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 13 - 18 of 38
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 report highlights the specific needs of children with imprisoned parents in Ireland, however the affects on children which are highlighted here, are often universal and can therefore be learned from by people from any country.
The focus is on the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child and whether children's rights are being upheld. It highlights the limited numbers and scope of organisations who work in this field, as well as the need for a commitment to the cause from the government. Recommendations are made for the government, the courts service, prison service strategy (with regards to policy, correspondence, women in prison, facilitation of the father child relationship, transport, finance, release and resettlement), department for education, media and state and academic institutions in general.
Read about the needs of Irish Children with a parent in prison 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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This peer-reviewed pan-European comparative research was conducted in light of reports which explore intergenerational offending and the adverse impacts on the estimated 800,000 children of offenders throughout the European Union.
This coupled with the evident lack of psychological research into, policy around or support for, this potentially vulnerable group of young people, inspired the COPING project. It is of particular interest to policy makers, campaigning organizations and interest groups in the UK and more widely in Europe. COPING brings together an international team of ten partner agencies to study the characteristics, vulnerabilities and resilience of children with a parent in prison in Germany, Sweden, Romania and the UK, as well as providing partners in France and Switzerland.
In each country group a research institution partnered with an NGO working with prisoners and their families. In the UK the University of Huddersfield partnered with POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group). The countries reflect a spectrum of socio-cultural issues, differing incarceration levels, policies, interventions and welfare provision that impact on children of prisoners. Using positive, psychological methodology where children are an authoritative source of knowledge, COPING aims to understand how the imprisonment of a parent really affects children, resiliency processes and the potential improvement the wellbeing of a child following appropriate support. This provides a theoretical framework to assess the value of these concepts for planning methods and techniques for successful interventions which minimise adverse mental health impacts on the child. The evidence base can be used for development of policy and interventions where little existed previously. Further, it can be used to identify gaps in the data sets in relation to Children of Prisoners in Europe that currently inhibit the development of policy to mitigate mental health risks. Following the findings, twelve detailed recommendations are made which concern a number of identified unmet needs, practices that need to change, a perception that needs to be addressed or an area of current policy that needs to be remedied. Conclusions note that COPING provides a more comprehensive, detailed and clearer picture of the effects of parental imprisonment on children's mental health, their resilience and the impact upon their families. It compellingly demonstrates that, as a group, children with imprisoned parents are at a significantly greater risk of suffering mental health difficulties than children who do not have parents in prison. COPING has spawned a small pilot study involving partners from Romania, Trinidad, Uganda and the UK into the role of grandparents in caring for children of prisoners which is hoped to be scaled up.
Download COPING below:
It is widely acknowledged that schools can play a key role in supporting the children of prisoners.
This peer reviewed paper reports on research which explores the support provision offered in schools to children who experience parental imprisonment. Interviews with school representatives, stakeholders, parents and children, illustrate the support available, issues that arise and ways in which support provision can be strengthened. Findings indicate that children of prisoners often constitute a 'forgotten' group in schools. Recommendations are around raising awareness of these children and the challenges they face amongst education practitioners and policy-makers.
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