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HMP Parc - The Finished Article (nearly)
 Graham joined HMP Parc in October and has been a chef for 25 years since leaving college in Brecon. He has worked in Coventry, Oswestry, Devon, Newport, Swansea and London. In Swansea he taught for 10 years at the catering college. Then after a brief spell as a driving instructor he applied for the new post of Catering and Catering Training Manager in the Staff dining facility in HMP Parc.
The staff catering facility at Parc has been under construction for 9 months along with the other major expansion works. The new winGC and visits area have been finished and it’s only the training kitchen that needs to be completed. The shop will also be moved within the walls as soon as possible.
CR: Custodial Review
GC: Graham CharlesWorth
CR Graham, what is your full area of responsibility in PARC, when did you first produce a meal and what staffing levels do you have?
GC My remit is the new staff catering facility, including the dining area, kitchen, coffee and sandwich bar. When the new training kitchens and classroom have been finished they will also be my responsibility. We produced our first meal on the 8th October, so have been running for over three months. We have six prisoners working in the kitchen and four in ‘front of house’. We have a Senior Chef in the dining facility who oversees that area. We also have two catering instructors, one will move to the training kitchens when they are commissioned. So we have a total of 5 staff and 10 Prisoners.
CR What is the range of meals, drinks and edibles that you are cooking and supplying and have you fully established a menu?
GC We work on a two day turnover, which means we buy fresh produce in on a Monday and again on a Wednesday. As the skill level of the workforce was realised and improved upon we were able to increase the menu and therefore the amount of fresh produce we use. We are now making our own sponges, hams, and preparing all our own vegetables. We serve a full range of appetites, all the way from coffee and biscuits, through Panini’s, sandwiches and rolls, to fully cooked meals and desserts.
CR How did you decide what you were going to serve, what quantities to prepare and how you were going to go about doing it with new staff including prisoners? You knew the maximum number of customers but that’s about all. So did you sit down before opening day and decide?
GC In a way we did, however we did a lot of market research before the doors opened. I started this by walking about the prison and introducing myself to all the staff, I asked what they recall of the menu in the previous canteen. It seemed the curry, lasagne and the chips were popular! From this research I produced a basic weekly menu that has a three weekly rotation, so we produce the same menu every three weeks. With this established I sorted out the prisoner workforce into sections that prepared the meat, salad and vegetables. They were then trained to do the relevant task and they stay in those sections so that they learn the job thoroughly through constant practice. Once someone is fully competent we then change them to another section so they can learn different skills. This reflects how the men would learn in the ‘outside world’.
CR Has the menu cycle changed and developed much since you first laid it out?
GC No, not very much, we are still doing the three week cycle, however, we have introduced a mixed menu and have now included ‘specials’. We look at the food markets and see if they have any special offers and we cost it into a meal, if it’s affordable we will run it as a one off menu. For instance our butcher called us the other day and offered some pork loin at a very reasonable price. We incorporated it into a dish with apple and cheese and it went off the servery at a very fast rate.
 CR Are you asking a commercial rate for the food, is it being sold at a price comparable with what would be charged in a works dining facility ‘on the outside’? And how and where do you source your ingredients?
GC We are covering costs and all our meals have a sale price of £1.80. We source all but a few of our ingredients locally, we have a butcher a few miles away, the baker is a similar distance away as is the vegetable wholesaler. All our supplies are included in the main prison food requisition and delivered in one bulk order to the external stores. We order twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays and draw from the main store as and when we need it.
At this point we brought Kevin Goodall into the conversation, as he is in overall charge of the catering arrangements and this facility was his concept.
CR You explained during my last visit that you had established a large external store that would accept and store all food deliveries. The reasons were numerous, however, two major ones were the economies of scale and the need to keep the numbers of vehicle movements through the gate at a minimum. Has this worked and can it adapt to Graham’s wish to accept special last minute offers from suppliers?
KG Its working more or less as I envisaged, however it needs a bit of tweaking and people need to learn how to work within it. We have new staff using new software that is designed to keep track of cost and location. These include the visits area, main kitchen, staff kitchen and eventually three training kitchens. There will always be a period whilst it beds in. It’s robust and once the staff are fully trained it will be a real asset.
CR Graham, How did you decide what to serve in the coffee bar and deli areas? What hours do you open? And what have you done to market it to your customer base?
GC I went to a few local delis and coffee bars that included Costa and Starbucks and made some notes on what was being bought and how it was laid out and operated. We now operate on similar lines; we sell freshly baked chocolate muffins, carrot cake, Welsh cake and home made pancakes etc. The coffee is freshly made with beans using a machine from Cimbali. The restaurant is open from midday until 2pm. The coffee shop is open from 10 am to 4pm, this has enabled it to become a chill out area where staff can have a coffee and relax, read the paper, play pool and watch TV or have informal meetings. I use a variety of marketing methods, for instance this week I sent out an email to all staff telling them that any homemade pancake and a coffee was only £1.50. This has generated even more customers.
CR Training is a major part of what the staff dining facility is all about, how do you get the knowledge to train prisoners to be a Barista?
