Welcome to HMPPS Insights
Applications open for Insights25!
The Insights Festival is back and will take place from 17 – 28 November 2025.
The Insights Festival brings together prison, probation, youth services, voluntary sector and wider justice services to learn from insight, data and evidence, share, connect and celebrate the great work we do.
Applications to host events as part of the Festival programme are now open and close on 11th July.


What is HMPPS Insights?
HMPPS Insights brings people together from across the Criminal Justice System to learn, share, connect and celebrate the excellent and innovative work that we do.
We are delighted to bring you the Insights Festival, as well as a range of exciting Events and Guest Blog articles throughout the year, created by you, for you.
What is the Insights Festival?
The Insights Festival is an award-winning programme of events which aims to showcase the breadth of innovative work taking place across prison, probation, youth services, voluntary sector and wider justice services.

HMPPS Insights Festival at a glance
- Four festivals since 2019
- Almost 18k tickets booked over 358 events at Insights23
- Proud winner of the 2022 Inspire Justice Award
Latest Insights Blog Posts
View our most recent guest blogs, where HMPPS staff and our partners across the public, private, and voluntary sector will be share knowledge, ideas, and best practice, as well as updates on new projects.
Reflections of an 18-year HMPPS staff member on how attending an Insights Festival event shaped and developed a career.
Published on June 4, 2025
Read full articleFollowing up on the previous blog, Dr Rachel Gibson talks us through working with two prisons to develop their culture, using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, and what this research suggests for prisons wanting to use PAR to develop their culture.
Published on April 8, 2025
Read full articleAt an upcoming Insights event, Sarah McKnight, Deputy Director for Employment, Skills and Education in HMPPS and Marie-Elise Howells, Deputy Director for Volunteering and Tackling Loneliness at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), will talk us through why it is very important that we consider how loneliness and its negative effects may be exacerbated for people serving time in prison or on community sentences.
Published on March 21, 2025
Read full article