Directory of Research

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:

Child-Centredness

Relevance to Policy

Methodological Quality

Relevance to Practice

115. Final year evaluation of the Integrated Family Support Project (2013 - 2016)
This is the final year evaluation of the NEPACS Integrated Family Support Project funded by the Big Lottery from 2013 to 2016. The project operates in four prisons and the surrounding communites across the North-east of England with a team of prison-based Family Support Workers and community-based Integrated Family Support Advocates. Conducted by Barefoot Research and published by NEPACS, the evaluation looks at the key outputs of the project and examines outcomes for prisoners, families,...
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116. Life in prison: Contact with families and friends
This findings paper from HM Inspectorate of Prisons is part of a series which focuses on daily life in adult prisons and in young offender institutions holding young adults (aged 18 to 21). The focus of the paper is the importance of prisoners maintaining relationships with family and friends. It draws on evidence from recent inspections of adult prisons and survey data from the corresponding inspection reports published between April 2015 and March 2016. The paper begins by summarising...

117. Problem-solving courts: An evidence review
This report from the Centre for Justice Innovation, 'Problem-solving courts: an evidence review', analyses the evidence on whether and why problem-solving courts work. The paper was written to inform development of government policy as well as to help shape practice within pilots in England and Wales. The paper defines problem-solving courts and then considers the evidence on whether they work, why they work, and the problems with them. Chapters of particular interest to...
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118. Weighing in the balance: Reflections on the sentencing process from a children's rights perspective
You will need a subscription to Probation Journal to access this article in full. This article is focused on the Irish criminal justice system but the analysis and conclusions are relevant to a wider context. Taking a children's rights perspective throughout, the researchers explore case law from South Africa and England and Wales which demonstrates how courts have taken the impact on children into account when sentencing offenders with parenting responsibilities. It looks at how child...
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119. Home truths: Housing for women in the criminal justice system
This comprehensive briefing from the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) and Women in Prison (WiP) examines the accommodation needs of women involved with the criminal justice system and the complexities around their accessing safe and suitable housing. From the beginning, the briefing highlights the particular shortage of housing for female offenders with children, and the difficulties a lack of housing brings for women with caring responsibilities. It goes on to consider lack of housing as a...
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120. Waiting for Mommy: Giving a Voice to the Hidden Victims of Imprisonment
This article is an exploratory study of the impact of maternal imprisonment on children and adolescents. Using a comprehensive literature review and preliminary data collection the authors construct a developmental framework to examine the diverse impact of maternal imprisonment on children at differing stages of development. The article presents a number of observations relating to the impact of maternal imprisonment, outlining the implications of these findings and proposing a number of...
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