There are an estimated 310,000 children affected by parental imprisonment each year. Considering the significant younger prison population, it is likely a lot of these children will be under five. Given this and also the vast evidence around the importance of children developing strong and secure parental relationships in their early years, it is essential that early years professionals and settings understand and know how to respond to these families’ needs. With early years professionals and settings often being integral to families in the community, they are well placed to provide an accessible, non-judgmental and confidential place for families to disclose information.
Find out more about how NICCO can assist early years professionals and settings to support these children in our Early Years briefing, and read about the impact of parental offending on infants in our Babies briefing.
The following provides some links to great practice models, important policy and helpful resources which are specific to helping you support the children and families of offenders.
Resources for early years professionals
There are resources that have been developed specifically to assist professionals to work effectively with children and families affected by offending. Below we feature just a few of these.
Supporting children and families affected by a family member’s offending – A Practitioner’s Guide – An accessible and comprehensive Guide for multi-agency frontline practitioners including tools, resource lists and practice tips to support effective community-based interventions with offenders’ children and families.
Quality Statements & Toolkit - this comprehensive and easy-to-use resource enables multi-agency professionals to assess and develop their practice with children of offenders. Informed by research, it includes many good practice examples and a work plan template to set action points for your service.
Under fives and their families affected by imprisonment: A handbook for Sure Start Children's Centres - A handbook to help Sure Start Children’s Centres support children and their families affected by imprisonment, with practical guidance and suggestions about developing reach practice. Free to download exclusively from NICCO.
eLearning: Children of prisoners - Interactive, multimedia information and guides for professionals, giving information about children of prisoners and ideas for practice approaches.
Supporting Prisoners’ Families - What Can Children’s Centres Do?- Developed by APF, this briefing explores how children’s centre staff can implement good practice to support children affected by imprisonment, including a list of relevant training, resources and contacts.
Resources for children
Age appropriate materials can be useful to help explain to under fives what might be happening and also to assist them to explore their experiences and feelings. See some examples below.
Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration - A toolkit produced by Sesame Street with multimedia resources for children, family members and professionals. It includes activities, stories and videos (with clips from Sesame Street) for children exploring issues and feelings around having a parent in prison.
Child’s Journey Worksheets- This range of worksheets from Young Southampton, work well in 1:1 sessions with young children regarding emotions, visiting prison, home life and school.
Resources and services for parents, carers and family members
Early years professionals may be working with the whole family, and therefore be in an ideal position to signpost or provide helpful and practical information. See some examples below and find services local to your area by using the NICCO Directory of Services
Court to Custody- Descriptive leaflet for defendants and their families details the CJS processes and their impacts from arrest to reception.
National Offenders’ Families Helpline - Free and confidential information service providing basic advice, emotional support, and signposting to local services. Their website includes simple information sheets to print for offenders' families on all issues relating to a loved one's involvement with the criminal justice system.
Ormiston have produced leaflets for parents and carers on being a parent in prison, being a carer to children of imprisoned parents, visiting prison and what to tell the children.
Assisted Prison Visits Scheme - information and contact details for applying for funds to cover the travel cost of prison visits for families on benefits.
Strategic or policy documents
The below examples are useful in considering how your setting or agency might want or be required to respond to these families and their needs.
Children's Centre Inspection Handbook - Ofsted inspection handbook that highlights children of offenders as a potential target group for Children's Centres, who may have needs or circumstances that require further intervention or support
'It was just like we were a family again’: play as a means to maintain family ties for children visiting an imprisoned parent- New research from field expert into the importance of play.
The Corston Report- Important policy document reviews vulnerable women (including mothers) in the CJS. It recommends that defendants with young children are not to be remanded in custody until impacts on the children are considered.
Practice and case studies
Existing practice demonstrates the possibility of developing innovative practice and multi-agency working within Early Years. Below are a couple of examples of this.
Practice Model: Bristol Children’s Centres Champion Scheme - Every Children’s Centre in Bristol has a champion for children and families affected by parental imprisonment. The champion has an understanding of these families’ needs and how the Children’s Centre can effectively respond.
Practice Model: Pact baby group at HMP Swansea - The Pact baby group at HMP Swansea provides fathers with parenting support, skills and the time and space to bond with their new born babies.
Training
Hidden Sentence Training - This has been developed by Action for Prisoners’ Families for multi-agency professionals, and gives an overview of issues which prisoners’ families routinely face. See a list of all training featured on NICCO, or find training in your local area by using NICCO’s search by region function on the home page.
