EMPOWERED TOGETHER V1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Empowered Together (coordinated social care in prison): A feasibility and definitive randomised controlled trial, with embedded realist informed process evaluation. Work Package 1 and 2.

• IRAS ID

  361615

• Contact name

  Katrina Forsyth

• Contact email

  katrina.forsyth@manchester.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  57609, CPMS

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 8 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  The study consists of Work Package 1 (WP1), preliminary work, followed by Work Package 2 (WP2), a feasibility RCT and embedded formative process evaluation. It aims to clarify the feasibility of a future definitive randomised control trial to test the efficacy of a social care intervention for men in prison, who are at risk of unmet social care needs.

  Social care provides support to people with mental and physical health difficulties that affect day-to-day life. These cover activities (e.g. cleaning), personal care (e.g. dressing or washing), specialist equipment (e.g. movement aids) and social support (e.g. relationships). There is little research about social care in prison but, from what we know, it is not generally equivalent to social care outside of prison. We have developed an intervention to improve social care in prison called Empowered Together (ET).

  ET aims to benefit participants by providing screening, assessment, and coordination of social care.  It will not replace Care Act assessments. It follows the three principles of being: 

  * Trauma Informed 
  * Integrated 
  * Person-centred 

  
  What will we do?

  Work Package 1 – Preparation
  We will work with people who have lived in prison to develop:
  * Staff training
  * tools for measuring how well ET works
  * a short film, event and website

  Work Package 2 - Trying ET out
  We will deliver ET in two men’s prisons:

  Recruit 76 people with social care needs into a research trial
  * Offer half the participants ET and half usual care
  * Find out which questionnaires work best
  * Interview 20 men and 28 staff members to understand how ET works
  * Try out ways of getting information about the costs of ET

• REC name

  Wales REC 3

• REC reference

  25/WA/0258

• Date of REC Opinion

  18 Sep 2025

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion