoners and prison staff has ensured the success of the project in helping to improve the health and wellbeing of prisoners.  The Cancer Champion Coordinator for Shropshire, Rebecca Peters shares her insights into the project, some of the barriers and challenges working in this environment and the impact and success of the project.

What is a Cancer Champion?

The Cancer Champions project was initially set up in Shropshire, Telford and Powys.  The project is funded by Lingen Davies and is a partnership project with Oswestry Community Action (Qube).  Cancer Champions are supported to have everyday conversations with family, friends, colleagues and people in their community about the early signs and symptoms of cancer and cancer screening.  This helps to empower people to engage in cancer screening and to seek help for their symptoms.  Cancer Champions attend an in-person awareness training session and once trained, Champions are supported in their role by the Coordinators across the region.  The project aims to support people who experience health inequalities as it is known that although everyone has a right to healthcare not everyone is able to take up that right to the same extent for various reasons.

HMP Stoke Heath and prison health inequalities

At the beginning of 2024 members of staff from HMP Stoke Heath attended a Cancer Champion training session in Telford.  HMP/YOI Stoke Heath is a closed Category C adult male and young offender institution, with a small Category D unit located in Shropshire.  The staff attending the Cancer Champion awareness session recognised the benefits that the training could have for both the prison staff and the population of prisoners at HMP Stoke Heath.

Those in contact with the criminal justice system are more likely to experience worse healthcare inequalities than other disadvantaged groups.  Prisoners have a higher risk of death from cancer than the general population and it is believed that this is due to multiple increased risk factors, including delayed access to cancer screening programmes.  It was felt that the Cancer Champions project could have a huge impact in helping to reduce some of these health inequalities.

HAWCs

HMP Stoke Heath has a Health and Wellbeing Champions programme (HAWCs).  The development of the HAWC project through Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust has been a real success at HMP Stoke Heath.  It involves training prisoners to support the health-care team and their peers with health-related concerns.  The HAWCs strengthen the overall health and wellbeing of prisoners by educating and supporting their peers.  At HMP Stoke Heath, the HAWCs have now become embedded across the establishment and the success of the scheme has been recognised by the prison’s senior management team and external parties, including the Care Quality Commission.  It was felt that the HAWCs at Stoke Heath would be particularly well placed to train as Cancer Champions.

Cancer Champions at HMP Stoke Heath

In May 2024 Miranda and Rebecca visited HMP Stoke Heath to deliver the Cancer Champion training to Health and Wellbeing Champions at the prison.  There were numerous considerations to take in to account even prior to the initial visit.  Names and identification need to be sent well in advance of any visits and technology such as phones and smart watches are not permitted to enter the prison.

As the Cancer Champion training requires various visual images using Powerpoint, it is necessary to share all details of the laptop weeks in advance of any training sessions.  The laptop then needs to be presented to prison officers on entering the prison where it is thoroughly checked and verified.

A suitable location needs to be identified within the prison where the HAWCs can attend as a small group for training enabling the Cancer Champion presentation to be shared.  There are limited locations suitable for this and the team need to be flexible on dates/timings.  Movements around the prison are non-negotiable and therefore when it is time for prisoners to move within the prison there is no possibility of extending training session times.

There is a lot of movement in prisons as prisoners are either moved to other prisons/provisions or are released when they have served their sentence.  It is a continuous process of recruitment for the HAWC coordinator at the prison to ensure the success and longevity of the scheme.  This means that it is necessary to attend the prison on a regular basis to train new prisoners as Cancer Champions to ensure that prisoners are continuously supported.

The HAWCs at HMP Stoke Heath are trained to have conversations about spotting the early signs and symptoms of cancer and understanding the importance of supporting people to engage in cancer screening programmes.  Feedback from prison staff and the prisoners themselves is that the work they do as Cancer Champions is both important and effective in helping to improve the health and wellbeing of prisoners.

