A prison is showing "positive progress" after welcoming a new governor last year.

Following a visit from inspectors, HMP Elmley in Church Road, Eastchurch, on Sheppey, has shown improvement in eight out of 11 categories.

Andy Davy joined the prison, which is found near HMP Swaleside and HMP Standford Hill, around 10 months ago and has overseen the gradual progress.

Prison inspectors explained there had been good progress in using body warn cameras during use of force incidents.

It had also made reasonable progress in meeting the needs of prisoners, staffing levels, allowing prisoners to access interventions for offending behaviour.

Despite things mostly improving around the prison, HMP Elmley was told it had made insufficient progress in investigating incidents of violence, oversight of all prison safety aspects including attending meetings, and leaders identifying and managing the risks posed by high-risk offenders before they're released.

Ofsted inspectors, who also visited the site, said the prison made reasonable progress in all areas, including: taking rapid action in addressing the poor quality of teaching classroom-based education, using data to scrutinise the effectiveness of education courses, improving the quality of inductions prisoners take on the course and those with learning difficulties or special needs receive appropriate support.

HMP Elmley opened in 1992 and is the largest of three prisons on the Island.

It holds around 1,100 prisoners, including half of whom are unsentenced or category C prisoners.

The prisons was criticised following inspections in 2019 and 2022 for not being "sufficiently good" in four of the inspector's prison tests – the tests include respect, safety, purposeful activity and rehabilitation.

Governor Andy Davy and his team were praised for their work despite facing "substantial staff shortages".

The report said: "Our findings were mostly positive; progress was reasonable or better in eight areas and insufficient in three.

"The governor, who had been in post for 10 months, had an accurate view of the progress that the establishment had made.

"The site faced substantial staff shortages, but leaders were focused on how to make improvements with the resources they had and were delivering more than many prisons with a similar or better staffing position.

"The governor had prioritised improving purposeful activity, with some success.

"The quality of induction to education, skills and work was better, which meant that prisoners could be allocated to activities based on their needs and aspirations.

"In addition, work had been done to improve the quality of teaching, and managers now used data more effectively to monitor progress in education.

"As a consequence, prisoners, including those with learning difficulties and disabilities, were more likely to stay on their courses and achieve a qualification than at the time of the previous inspection."