All research and evidence on NICCO is reviewed using a Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) developed by the University of Huddersfield and Barnardo's.
Research and evidence is assessed in four key areas: Methodological Quality, Child-Centredness, Relevance to Policy and Strategy, and Relevance to Practice with offender's children. This ensures that items on the NICCO website are as useful as possible to academics, practitioners, commissioners and other professionals. For more information about the development of the QAT or to review research in order to list it on NICCO, please see the QAT webpage where you can download the Tool, Guidebook and a short step-by-step 'How To' document. Please contact us to submit quality assessed research on to NICCO.
Click on the icons to see a full list of items which have been awarded a standard icon or icon+ (for items which have scored particularly highly) in each key area:
Results 7 - 12 of 26
This report looks at and aims to raise awareness of the realities of having a parent in prison.
In-depth interviews were conducted with Mothers and Children with a Father in prison. The findings are analysed within the five Every Child Matters outcomes which include economic achievement, enjoying and achieving, being healthy, staying safe and making positive contributions. Challenges around maintaining family ties are also found and discussed here. The report holds many quotes from the Mothers and Children interviewed. Implications for policy and practice are highlighted, such as the recording of children of offenders and the courts' responsibility to take children's wellbeing into consideration when sentencing.
See Every Night You Cry below:
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This is an overview of best practice in provision of services for children and families of offenders in Sweden and the United States.
The report reviews case studies which reflect on different apsects and stages of the countries' respective criminal justice systems (e.g. arrest, remand, court, sentencing, visits, support of children in women's prisons, parenting programmes, support for children of prisoners in the community and release) and how they might affect children of imprisoned parents. The case studies reviewed are compared to research in England and Wales and child centered policy and practice recommendations are made for the stages and aspects of the criminal justice system (noted above).
See Hidden Children below:
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This report is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the family support worker (FSW) role (which evolved from a partnership between Pact, who offer prison based support and Safe Ground who offer family relationships programmes to prisoners and families), which was piloted within 4 English prisons between 2009 and 2010.
The aim of this was to test the potential for developing a viable responsive casework service to prisoners, their children, families and supporters, the programme was funded by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS, Ministry of Justice) and the former Department of Children, Schools and Families (now Department for Education) The extent of the FSWs potential is uncovered by reporting on quantitative and qualitative data gained from FSWs, prison staff, other professionals, prisoners, their families and supporters. The data is also used to inform the framework for a possible national model. Key findings are that there is a need for FSW services to be tailored depending on prison characteristics. Half of the 928 service users (SU's) reached, only required one liaison with the FSW. There was a wide diversity of SU's e.g. prisoner type, family/supporter type, gender and ethnic origin. More than half of all cases involved a referral to other agencies. The large majority of SU need was around Prisoner and family contact, followed by Emotional and mental health, Children and Parenting as well as Money management. All FSW services were highly rated and valued. Prison staff also reported that FSWs contributed to prisoners' stability. The evaluation concludes that there is a high need for the FSW role and appropriate training and customisation so that it can be extended across the prison estate.
See this report on Prison based family support below:
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This report looks at the development of policy and practice with regards to women offenders, six years after the Corston Report was first published.
The report makes a series of recommendations about the government's review of the female custodial estate, including a proposal for the review to examine support for the development and sustainability of family ties. The report comments on how far a 'whole system approach' has been developed for women offenders, and points out the impact that supporting offenders' children can have on intergenerational offending. Recommendations include; the impact of a parent's imprisonment on children should be considered both at the sentencing stage and after imprisonment; and the Troubled Families programme should explicitly direct support to children with parents involved in the criminal justice system.
See Women offenders: after the Corston Report below:
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This research was conducted in light of the fact that charities help facilitate contact and visits to family members inside, who are 39% less likely to re-offend as a result, but measuring the difference charities make can be difficult due to poor recording and lack of available funds for evaluation purposes.
Think NPC worked with 6 charities (Action for Prisoners' Families, Kids VIP, pact, POPS, Safe Ground and Storybook Dads) to identify common frameworks of understanding and key areas of measurement including; changes in family relationships and experience of those visiting. Think NPC devised 2 questionnaires. The findings reveal which programmes worked for the families. Recommendations are around the government improving measurement, developing the measurement tools such as the one designed as part of the research and developing a shared approach to measurement e.g. flexibility.
Read about this shared measurement approach below:
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This report was commissioned by Revolving Doors Agency and carried out by Thames Valley Partnership.
It looks at the unmet needs of Children of Offenders - focusing on these children's outcomes in their own right as opposed to focusing on reducing reoffending or intergenerational offending (as much work tends to focus on this aspect). Four case studies were developed for the research which highlights the impact of imprisonment and that pre-exisiting support needs were worsened by the criminal justice system. Findings include pockets of good practice across Thames Valley agencies but also a huge variety in the quality of practice and a lack of collaboration. Suggestions around developing Family Matters service delievered in Thames Valley are given and the barriers to such developments including the need for more training, interagency working and a method of systematically recording children of offenders are highlighted. Recommendations in these areas are also suggested.
Read about the support needs of offenders and their families below:
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