On completion of their training all Cancer Champions are given Information Packs with leaflets and resources that they are able to share with their peers.  Many of the resources collated for these packs contain links to internet websites and QR codes for further information and support.  These are not useful for prisoners who are unable to access the internet.  It is necessary to source leaflets and resources containing as much information as possible on the leaflet itself.  Literacy levels are also known to be significantly lower in the prison population, having a huge impact on prisoners’ ability to access educational material and health information.  The HAWC’s packs need to contain Easy Read leaflets and lots of visual information to be able to support prisoners with a wide range of literacy levels.  In addition, health information in a variety of languages is also needed to be sourced and shared with HAWCs, as English may not be the first language of some prisoners.

Cancer Champion Support at HMP Stoke Heath

The HAWCs at HMP Stoke Heath are supported in a number of different ways in their role as Cancer Champions, however due to the prison environment the approach to this needs to be carefully considered and adapted.

Cancer Champion Newsletters are created on a monthly basis containing project updates, latest research and developments in cancer screening and further information on the role of Cancer Champions.  This is printed out by the HAWC Coordinator to be shared with all HAWCs at the prison as they are unable to receive this in a digital format via email.

The Cancer Champion Coordinators in Shropshire, Telford and Powys hold regular Coffee Catch ups in various locations across the area so that Cancer Champions are able to feedback any insights they may have about early signs and symptoms and cancer screening programmes, that can then be shared with both local and national NHS services.  These catch ups also provide an opportunity for Champions to support one another in their role, sharing challenges and successes and their ideas to support people in reporting early signs and symptoms of cancer.  As prisoners were unable to attend  these meetings, regular catch ups at HMP Stoke Heath are organised at the prison.  This provides an opportunity for feedback from the HAWCs to be shared, challenges and barriers to be explored and for the prisoners to find creative solutions to manage their role effectively.

At prison catch ups, the prisoners are able to choose if they would like to attend or not.  To date these meetings are always well attended with all HAWCs keen to engage and enthusiastic about their role as Cancer Champions.  They are often keen to share some of the challenges they experience and are proactive at finding solutions to manage this.  Cancer Champions within the prison often request specific resources that they feel will support others.

The HAWCs have described how they feel proud to be making a real difference to the lives of their fellow prisoners – as they are aware that by educating other prisoners to notice early signs and symptoms of cancer and then reporting this can make all the difference as having an early diagnosis of cancer can save lives.  The HAWCs have asked for Cancer Champion lanyards so that other prisoners can easily identify them as somebody they can talk to about early signs and symptoms of cancer and if they have any questions about screening.

The Impact and future of Cancer Champions at HMP Stoke Heath

The Cancer Champions team from Lingen Davies and Qube will continue to train and support the HAWCs at HMP Stoke Heath due to the success of the project.

The HAWCs continue to find new ways to share information about cancer with other prisoners and recently decided to create health information videos focusing on early symptoms of a range of different cancers, reporting of signs and symptoms and sharing information on cancer screening.  The Cancer Champions team will support the prisoners to create these videos and they will be shared internally at the prison.

During Catch ups at the prison, some of the HAWCs shared that they have relatives outside of prison who have been diagnosed with cancer.  They described their sadness and fear that they may never be able to see them again.  Now that they have some understanding of cancer diagnosis and cancer treatments due to attending Cancer Champion training they explained that they feel more able to be optimistic for both themselves and their relatives.  HAWCs have also described how during phonecalls with family, they have encouraged them to attend their cervical smear test and mammograms as a direct result of the training.  Therefore, the HAWCs are not only using their training within the prison environment but also with their family outside the prison.  Some Cancer Champions have requested continuing their work as a Cancer Champion when they leave the prison and have begun to investigate the possibility of supporting similar projects across the UK.

The insights the prisoners have shared at meetings have been invaluable in helping to ensure the health and wellbeing of their fellow prisoners is improved in relation to early cancer diagnosis.

To date, there have been five prison staff (including the Head of Offender Management, Head of Reducing Offending, Head of Prison Catering Service, a Prison Officer, Health and Wellbeing Champion Coordinator, and the Head of Drug Strategy) trained as Cancer Champions and 25 prisoners (Health and Wellbeing Champions).  The Cancer Champions team look forward to continuing to engage with the prison staff and the HAWCs at HMP Stoke Heath.

Rebecca Peters (Cancer Champion Coordinator, Shropshire)