Somerset County Council recognised children of prisoners as a vulnerable group in their Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for 2016. JSNAs are a statutory responsibility for all local government Health & Wellbeing Boards, bringing together information on regional patterns of health and social need in order to inform strategic priorities.
The 'Somerset: Our County' report examines the needs of children and young people in Somerset with the aim of informing service development. Section 2, 'Think Families', considers how family structure influences children's wellbeing, from parental age to parental absence. On page 35, a section entitled Children of Prisoners acknowledges that parental absence can be a result of imprisonment and that relatively large numbers of children are affected. Some recognised needs of prisoners' children are touched on, and the particular attributes of the rural county of Somerset which exaccerbate issues for children of prisoners are mentioned, for example the longer distances necessary to travel to visit a parent in prison. The report will be used to inform local health and social care policy, including the 2016 - 2019 Children and Young People's Plan for the county. Recognition of children of prisoners within regional policy frameworks leads to greater awareness among policy-makers and practitioners and a more informed response to the needs of this group of vulnerable children. NICCO lists other examples of regional guidelines that include offenders' children, such as the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board schools policy and the Essex Children & Young People's Strategic Plan.
Read the Somerset JSNA 2016 report below.
