Young people with a parent in prison have been called the hidden children and can even end up living alone. What’s going on and how can you help? Journalist Kaye McIntosh reports.
‘There is an assumption that when a parent goes to prison, their children will be identified and possibly supported. People will be shocked to hear that just doesn’t happen at all. So, children do slip through the net,’ says Sarah Burrows, chief executive of charity Children Heard and Seen (CHAS).
‘Last February, we had five lots of children found living on their own.’ One family came to the attention of CHAS after a woman in prison told a criminologist that her kids were living alone, Sarah reveals.
In another case, a man went to prison for sexual offences. It was only after his former home was targeted by vigilantes that a victim support worker found the prisoner’s 15-year-old daughter living there on her own.
Shockingly, there’s no way to flag up that someone has children when they are sentenced to custody. No one knows precisely how many children are affected. It is estimated that nearly 193,000 children have a parent in prison in England and Wales, according to recent figures released for the first time (Ministry of Justice, 2024). In Scotland, the number stands at 20,000 to 27,000 (Scottish Government,2024). Meanwhile, a Northern Ireland Department of Justice spokesperson revealed that while 31% of prisoners are recorded as having children or stepchildren aged under 18, the number of children affected is ‘not readily available’.
An estimated 17,000 children a year are separated from their mothers when their mothers are imprisoned – mostly for non-violent offences, according to MPs (Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, 2019).
DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL
Official figures largely rely on prisoners disclosing that they have young families – and some don’t. This is due to shame or fear their children will be taken into care, especially for mothers, who are usually the primary carers. Or simply because no-one asks.
Sometimes they weren’t expecting to receive a custodial sentence. When she was a solicitor, MP Kerry McCarthy recalls seeing a young woman who hadn’t paid a fine being sent down. ‘She said to one of her friends, can you collect the baby from nursery. That sort of scenario wasn’t uncommon.’
But why isn’t it anyone’s job to find out if there are dependants under 18? The issue falls between government departments, so until now, no one has shouldered the responsibility. Should it be the Ministry of Justice? The Department for Education? The Department of Health and Social Care?
Kerry says: ‘One of the problems is [that] the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is set up to deal with prisoners.’ If the MoJ think about children, it’s about more about trying to cut reoffending rates by helping inmates stay in touch with their families – rather than about supporting the children themselves, explains Kerry.
WHILE MOST CHILDREN
OF MALE PRISONERS
REMAIN AT HOME, ONLY
5% OF CHILDREN OF
IMPRISONED MOTHERS
ARE LIKELY TO STAY AT
THEIR OWN ADDRESS
Thankfully, a momentum for change is gathering. Kerry, now climate minister, highlighted the issue when she introduced it in a 10-minute rule bill to MPs earlier in 2024, but it was lost when the general election was called.
However, a pledge to support prisoners’ children appeared in Labour’s 2024 manifesto. And prisons minister Lord Timpson has said it is one of his ‘top priorities’ (UK Parliament, 2024).
SHAME AND ISOLATION
The impact on young people is devastating. Sarah says they suffer shame, stigma and bullying. ‘Children have witnessed horrendous stuff, from broken windows and faeces through the door to parents being beaten up.
’In one case, pupils set up a WhatsApp group called If my father did what your father did, I would kill myself.
While most children of male prisoners remain at home, only 5% of children of imprisoned mothers are likely to stay at their own address, according to evidence given to MPs by Katy Swaine Williams, a consultant at the Centre for Women’s Justice (Justice Committee, 2020). Children often lose their home and school place. When their mother goes to prison, they may go into foster care.
There’s also a huge psychological impact: ‘We have supported children whose mothers have committed very serious offences and they need space in terms of their own identity and how they feel,’ says Sarah from CHAS.
‘They can desperately miss that parent, but they are trying to grapple, especially adolescents, with what that parent has done. There’s a lack of provision to give children and young people the space to talk about their feelings.’
Rhian Ogden is a CPHVA Executive member who is a child nursing lecturer at the University of Leeds and former school nurse. She says: ‘They can struggle with feelings of abandonment or rejection, or turn it in on themselves – is it something they’ve done?’
Children might have witnessed crimes, or their parent being arrested. Or even been victims of criminal exploitation by their mum or dad, Rhian adds.
Even where the problem is recognised, the focus is on ‘reducing the cycle of reoffending,’ says MP Kerry. But considering the impact on the child should be just as important, she suggests. ‘I believe in a child-centred approach.’
The long-term effects on children can be severe. These include an increased risk of future offending, mental health issues and poor educational attainment (Crest Advisory, 2019). It’s also suggested (though more research is needed) that it’s more damaging for the child when a mother (rather than a father) goes to prison.
SUPPORTING CHILDREN
For charity CHAS, the solution is straightforward: identify children and support them. In a manifesto published in the run-up to last year’s general election (CHAS,2024a), the charity called for data from the prison service, local authorities and police to be brought together (see A police force takes the lead for an example of how this would work).
When someone goes to prison, the manifesto says that schools, nurseries, childminders and pre-schools should be alerted immediately, with the designated safeguarding lead taking responsibility for providing support to the child, liaising with other agencies if necessary.
Children should be eligible for the pupil premium (extra funding for schools for each disadvantaged student), to enable either individual support or the introduction of whole-school programmes. Sarah adds: ‘In the same way that children with parents in the military receive pupil premium in terms of [their] welfare need, that’s what we see [as vital for those with] parents in prison.’
