WELCOME TO THE NETWORK FOR PRISON AND OFFENDER RESEARCH IN SOCIAL CARE AND HEALTH (PORSCH)

Angel of the North

PORSCH is a network of researchers and service practitioners based in the North East of England and Yorkshire. It is dedicated to enhancing the contribution of research and development to the improvement of the health of offenders, the well-being of the communities in which they live and the reduction of offending behaviours.

The Network is free of charge to members. It runs workshops and conferences, facilitates research and development projects, and provides an information exchange. PORSCH now provides advice and support from our Research Ambassadors, click the link above for more information. If you would like to join us, use the Contact page.

After successful informal collaborations that organised symposium on prison health in 2000, 2002 and 2003, the Network was formally established in 2005 with support from the Department of Health. We have now presented over 100 events on offender health in the North of England.

Currently, funding, facilities and personnel are provided by the following Supporters who provide the core membership of the PORSCH Advisory Board and Management Group:

  • Cumbria Northumberland Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust

  • Durham University Department of Sociology

  • NHS England & NHS Improvement Health & Justice Commissioners (North East and Yorkshire)

  • Newcastle University Population Health Sciences Institute

  • North East Prison Group, HMPPS

  • Northumbria University Criminology

  • Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust Grounded Research Team

  • Spectrum Community Health CIC

  • Sunderland University Centre of Applied Social Studies and DISCRIM Network

  • Tees Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust Offender and Forensic Community Services

  • University of York CrimNet

The other pages on the website provide information about the Network's activities. If you would like more detail or a copy of the latest Annual Report please use the form provided on the Contact page.

Durham Cathedral

LATEST NEWS from Management Group and Advisory Board Meetings

August 2024:

Professor Graham Towl is appointed as the new chair of PORSCH. He is Professor of Psychology at Durham University (DU) and visiting clinical professor at Newcastle University. His current primary research area is mental health, particularly prisoner suicide. He was an expert member of the Ministerial Independent Advisory Panel on deaths in state custody including hospitals and prisons. Uniquely he is the recipient of the British Psychological Society Awards for Distinguished Contributions to both Professional Practice and Forensic Academic Knowledge. He is included in A&C Black's Who's Who for exceptional contributions in the field of equality and diversity. In 2003, he was acknowledged in a national peer survey as the most influential forensic psychologist in the UK. He has practical experience of working in hospitals and prisons. As a former Senior Civil Servant, he has thorough understanding of the machinery of government. His most recent post at the Ministry of Justice was as Chief Psychologist, where he enjoyed international reputation for innovations in service delivery. He devised and established a national infrastructure for more effective delivery of psychological services across prisons and probation services in England and Wales. He has maintained his research whilst undertaking the role of pro-vice-chancellor on DU's Executive Committee. He has overseen a number of innovative change-management programmes, e.g. giving DU national presence on provision of support services for university students who have experienced sexual violence.

PORSCH is working on a new programme to enhance offender health research and development capacity in the North East and Yorkshire.

The PORSCH collaboration with Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber (RDaSH) NHS FT and partners on Meeting Needs and Building Resilience of Health and Justice Staff in Secure Settings has completed Project 1 - What do we currently know?

Project 2 - What do health and justice staff identify as their needs and support requirements? - Will be carried out by the team at Sheffield Hallam University.