We are pleased to publish the evaluation of our prison staff coaching programme, conducted by a research team from the University of Lincoln!
We began offering life coaching to prison staff in 2020, at the height of Covid-19, with the aim of providing the reflective space and tools for staff to manage the stresses of a job made even more difficult by the pandemic. Four years on, this work has become one of our core offerings, and we are proud to have coached more than 80 prison staff, from all operational grades, including 9 Governors.
While the prison workforce faces significant challenges, Spark Inside coaching can be a valuable resource to support staff wellbeing and resilience, who in turn play a vital role in ensuring the wellbeing of those in custody.
Our impact on our participants is at the heart of every decision we make and it is how we judge our success. We enlisted the expert team from the University of Lincoln to evaluate the programme, so that we could understand the experiences of the prison staff participants and the coaches, identify what worked well within the programme and what improvements might be made.
Here’s what they found:
Benefits of Spark Inside’s coaching for prison staff:
The feedback about the programme from both prison staff participants and coaches was overwhelmingly positive. By far the main benefit for prison staff was the opportunity to speak to someone who listened, who could be relied on to keep the discussion confidential, who was non-judgemental, and who was independent from the prison service.
Prison staff repeatedly shared that their coaches had exceptional listening skills, that enabled them to talk about difficult topics and process sometimes traumatic experiences in new ways.
Other benefits we heard about included:
Developing skills and abilities
“[My Coach] gave me a bit more confidence of dealing with certain scenarios, and setting targets, timelines etc.”
“For me, it allowed me to stop for a few seconds, and then interact, rather than just be reactive.”
Increased confidence
“It made me go the extra mile and say do you know what – I think I can do this. I am able to do this.”
“I have built a lot more confidence, even looking for promotion or progression. Had I not done the coaching, I wouldn’t be in the headspace to be able to deal with trying for promotion.”
Improved wellbeing
“I was virtually on the verge of burning out, I tired myself out, and even when I wasn’t at work, all I was doing was thinking about work. And it was nice to have life coaching and think about career stuff, and actually not have to talk about work, it was other stuff that I was passionate about, that I cared about.”
“I’m happy to get up in the morning and go to work!”
Improved communication
“I line manage six individuals, and I do find myself talking very differently in catch ups with them. I try and get them to tell me what’s going on, as opposed to me telling them.”
Positive impact on retention
“I genuinely don’t know if I would have stuck around if I hadn’t done the coaching because of the levels of stress. It’s such a high intensity role, and having somewhere where you can decompress, and not unload, but be able to have a different avenue, makes such a big difference.”
To find out more about the benefits of coaching for prison staff, the “keys to success” in the programme, and the University of Lincoln’s recommendations for Spark Inside going forward, read the summary report here!
And to read the full evaluation report, click here.