GC I was trained in that role years ago! And the machine manufacturer includes training sessions in the cost of the machine. So I teach a small group of prisoners and they perform the role until they are very competent. All the offenders that work in the staff dining area can make any of the coffees we sell. They then pass the skills on under my supervision and I regularly test the results and judge the skill set. This is how it works in the outside world so that’s what we do here. Though I do deviate from this principal with other roles. For instance it’s accepted in the commercial world that the last person into the kitchen does the worst role, namely the pot washing job. I have changed that and I emphasise that we are running a learning environment. So all jobs are treated as being of equal importance and everyone learns all of them irrespective of the roles desirability. The aim is to get prisoners a catering qualification and a fully rounded knowledge of the catering industry. When they leave here they could go into catering if they wish to and have as good knowledge of it as anyone else who has worked their way through it.
CR There is going to be a third separate training kitchen opening in the near future where catering skills will be taught in a formal classroom setting. Will this fall completely within your remit and how is this part of the project proceeding?
GC It is already under my control, it opens in March or April next year. We are going to follow a natural progression route as if we have a 16 year old who is attending college. Offenders will apply for the course, be interviewed and have their suitability assessed. If successful they will start in the classroom; learn hygiene, the basics of sauces and stocks, cuts of meat and vegetables plus all the other catering basics. Depending on progression this could take up to approximately 12 months. On successful graduation from the training kitchen they will progress to the staff dining facility kitchen where the next natural stage of the training will take place. There they will be working in a real catering environment and be able to hone their skills further under the pressure customers bring to the role.
CR Who will be doing the training?
GC I will be doing some of the teaching and it will fall within my responsibility, the majority of the training in this kitchen will be done by two new members of staff who are employed for that specific reason. At present they are gaining experience in the staff dining area. They have both taught at catering college and are fully qualified.
CR How are the lengths of the training courses organised to reflect experience, ability and the length of sentence?
GC The classroom section of the course is set up to last 12 months, however if someone shows particular promise then we will have the flexibility to fast track them, as happens in the real world. At the moment we have a fully qualified baker amongst the prisoner workforce. So he has been fast tracked into the kitchen and has been paired up with another offender and teaching him the baking skill on the job, as would happen in the real world. Once the skills have been passed on then another prisoner will join them, and so on. In this way the staff dining room gives us a terrific edge over traditional prison catering training.
CR What will you do with the output from the training kitchen?
GC It will be transferred to the staff dining facility where possible. They will be preparing basic vegetables and meat cuts, stocks and sauces so they could be used upstairs.
CR A big part of college is a testing regime, what have you planned for measuring improvement and providing a recognised qualification?
GC Each lesson will have a degree of pressure because there is an imperative to finish what is being worked upon. Once they join the staff canteen then the pressure to produce a good result quickly is constant. There will be a requirement that there must be food on the hotplate by 11.45 every day, because we will have people to feed. At present we are averaging 80 to 100 customers a day who have a narrow time window to be looked after in. That will provide plenty of pressure in a real commercial environment. We will have a comprehensive testing regime in place and Kevin Goodall has plans to invite local industry chiefs in to be catered for. These will be known as Trade tests and will occur at certain natural point in the training course. We hope to have the Directors, local hospitality chiefs and senior G4S staff will attend and then pass their opinions on the results.
This will have several other benefits too. It will demonstrate to the Prison Director that the training regime is worth the investment in staff time and money. It will also demonstrate to the heads of external hospitality companies and employers that the students who graduate from here are as good, if not better than the local college students. In this way we intend to improve our student’s chances of obtaining employment on their release. I want the big catering employers to see us as a good source of good employees. We have a real job to change the attitudes people have to ex prisoners. So in this way we intend to tackle recidivism head on.
CR You have a course that will last 12 months before the student move into the staff dining area. Then they will have a long period where they will hone their skills. How does this fit in with inmates who are on a short sentence?
GC As the prisons in Wales re-roll their prisoner profiles and our population changes considerably, we will have a more long-term stable pool which will enable us to train people properly. Thus offenders will be able to follow a prescriptive catering pathway.
CR The training kitchen will have ten bays plus an instructor bay, so you can teach up to ten students at once. Though they will not be in there all the time, will this enable you to have several courses running at the same time, but at different stages?
GC The facility also has an IT centre so it would be possible to have more than one course running, however the courses will be full time so this will restrict the number of courses we can run. But short run evening classes are also on the ‘to do’ list as is pastry and cake making classes.
CR What about provision for Vulnerable prisoners, as it is an ideal size for a smaller population?
GC We have the ability to use the area for VP’s because it is separate from the accommodation and it can be securely sectioned off. So mornings or perhaps a couple of afternoons could be scheduled in. We are setting up other non catering training areas for VP’s because our new role as a sentenced only training prison will mean we have more of this category of offender..
CR You have been in the job for a few months now Graham, What issues have you found to be most surprising and what have you had to do to surmount them?
