PPO launches new IPCI Ambassadors scheme

One year after launching Independent Prisoner Complaint Investigations (IPCI), the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman are pleased to announce the launch of IPCI Ambassadors.

Launching today across multiple prisons, an ‘IPCI Ambassador’ is a voluntary role that prisoners carry out to signpost other prisoners to support around their complaint, both in navigating local processes and knowing how and when to escalate something to IPCI. Read more about IPCI and making a complaint.

Ombudsman Adrian Usher said about the launch:

“When we launched IPCI last year, we heard from prisoners about the value of having a fellow prisoner to steer them in the right direction when they wanted to raise an issue locally.  We hope IPCI Ambassadors will help us not only improve prisoner’s understanding of the local complaints process but also how and when to use IPCI if needed.

I believe IPCI Ambassadors will make the local complaints processes easier to navigate and play a role in helping sort small issues sooner before they escalate. The scheme will improve relationships between prisoners and staff and reduce tensions on the wing. We are making good use of prisoner’s local knowledge, and we hope this will make raising issues in prison clearer and easier.”

If your loved one is in prison and they need help with a complaint, they can find their IPCI Ambassador in participating prisons by looking out for prisoners with branded IPCI Ambassador materials such as armbands or lanyards. View the list of participating IPCI Ambassador prisons here.

We are grateful to the prisons that have signed up to the phase one launch and look forward to rolling out the scheme in more locations. If you work in a prison and would like to participate in this scheme, please email mail@ppo.gov.uk.

We hope the launch of this scheme will not only help reduce the number of ineligible complaints we receive, but more importantly give prisoners a purpose and help their fellow inmates to complain if they need to.