CHAS offers five training packages that schools can purchase and a model policy that schools can adopt (CHAS, 2024b). The policy pledges that schools will commit to helping children and young people, asking about imprisonment in the admission process and making it clear that sharing information is a way to get extra support for the child.
The policy also states that schools should appoint a designated lead for children with a parent in prison. The family should be asked if they want the child to have access to the designated person.
‘THE GREATEST FRUSTRATION
FOR EDUCATION AND FOR
HEALTH AT THE MOMENT
IS THAT EVEN MAKING
A REFERRAL DOESN’T MEAN
THAT CHILD IS NECESSARILY
GOING TO GET THAT
SUPPORT QUICKLY’
Staff should be trained in trauma-informed practice to ensure children and young people feel safe and accepted, the policy continues. And teachers should monitor children for changes in behaviour. If children visit a prison, schools should authorise absence and monitor their emotional wellbeing.
Rhian explains that visiting a parent in prison can be traumatic and that children may be exhausted after making very long journeys.
CPs: ASSESS AND LIAISE
The role of school nurses (SNs) when children have a parent in prison is to support and coordinate, says Rhian, by, for example, carrying out an emotional health and wellbeing assessment. ‘You can’t assume what they need at any point,’ she says.
SNs should consider making onward referrals for emotional support, or liaising with the school to make sure the child can access support.
Rhian says: ‘The greatest frustration for education and for health at the moment is that even making a referral doesn’t mean that child is necessarily going to get that support quickly.’ This is because child and adolescent mental health services is ‘overloaded’, Rhian adds.
‘So, you’ve got a child who can’t get the support that they need. So, then it falls to school or a school nurse to try to manage.’ That’s difficult because the cause is ‘so specific that it requires a specialist level of care.’
Sarah from CHAS says SNs and health visitors can offer vital support by ‘having an awareness of the issues for children around parental imprisonment and the shame and stigma that children might feel, and providing safe spaces for children’.
Russ Massie from Thames Valley Police runs a project to identify and offer help to children of prisoners (see A police force takes the lead). Sergeant Massie stresses: ‘I particularly see SNs and HVs as holding a unique role in providing confidentiality and respect to children but still being able to act in their best interests. [This is] especially [so] in cases where homelife still presents difficulties following the imprisonment or where the child has been directly affected by the offending itself.’
OFFICIAL ACTION?
Ministers have pledged to improve the situation for children (in England and Wales). Junior justice minister Alex Davies-Jones told a debate in Parliament last December that her department was collaborating with their counterparts in education (UK Parliament, 2024).‘The Department for Education is undertaking rapid research… and has already brought together dozens of organisations to discuss this. It is identifying what support is in place, where the gaps lie and what extra support children of prisoners need.’
Alex also told the audience that justice minister Lord Timpson, the Children’s Commissioner for England and a junior education minister would host a roundtable meeting in 2025 to ‘further capture the views of experts’.
‘The government wants every child to flourish, which means ensuring that those affected by parental imprisonment are properly supported and afforded the same opportunities as their peers,’ she added.
Charities and experts will be watching carefully to make sure these aspirations become a reality.
A POLICE FORCE TAKES THE LEAD
Thames Valley police runs Operation Paramount, which cross-references prison admissions data against police datasets to identify the home addresses of adults who are imprisoned. It then checks the addresses to see if children live there and establishes links between the adult and the child.
Staff alert social workers who are already involved with the family. Police ask whether relatives are interested in receiving support from agencies such as social services and offer them a referral to Children Heard and Seen. If the family declines, the police leave details about the charity in case they reconsider.
Operation Paramount is the first mechanism of identification and support for children with a parent in prison.
Thames Valley are now working with a number of other police forces to replicate the scheme.
CHAS would like to see this replicated across the country, allowing schools to be notified if a pupil is affected.
WHAT’S YOUR EXPERIENCE?
Are you aware of children with parents in prison who have been affected? How have you been able to offer support? To share your thoughts and experience, simply email editor Aviva Attias aviva@communitypractitioner.co.uk
REFERENCES
Children Heard and Seen. (2024a) General Election Manifesto. See: childrenheardandseen.co.uk/2024/06/25/children-heard-and-seens-2024-general-election-manifesto/ (accessed 18 December 2024).
Children Heard and Seen. (2024b) Children Heard and Seen Model School Policy: Parental Imprisonment. See: bit.ly/3ZVEamt (accessed 18 December 2024).
Crest Advisory. (2019) Children of Prisoners: Fixing a broken system. See: bit.ly/49LzrHb (accessed 18 December 2024).
Joint Select Committee on Human Rights. (2019) Irreparable harm caused to children whose mothers are in prison. See: bit.ly/3ZI1Klx (accessed 18 December 2024).
Justice Committee. (2022) Women in Prison. See: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmjust/265/report.html#heading-1 (accessed 18 December 2024).
Ministry of Justice. (2024) Official Statistics in Development: Estimates of children with a parent in prison Executive Summary. See: bit.ly/3BqQsKm (accessed 18 December 2024).
Scottish Government. (2024) Children and Young People Affected by a Family Member in Prison or Secure Care: Final Report of Short-Life Group. See: bit.ly/3BznFDj (accessed 18 December 2024).
UK Parliament. (2024) Children of Prisoners. See: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2024-12-04/debates/4188649E-8426-4862-9EDE-5B817963F047/ChildrenOfPrisoners (accessed 23 January 2025).
Image | Freepik