GC I have never worked in a prison environment before, or anything like it! Some of the language was ‘interesting’ to learn. For instance when I was told that I needed a ‘shadow board with tallies’! I had not a clue what they were talking about! There were many things like that! Kevin had already set the kitchen up really well. We had to interview prisoners well in advance, we had to give far more notice to people who were going to start work than I would expect due to security clearance requirements. The only real equipment issue was that the fire alarm sensor had been installed above the oven door openings, so when the oven doors were opened the fire alarm sounded! But that was part of the snagging routine and quickly solved. Generally it has been a lot easier to get used to than I thought, and very rewarding too.
CR What were your conceptions of prisoners before you came here and how have they changed? I ask because its people like you that Kevin’s trade testing regime is designed so to alter the employability perception of prisoners.
GC I had not spent much time considering it as I didn’t have to. However I suspect my views were broadly similar to the usual ‘uninformed public attitude’. This has now changed. Now I have seen what can be done with good training and by giving an opportunity to them I would now give any one of them a job were I an external employer. I have found them, in the main, to be dedicated, enthusiastic and excited about what they are doing and learning. They want to learn, in many cases they simply never had the chance to learn or the incentive, now they have it, the majority want to take full advantage of it. It’s very gratifying to teach them and work with them. I have taught catering to students, but rarely have I seen such dedication to achievement. I’m not a ‘bleeding heart liberal’, so if I can have my opinions changed then it will be possible to change others.
CR Where do you want the kitchen and training to be in six months time?
GC I want to have an environment where the attitude is one of constant improvement. I want us to be producing everything we sell and not to be buying in anything but the raw ingredients. I want the number of covers catered for to rise from the 90 per day up to 150 by the middle of next year. Then up to 180 by the end of next year. This will be possible because of the increased staffing levels due to the additional accommodation that is being completed. But we still need to persuade staff to use us! So we are also doing more marketing and as word of mouth spreads the good news about the quality and variety of the food I expect more people to visit and then become regular customers. I have a lady called Karen joining us and part of her role will be to market the facility. We will have commercial pressures acting upon us, this will make the training and experience the Staff dining kitchen provides so much more realistic. We may have a captive workforce, but we don’t have a captive customer base! At the most basic of levels people can always bring in sandwiches! So there will be a Burns nights, St Davids day, Xmas dinners, themed menus and specials all through the year.
CR So the temptation for this to be a ‘you have no choice it’s the staff canteen or nothing’ has been taken away from you. The commercial pressures all catering outlets have placed upon them by the market have also been laid down in front of you. So standards must be maintained and innovation instilled or economic reality will arrive! This must be a better form of training than preparing bulk menus in a normal prison kitchen?
GC Yes, that’s just how it is and just how it should be!
At this point in the conversation Kevin Goodall joined in.
Kevin Goodall The reality of the situation at Parc was that we once had a staff catering facility outside the wall which really wasn’t suitable. Its intentions were good but it simply was in the wrong place and not of the standard required to operate commercially. As the expansion programme necessitated the closure of the canteen whilst the kitchen was expanded we lost the facility entirely and staff made other provisions for their meals. Such as packed lunches and trips to Sainsburys. We then opened the new facility with prisoners working within it. This was a new concept for staff, especially the ones who did not come into daily contact with prisoners. There were concerns in some areas that prisoners might not behave appropriately when handling food. So we had a situation where half the staff had made their own arrangements, others were averse to using a catering facility staffed by inmates and the rest didn’t have anywhere to get food within the walls anyway. So we had to come up with a strategy to address all these issues.
We recognised that there will always be a core of people who will turn up to use the staff facility no matter what. What we had to do was get them to be our messengers. It’s a truism that a satisfied customer tells a few people, but a dissatisfied customer tells many. So Graham did a fantastic job in the first few days including suggesting that we had some facility training days where we invited key personnel in groups of 30 to come and have a free meal. This also did our marketing job for us, as they went away and extolled our virtues. We concentrated the invites amongst those that had helped us and those we know are quick to express a view! It gave the facility and staff a final shake down and test too. So it was a win-win situation.
CR Ken Clarke has been making speeches recently along the lines that there will be incentives for organisations that tackle reoffending. Real jobs and training are known to be one of the cornerstones of preventing reoffending. Here you are giving the most realistic form of training possible to inmates. They will know exactly how a commercial operation works and be capable of working in one as soon as they leave prison. What effect do you think this will have on this prisons recidivism rate?
GC Yes, this is a powerful tool. For instance, when we were doing the shake down and final tests the prisoners were very nervous and anxious that the facility succeeded! They had cooked for the staff and trainers that they knew. But this was a whole different level of pressure. It was a commercial pressure and they were incentivised by it. The nerves have now gone, they now greet very senior prison staff in the way a regular customer should be. And serve them accordingly. They have acquired the confidence and interpersonal skills that so many of them lack. This has to be good as it is exactly what is needed and what happens in real life outside the walls! Most of the offenders in the facility could now walk confidently into an interview on the outside and have a great chance of gaining employment. It’s the first set of stepping stones to not returning.
CR. Thank you both for talking to the Review.
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