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

31. Improving prisoners' family ties, Piloting a shared measurement approach
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...
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32. Evidence-based programmes for children of prisoners
You will need a log in to Wiley Online Library to access the full article. This is a peer-reviewed essay written in reaction to the dramatic increase in numbers of children with a parent in prison in the US and UK throughout the 1990's and research which shows the adverse life opportunities available to children in such circumstances. Evidence is reviewed in relation to key issues including risks for children of prisoners and how parental imprisonment may cause negative outcomes for...
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33. Improving outcomes for prisoners and their families, Key lessons from the Integrated Family Support Service
This is the final evaluation of the Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS) which started in 2011. Funded by the Department for Education and National Offender Management Service and run in partnership between Pact in the South of England and Wales and NEPACS in the North East, the service is staffed by a combination of two roles; community based Integrated Family Support Advocates (FSAs) and prison based Integrated Family Support Workers (FSWs). The aim of the IFSS is to ensure early...
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34. Keeping in touch: The Case for Family Support Work in Prison
This report is based on research conducted in Scotland but lessons from it can be learned anywhere. As research shows that families of imprisoned people suffer poor contact and visiting experiences, are negatively impacted upon both socially and financially and that they have a proven positive impact on resettlement and desistance from crime, all Scottish prisons appointed a Family Contact Development Officer (FCDO) in 1992. The report is based on is a mixture of questionnaires, focus...
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35. Professional Support for Prisoners' Families and Children
This article from SCIE in Community Care looks at research conducted in 2008 into social work practices, and specifically into the needs of the children families of prisoners. Research into the effects of parental imprisonment concluded that children affected are: three times more likely to have mental health problems than their peers, likely to suffer bullying and stigma and will experience higher levels of social exclusion. This article also considers the statutory responsibilities of...
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36. Parental involvement in the criminal justice system and the development of youth theft, marijuana use, depression and poor academic performance
You will need access to Wiley Online to access the full report. This peer-reviewed article refers to the USA but can be applied anywhere. It explores the notion that intergenerational crime, as most research would report, may not only have causal links to social disadvantage, parenting, genetics and modelling processes but that a parents involvement in the criminal justice system itself may be the cause and negatively impact on a child. The youngest and oldest samples of a longitudinal...
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