HMPPS Small Grants Scheme Substance Misuse prevention project at HMP High Down
HMP High Down is planning to deliver a targeted programme to address substance misuse, facilitated by a Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisation. The programme should feature a motivational speaker with lived experience of recovery, who will be expected to lead group sessions focused on themes of recovery, resilience, and personal transformation. In addition to group talks, the speaker should provide tailored one-to-one support for individuals residing on the Incentivised Substance-Free Living (ISFL) unit and within the Recovery Unit.
- Opening date: (Midnight)
- Closing date: (Midnight)
Contents
Summary
HMP High Down is planning to deliver a targeted programme to address substance misuse, facilitated by a Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisation. The programme should feature a motivational speaker with lived experience of recovery, who will lead group sessions focused on themes of recovery, resilience, and personal transformation.
In addition to group talks, the speaker should provide tailored one-to-one support for individuals residing on the Incentivised Substance-Free Living (ISFL) unit and within the Recovery Unit.
While HMP High Down continues to implement robust measures to restrict the supply of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), including “spice,” it is recognised that supply reduction alone is insufficient. Despite ongoing efforts to support individuals with substance misuse issues under challenging conditions, a more holistic approach is needed.
To complement existing strategies, the prison seeks to adopt a strengths-based model of recovery. This approach is informed by the work of Dr. David Best, a globally recognised expert in addiction recovery, who highlights the critical role of lived experience and peer support in achieving sustainable recovery outcomes.
By embedding this model within our custodial environment, HMP High Down aims to cultivate a culture of recovery, enhance individual resilience, and reduce the prevalence of illicit drug use across the establishment.
Expected structure of the sought activities:
We expect the person with a lived experience of substance misuse to spend time on our Recovery Unit in HMP High Down. Their responsibilities will include facilitating one-to-one sessions with residents, as well as leading group sessions—such as motivational talks—focused on recovery, resilience, and personal growth.
Group sizes may vary, but will typically include up to 12 participants. HMP High Down is open to flexible delivery models: organisations may propose weekly sessions or monthly workshops, provided they are complemented by individual support sessions.
Requirements for the providers:
We expect session facilitators to have lived experience of substance misuse recovery, bringing authenticity and relatability to their engagement with participants. Providers need to have experience in delivering recovery-focused interventions, and prior experience working within custodial environments is highly desirable.
All providers and project leads must undergo DBS checks prior to entering the prison. Individuals with lived experience may facilitate sessions, provided they are accompanied by a vetted member of their organisation who has completed the necessary security clearance.
Benefit for the service users
This project offers enhanced support for individuals seeking to overcome substance use. Evidence strongly suggests that this type of approach can be highly effective in promoting recovery.
The grant is the best option at this stage as it allows High Down to pilot and test the idea of this particular service delivery which will baseline future service delivery.
Expected outcomes:
Participants will develop new coping mechanisms for managing without substances.
Participant in recovery are more physically active and a road onto recovery will increase individuals’ overall health,
· The project will develop team building skills and improve communication.
· Participants will build and create new connections families/significant others.
· The project will increase knowledge of and engagement with relevant support agencies within the prison, and community – now and upon release.
Activities will run between 1 February 2026 and 31 January 2027, with delivery dates agreed upon at award stage (vetting time considered).
The applications will be open from 17 November 2025 to 5 December 2025 3pm.
The funding available for this award is £20k
The total grant amount will be paid in advance, provided that the grant recipient has given sufficient assurance that the grant will be used for the stated purpose.
Eligibility
The award is open to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations)
The voluntary sector organisation(s) or consortium receiving the grant from HMPPS, should be a registered charity or social enterprise.
Any organisation applying for funding must demonstrate that it meets the due diligence criteria before any award is made. The funding will only be given to organisations where their annual turnover is at least twice the amount of the funding that they are seeking.
Grant funding cannot be used to deliver core services which HMPPS should be delivering.
Objectives
· Make a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals seeking positive change.
· To improve people’s experience of prison and probation through the rehabilitation activities.
· To support an individual’s rehabilitation and desistance journey; and
· To improve our knowledge about what activities, work to support people and to encourage rehabilitation and desistance.
