Children and Young People Affected by a Family Member in Prison or Secure Care: Final Report of Short-Life Group

2. Role and remit of the Short-Life Group

The Children and Families Collective Leadership Group agreed at its meeting on 12 May 2022^[2] to establish a Short-Life Group to explore the impact on children and young people when a family member is taken into custody. This was in response to issues raised during a previous Short-Life Group which had explored the experience of under-18s in custody and which highlighted concerns for children and young people who had a family member in custody^[3].

The Collective Leadership Group agreed that this Short-Life Group should:

• consider the impact on children and young people of having a family member in custody;
• understand the experience of having a family member in prison on the child and young person’s outcomes;
• identify the main factors that could improve this experience;
• consider what support or other interventions could have created different, better outcomes;
• recommend improvements to policy and practice to the relevant groups and organisations to achieve this.

The Short-Life Group was tasked with delivering a report with recommendations for improvement, following which the report should be forwarded to all relevant stakeholders. The Collective Leadership Group has since been replaced by the Children and Families National Leadership Group^[4] (C&FNLG).

Terms of Reference were agreed at the first meeting (included in Annex A), at which the Short-Life Group expanded its remit as follows:

• to consider those children and young people with a family member in secure care in addition to those with a family member in custody;
• to consider the impact on sibling relationships where a sibling of the child or young person is in secure care or custody;
• to consider the role of the parent/guardian in custody and their rights and wishes;
• to consider the potential benefits of utilising the Prison Reform Trust’s Child Impact Assessment in the Scottish context and ensuring that the experiences in Scotland can inform future development of this work.

In addition to these areas of focus, the Group agreed to consider how practice can be developed and improved at key decision points for children and young people. In doing so it would consider how the GIRFEC National Practice Model^[5] applies in this setting, to provide early intervention and support and to ensure the rights and best interests of children and young people affected by the imprisonment of a family member are respected and met. It would also consider alignment with wider work which has resulted in the National Trauma Transformation Programme being rolled out across health and social care practice, to support a trauma informed workforce across Scotland.

The Short-Life Group met on five occasions in August, September and November 2022 and January and March 2023.