Newman University has been including content about children and families of offenders into two of their undergraduate courses: Early Childhood Education and Care BA Hons and Working with Children, Young People and Families BA Hons, for the last ten years.
The impact of parental imprisonment, and the needs of this group of children and families, features in modules such as Human Rights and Social Justice, The Inclusive Practitioner, Understanding Vulnerability, Working with Families in the Community and Multi-agency Working. A significant part of the module content relates to a consideration of why the needs of these and other families have been relatively ignored in social policy terms. The subject is also located within a human rights framework which underpins the aims of each course. The assessment for some of these modules include a case study analysis regarding a family that is affected by parental imprisonment. Students are asked to reflect on the case study, and highlight within it areas of strength and resilience within the family, areas of potential concern and the roles that different agencies could play in working together to provide support. Families of offenders is a popular topic amongst students, and is often chosen as the subject for in depth projects, presentations and dissertations. The specific focus varies, but some titles have included 'How can inclusive practitioners support the needs of children affected by parental imprisonment?' (group presentation), 'How are the needs of children affected by parental imprisonment supported?' (dissertation) and 'A multi-agency perspective; the role of education and social work professionals in supporting children affected by parental imprisonment' (dissertation). These require considerable research and reading that sometimes includes interviewing a range of practitioners working in the field e.g. Family Support Workers. Trained staff at Newman University also regularly deliver Hidden Sentence training designed by Action for Prisoners' Families, which is available to any student at the university. This has proved very popular and has been attended by students from various courses including Counseling, Youth Work, PGCE, Early Childhood Education and Care and so on. It provides these students with an initial insight in to the issues these families face and an overview of the strategies and resources to help professionals effectively provide support. By teaching about the effects of imprisonment on children and families and the practice responses to their needs, Newman University are helping to prepare the future children's workforce to be able to better support these children and families effectively.
Please contact Karen Argent k.m.argent@newman.ac.uk for further information.