Dates
Activities will run between 1 February 2026 and 31 January 2027, with delivery dates agreed upon at award stage (vetting time considered).
The applications will be open from 17 November 2025 to 5 December 2025 3pm.
How to apply
In order to submit a compliant application, applicants must complete all questions in the Apply for a Grant application form. Please note and do not exceed the word counts for each answer. Any information that is included once the word count is exceeded will not be evaluated and will not count towards the evaluated score. Responses must not include diagrams, tables, images or similar.
Applicants are permitted to submit clarification questions via email to HMPPSGrants@justice.gov.uk. For transparency, this advert will be updated throughout the competition to include any responses to questions asked by applicants.
Further information from clarification questions:
No further information.
To be eligible for funding under this grant applicants must achieve the minimum threshold score of 3 averaged across all technical questions otherwise they will be removed from the competition process. The scoring criteria is outlined below:
Score Interpretation
5 Exceeds the requirement. Exceptional demonstration shown for the proposal, how the project will be delivered, and extensive past experience detailed.
4 Satisfies the requirements and has minor additional benefits. Above average demonstration across all questions.
3 Satisfies the requirements. Demonstrates understanding and ability to a satisfactory standard.
2 Satisfies most of the requirements with some minor reservations relating to the experience, understanding and/or ability. Whilst mostly the question has been answered in a satisfactory way, one element has been omitted/offers insufficient evidence.
1 Major reservations about the experience, understanding or ability demonstrated, with little to no evidence to support the questions. More than one element has been omitted.
0 Does not meet the requirement. Does not comply or offer sufficient information to demonstrated experience, ability of understanding. Significant elements of the question has been omitted or not addressed to a satisfactory standard.
The Authority reserves the right to ask clarification questions about any elements of an application. These questions will not give applicants the opportunity to expand on the response and may only be used where applications contain minor errors or to clarify where the information presented is unclear.
The grant, if awarded, shall be awarded to the Applicant(s) who:
· has submitted an application in compliance with these instructions
· meets the eligibility criteria
· meets the minimum quality threshold of 3 questions
· achieves the highest technical score
Due diligence checks will be carried out before the award can be made. These checks may include, but are not exclusive to, financial, brand, assurance, and charitable status.
Supporting information
Conflicts of Interest
The Authority is required to prevent conflicts of interest occurring in this competition and may disqualify applicants if an actual or potential conflict of interest occurs in connection with the competition which cannot be satisfactorily avoided or mitigated. The Authority may disqualify any applicant which attempts (or whose advisers attempt) to influence the competition in any way.
MoJ Disclaimer
The Authority shall not be committed to any course of action as a result of:
• issuing the competition documents
• communicating with an applicant or an applicant’s representatives or agents in respect of this competition exercise; or
• any other communication between the Authority (whether directly or by its agents or representatives) and any other party.
All applicants accept and acknowledge that by issuing the competition documents the Authority is not bound to accept any bid and reserves the right not to award or conclude a grant for all or any of the costs for which bids are invited.
The Authority reserves the right to apply its discretion on the amount of funding that is to be awarded to the successful applicant(s). If only part of the application is acceptable, in terms of the stated deliverables, then the Authority may only award funding on that basis.
The Authority reserves the right to amend, suspend or terminate all or any part of the competition or its documentation at any time during the ITT.
The instructions in this advert, together with any other tender documentation are designed to ensure that all applicants are given equal and fair consideration. Applicants should read the instructions carefully to ensure they understand them and the conditions of participation before submitting their applications.
Failure to comply with these instructions regarding submission of the application response may result in its rejection. The Authority may reject Tenders which are substantially and materially incomplete, non-compliant, inconsistent, or vague.
Applicants should answer all questions as accurately and concisely as possible. Applicants are solely responsible for ensuring that their applications are free from error and accept that these cannot be modified after the submission deadline.
Costs incurred in submitting applications will be borne by applicants and will be defined as ineligible expenditure under the terms of the grant.
All information supplied by the Authority to applicants must be treated in confidence (unless already in the public domain) and must not be disclosed to third parties other than as is necessary for the purposes of preparing a Tender.