23rd March 2005

Action for Prisoners’ Families, in partnership with the Midlands Regional Visitors Centre Forum, is organizing a good practice workshop for members on 23 March, 2005, in Peterborough.

The workshop will provide a platform for Visitors’ Centre managers to describe methods they use to identify first-time visitors to prisons and to exchange good practice. Information for first-time visitors will be reviewed, and ways to provide this most effectively will be explored (i.e. leaflets, notice boards, information packs, staff available for discussion). Visitors’ Centres play a vital role in improving family contact and increasing the support available to prisoners’ families.

APF will be repeating the workshop for visitors’ centres in the North of England and Scotland in May 2005. Notes from both meetings will be combined into a draft good practice guide and distributed to members.