No flash in the pan: How ‘For Time’ is helping to build sustainability into prison programmes
An evaluation of the 100&First Foundation’s ‘For Time’ programme has been published, outlining its potential to become a more sustainable and effective model for collaboration between sports organisations and prisons.
For Time is a mentor and functional fitness programme delivered to male prisoners at HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire.
Developed by experts in sport-based prison interventions, it fosters a pro-social community that supports both immediate benefits and long-term desistance pathways. Initially focused on resettlement, For Time has evolved to include prisoners serving longer sentences, strengthening peer mentorship and adaptability to changing prison demographics.
TRUSTING
The report – which was compiled by Dr Hannah Hammond, a Researcher from Royal Holloway, University of London, and Dr Jamie Crowther, a Research Fellow specialising in youth, health and masculinity from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – highlights how the 100&First team demonstrate “a remarkable capacity to cultivate strong, genuine and trusting relationships with participants”. Read the report.
Sam Cload, Head of the Foundation, explained why the research was commissioned. “Every prison is so different, and the work each prison values varies from prison to prison. So when you are developing a programme, you often have a concept which is refined to fit the prison, rather than it being about the wider Prison Service.
“If we want to have meaningful impact across the sector and the entire Prison System, then it’s about looking at the common threads that bind us all together. The point of this evaluation was to expose those threads, and to look at what is going on that can be replicated over and over again, which we know is going to build impact wherever you go, and then it can then be tweaked for individual differences.”
The report provides six key recommendations which could help to position the programme “as a strong model for replication in other prisons”, while noting challenges presented by the current system, for example with prison staff sometimes feeling threatened by external interventions and providers. According to the report, these challenges “underscore the need for a clearly defined, collaborative partnership model to ensure alignment and operational cohesion”.
Hannah commented: “You can understand why PEIs (Physical Education Instructors) feel their role could be under threat when someone external comes in to deliver sport and exercise, which is what they are trained to do.
“But this report is about defining the unique role of 100&First and distinguishing that from what the prison can do. It’s so important for the prison to be involved in terms of sustainability and creating that autonomy-supportive environment.”
MOTIVATION
That collaborative approach is key to securing the desired long-term outcomes, with research clearly showing “a drop off in wellbeing and motivation at follow-up” without the programme’s interventions. Hannah noted: “Without the prison’s buy-in, it’s not possible.”
Sam added: “This research speaks to how we, as a sector, can work hand in glove with the Prison System. We can’t go in and deliver something without the support of the prison, and they also struggle to deliver anything meaningful or long lasting without us, so we have to work together.
“We are setting out here what best practice for that would be, and how to create autonomy-supportive environments which can last and be sustainable rather than the six or eight weeks (of a programme) becoming a flash in the pan, and the environment isn’t sustained because you don’t have the support of the prison.”
The recommendations within the report include promoting long-term behavioural change within prisons, for example by collaborating with prison management “to promote a consistent ‘culture of movement’ by addressing inconsistencies in access to sport and exercise” and increasing engagement “among inactive prisoners and those less engaged in positive activity”.
“Our biggest USP is the relationships that we are able to create,” explained Izzy Clarke, Head of Delivery for 100&First. “We work with small groups, when prison officers are dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of people. We are able to build that trust.”
She added: “That relationship can then continue ‘through the gate’ when they are having to deal with probation services that don’t know them, and the chaos of release. They often feel lost and don’t have anyone to talk to in that process, and I think that’s where we have a unique perspective.”
SUSTAINABLE
The evaluation report describes how prisons could work with 100&First and similar organisations to build a sustainable partnership model, for example by empowering existing PE staff to deliver practical components of the programme while maintaining external organisation oversight for resettlement support and some elements of the classroom-based sessions, such as external speakers.
Experienced PEIs who have successfully delivered the programme could also be encouraged to “advocate for the model in other prisons, facilitating knowledge exchange and programme expansion”.
Jamie Crowther added: “This programme helps to bridge the gap between the gym and resettlement, and between the prison and the community, which obviously the staff within the prison are unable to do because they are bound by prison ways of working. That ability to carry on the relationship and mentoring with the men in and out of the prison allows a different way to work.”