Drug & Alcohol

The Forward Trust provides a range of interventions and programmes across a selection of prisons in England to support prison service users into recovery when they are using substances.

About our work in prisons

Working in more than 20 prisons across England and Wales, we support people who want help to address issues with their drug or alcohol use in prison.

We provide friendly, non-judgmental support, no matter what our service users have gone through in the past. Over 30% of our staff have lived experience of drug and alcohol issues, some within the criminal justice system, which enhances the services we provide, given their ability to identify and support others who faced the challenges they did. 

We also know that no two people are the same, and all circumstances are different, which is why we offer a range of recovery treatment options and access to a range of other services, including family support and employment help for ex-offenders.

What services do we provide?

We offer a range of psychosocial and clinical interventions to help clients address their substance use.

Some substance use interventions we deliver include:

• ‘Stepping Stones Drug and Alcohol Programme’ - designed to support those people whose alcohol or drug consumption is at harmful or dependent levels, which is a low to medium intensity intervention.
• ‘Living Safely Drug and Alcohol Workshops’ - a series of workshops exploring the risks associated with drug and alcohol use. 
• ‘Footsteps in Recovery’ - an intensive programme with a tailored approach to helping individuals become drug and alcohol free.
• ‘Brief Intervention Programme for Alcohol’ (BIPA) - a programme designed to help individuals manage alcohol use or abstinence effectively.
• 'The Bridge Programme’ – an intensive and abstinence-based programme focusing on the journey to recovery and long-term treatment.
• ‘Family Support Services’ - our family support workers sit within treatment teams, helping service users to strengthen relationships with family, friends, and wider social networks whilst recovering from drug or alcohol dependencies.
• ‘Relationships Matter Programme’ - a series of workshops designed to improve interpersonal relationships and restore healthy communication.

Other services include:

• A wide range of standalone workshops and ‘in-cell’ packs aimed at harm minimisation, risk reduction, and relapse prevention.
• Wing-based ‘pop-ups’ to raise awareness on different areas of need, including substance use, general health and wellbeing topics.
• Co-facilitation of fellowship meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
• Clinical services including opiate substitution therapy (OST) and detoxification.
• Individual key working sessions.
• Naloxone training.

We offer a wide range of mental wellbeing workshops, including Talking Therapy step-based treatments, and counselling in some prisons. Our team consists of Mental Wellbeing workers, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWP), Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (SPWP), and High Intensity Therapists (HIT) who deliver step 1-3 treatments.

We also offer employment services, resettlement and rehousing support in some prisons for those reintegrating themselves back into society, with a supportive and compassionate process.

You can check which services each prison runs by exploring the prisons we work in below.

Referrals

Any prisoner can refer themselves to our services (‘self-refer’). If a staff member or third party makes a referral, we will assess the service user if they agree to engage. All prisoners are seen as part of their induction into their respective prisons.

If you have concerns about a loved one, family member, or friend’s drug or alcohol use and they are currently serving a sentence in a prison where we deliver services, please contact the prison directly by visiting their individual page below.

Get in touch 

If you have any questions about the services we currently deliver in prisons, please email us at info.forward@forwardtrust.org.uk or call 0203 981 5525.

Prison services