Polly Wright, Children’s Services Manager for Barnardo’s, has announced the launch of a revised i-HOP web site.

Polly spoke about the changes to i-HOP at the HMPPS National Conference ‘Developing Effective Practice for Families and Significant Others’ on 28/2/18. The new site will have a new name – the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders or ‘NICCO’. 

The reasons for the changes are straightforward:

·     To create a site with improved functionality

·     To reflect the changing HMPPS Family Support landscape

·     Create a resource that encourages shared practice across the prison estate

·     Rename to create a site where ‘it does what it says on the tin’

As well as remaining the only national repository of resources and quality assured research to support and inform practice with offenders’ families, the enhanced search functions allow the site to become a platform for prisons to identify what they provide and who provides it. This supports the sharing of practice/ideas/ resources and encouraging consistency across the estate (as well as healthy competition).

This means NICCO will help to bridge the gap between the CJS and community based services as well as enabling HMPPS to compare what is available re family support across the prison estate, by having access to the information all in one place, for example, comparing what is provided across YOI estate (may also support HMIP processes).

NICCO is planned to go live on 10th April 2018