Jennifer Rademaker alongside Lord Timpson OBE, the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending 

It was a proud moment for everyone at Fine Cell Work when our Chair of Trustees, Jennifer Rademaker, had her independent review on HMPPS (His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service) Professional Standards and Behaviour published earlier this year. We caught up with Jennifer to find out more about the review and its reception. 

Treating people with respect, dignity, and equality is an important ethos at Fine Cell Work, guiding how we work with our staff, our volunteers, our supporters and, of course, the people we work with in and out of prison.  These are core values that I hold dear and so I was very interested when HMPPS approached me in October 2023 with the prospect of conducting a review of how staff bullying, harassment and discrimination are handled in the prison and probation service.

HMPPS were being proactive and wanted this review.  Driving excellence in professional standards, including bullying, harassment and discrimination, was already a priority for the senior leadership of HMPPS and they had already taken steps to address opportunities for improvement.  As a result, I was in the fortunate space where I did not need to convince HMPPS that there was a need to take action.  Instead, I was able to focus on identifying specific, practical steps that would drive the positive change they sought.

I completed my review in March 2024 and it was published in April 2025.   I made 12 recommendations and HMPPS accepted all of them and is now moving forward with implementing the changes.  While HMPPS embraced my findings, the trade unions also endorsed the report. 

Key recommendations included:

• Establishing an independent channel outside of line management for reporting, investigating and decisioning bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints
• Improving the process for handling workplace adjustments
• Transparent reporting of metrics on bullying, harassment and discrimination matters
• Assessing how performance feedback is handled to reinforce expectations on professional standards of behaviour
• Ensuring that hiring practices enable sufficient assessment of a candidate’s alignment with HMPPS values

It’s been gratifying to see the reception of my findings and recommendations and I am eager for the changes that HMPPS is now driving.  I am very proud to have done this work for HMPPS. 

I am also very proud of the environment of acceptance, respect and dignity that we have created at Fine Cell Work. Our programme is designed to build self-confidence, empowerment and hope and instil belief that positive change is possible.  We can’t do this when people feel discriminated against, harassed or bullied.  So whether we are engaging with supporters at an event, visitors to our office, or stitchers in cell groups or workshops, the Fine Cell Work approach is open, authentic, welcoming and supportive.  It just feels good and it’s a key ingredient in our success.

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Jennifer's review can be read in full here. 

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