HMP Forest Bank

A Sodexo prison since 2000

In shortSodexo has run Forest Bank throughout, and announced a new ten-year contract on 2 May 2025 after a delayed re-tender.

HMP Forest Bank, in Pendlebury, Salford, opened in 2000 as a local prison serving the courts of Greater Manchester. HMIP’s history says it started with six residential units and gained two more in 2009.

The IMB describes eight residential house blocks with 16 wings, a care and separation unit, an education centre, a chapel, a sports hall, an industries wing and an all-weather pitch. Its health care centre stopped offering inpatient services in April 2023 and the wing was converted to residential use.

Who is held and what the prison does

In shortA large men’s reception and resettlement prison, increasingly holding remand prisoners, under heavy population pressure.

• Held, December 20241,463Operational capacity 1,470
• Remand and unsentenced55%Many for long periods, often in small, shared cells
• New arrivals a month~512On average; over 2,500 movements in one month
• Foreign nationals~190About 300 were receiving substance misuse support

HMIP records the task of the prison as a men’s reception and resettlement establishment holding remand and sentenced adult men and young adults. The Inspectorate said the north west of England had been at the centre of the prison population crisis and that Forest Bank had borne the brunt of it.

• A young adults wing.
• Two vulnerable-prisoner wings.
• An incentivised substance-free living wing.
• Integrated substance misuse units.
• A ‘Stop Think and Reset’ unit for full-time workers.

What inspectors found: December 2024

In shortHigh prisoner violence and drugs, but better time out of cell and a clearly improving regime.

• SafetyNot sufficiently good
• RespectReasonably good
• Purposeful activityNot sufficiently goodUp from poor in 2022
• Preparation for releaseReasonably good

HMIP inspected without notice in December 2024 (report published 24 March 2025). Of 15 key concerns, five were priorities. The Inspectorate said prisoner-on-prisoner assaults were among the highest in the country, although assaults on staff were relatively low.

Staff and relationships: what candidates should know

In shortA more stable but inexperienced staff group, with limited key work and rising violence and use of force on the IMB’s figures.

• Prisoners saying staff respectful66%HMIP survey
• Full-time key work officers4About 1,100 others did not receive regular key work
• Violence (IMB)+13%Compared with the previous reporting period
• Use of force (IMB)+17%

HMIP described a ‘more stable, but inexperienced staff group’. Staffing levels and retention were better than in 2022, and most vacancies in the offender management unit had by then been filled.

Inspectors also found that wing officers, many of them inexperienced, struggled to enforce rules and boundaries and that leaders were rarely visible on the wings to support and mentor them. Interactions observed were mostly respectful, although inspectors also reported isolated examples of abusive behaviour and unresolved reasonable requests.

Working at Forest Bank

In shortFrontline staff are Sodexo prison custody officers, not HMPPS officers, and no verified Sodexo salary is given here.

Because Forest Bank is privately run, frontline staff are employed as prison custody officers by Sodexo, not as HMPPS prison officers.

• The HMPPS Fair and Sustainable pay bands, zones and market supplements published for public prisons do not apply.
• We did not find a verified, current Sodexo salary scale, so no figure is given here.
• Roles are advertised by Sodexo; a web search showed listings for experienced and trainee custody officers at Forest Bank, though we could not confirm any current vacancy.