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

4. Key findings and recommendations

The Short-Life Group considered the overall process, or journey, that a child or young person might experience when a family member is taken into secure care or custody. This led to the identification of a number of challenges and opportunities.

• Despite the GIRFEC framework, universal and targeted services in contact with children (such as early learning and childcare (ELC), education, health and social work services) may be unaware that a child has a sibling or parent in custody, and even where they are aware, distance can lead to varying responses to maintaining and supporting those critical relationships.
• There is an opportunity to extend practice around sibling rights for looked after children to encompass practice for all children impacted by siblings and parents/carers who are in custody or secure care, thus enabling them to have ongoing relationships with those important to them and, in particular, parents and siblings.
• There is a lack of data, and consideration of best use of any existing data, to provide a clearer picture of children affected and their needs;
• When Justice Social Work Reports (JSWR) are completed the family details are asked for, but there can be no guarantee that details given include whether there is a child impacted by the sentencing. This makes identification of a child or young person impacted more challenging. There is an opportunity to improve the importance of recognising the impact of child and parental/sibling relationships within JSWRs. This information on family relationships could then, in turn, inform considerations around custody or remand;
• Child impact assessments could be used to ensure better identification of children impacted by a family member in secure care or custody and that the rights and voice of the child is reflected and acted upon. At present, it is not evident that all children’s rights are being promoted in line with the incorporation of UNCRC. There is an opportunity to ensure children's rights are respected throughout the justice system.

The Group’s recommendations aim to resolve these issues; improve experiences for children, young people and families; and assist professional staff across services. The recommendations are:

• Recommendation 1: In line with our national practice model, adopt a rights-respecting trauma-informed approach to child planning for children affected by the imprisonment of a family member;
• Recommendation 2: Incorporate the ‘This Is Me’ toolkit into the assessment and planning process to ensure proper consideration of the child’s needs and rights;
• Recommendation 3: Improve the wellbeing of both adults and children, by identifying parents and siblings within the prison and secure population, and ensuring their rights to a sustained and healthy relationship are supported and fulfilled;
• Recommendation 4: Support the right to family life by promoting consistent opportunities for children to have relationships with a family member in secure care or prison, where this is in the child’s best interests.

Each of these are considered in more detail below.

4.1 Recommendation 1: In line with our national practice model, adopt a rights-respecting trauma-informed approach to child planning for children affected by the imprisonment of a family member

In line with Keeping The Promise, all professionals supporting children and young people should take a trauma-informed approach, by considering the significant impacts of this type of separation on the child when a sibling or parent/carer is taken into secure care or custody. The Group identified a series of challenges that need to be addressed to support this approach across services.

• Whilst all children will be known to education, including ELC, and health visitors as universal services, there is no consistent approach to informing a child or young person that their sibling or parent/carer has been taken into custody. The custodial aspect will involve justice social workers, Scottish Prison Service and Police Scotland, but may not extend to children and families social workers, even where the child is known to children and families, and does not include universal services.
• Even where a child is known to children and families social work, many parents/carers do not disclose that they have a child for fear of the perceived repercussions and stigma for that child, thus making identification of children impacted by family in custody or secure care a challenge.
• Children and young people may not always know that the sibling or parent/carer is in custody and anecdotally we have heard that they may be advised by concerned relatives or friends that their family member is working away or other reasons for their no longer being present.
• There is no routine approach to informing universal services such as ELC or education that a child has a sibling or parent/carer in custody. Many children will not disclose this due to the shame they experience and as a protection for the person in custody.
• There does not appear to be a consistent approach to recording children visiting family members in custody, with the exception of those visiting Schedule 1 offenders.

To address these challenges, the Group has agreed that:

• It is important that, if not already in place, the child or young person has someone identified as the person they want to support them. This needs to be ongoing throughout the period of incarceration;
• It is important throughout their journey that the child or young person is supported to understand what is happening and also has their voice and views heard, which may be through a trusted adult or an independent advocate;
• Within GIRFEC, raising awareness amongst named persons and lead professionals of the impact of having a sibling or parent in custody or secure care would help support the child, and also enhance consistency of approach and communication.

4.2 Recommendation 2: Incorporate the ‘This Is Me’ toolkit into the assessment and planning process to ensure proper consideration of the child’s needs and rights

The ‘This Is Me’ toolkit^[18] developed by Prison Reform Trust, with involvement from Families Outside in Scotland, should be tested out in practice with a view to it becoming standard practice in Scotland. The Short-Life Group recommends taking this to key stakeholders including COSLA, Social Work Scotland and Education Scotland. This would promote awareness of the report and its recommendations across local authorities and relevant third sector organisations, and use their collective experience to influence how best to deliver the improvements highlighted in this report.

The toolkit involves conversations at key stages in the justice journey between the child or young person affected and a trusted adult that they have chosen. It is important that it is not a one-off discussion, as views and needs can change over time.

The Short-Life Group recommend one or more local authority areas provide a pilot or test of the toolkit, with learning shared widely eg through Social Work Scotland, Community Justice Scotland, The Promise Scotland, and other key stakeholders. This would enable collective learning about the benefits of implementing the approach within the Scottish context.

4.3 Recommendation 3: Improve the wellbeing of both adults and children, by identifying parents and siblings within the prison and secure population and ensuring their rights to a sustained and healthy relationship are supported and fulfilled

4.3.1 Role of parents and guardians

Whilst identification of a child or young person affected by a family member in custody or secure care can, in itself, be a challenge, it is recognised that caring roles, perhaps particularly the role of fathers, are not always at the front of people’s minds, which impacts on their rights to be involved in parenting their child.

In some parts of Scotland, parents in custody are able to attend their child’s school parents’ evenings, virtually, and participate in supporting their child’s early development, education and wellbeing whilst in custody. In other parts of Scotland, this is not encouraged or facilitated, but should be supported in the promotion of family relationships. This may benefit both the child and parent, and address some of the emotional impact of being in prison or secure care.

There should be consideration for every adult in prison or young parent in secure care as to how they can be supported to continue as a parent and how they can engage with their child, including promotion of family time and the Child Contact Centres. Parenting support will play a key role in the forthcoming revised Family Strategy by Scottish Prison Service.

4.3.2 Views of children and young people

Where the child or young person is asked if they wish to maintain contact with a family member in prison it is not evident if they are routinely asked again. A child may not wish contact with their family member due to anger or emotion when they are first taken into secure care or custody, but they may change their mind in the future and should have the opportunity to do so. Where this is the case, the relationship should still be actively retained, and other forms of communication considered eg video-calls, letters etc. Staff may require some training on the benefits of supporting attachment relationships.

4.3.3 Siblings

There is a statutory duty to consider and promote sibling contact for looked after children as per Part 13 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Looked After Children (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021. This includes children and young people in secure care^[19] and there is current implementation work in this area. All children and young people should have a sibling contact assessment and plan.

Consideration of sibling contact is a legal requirement in relation to assessment and care planning since the introduction of the 2020 Act. In the secure care setting, however, there are added complexities with safety, distance and context playing a heightened role, with implications for maintaining contact. Issues of impact of visiting a secure care unit on a sibling is also a factor.

Contact plans should be reviewed regularly with contact between family members promoted where possible, and in the child’s best interests. Where this is not possible, encouraging dialogue and understanding is crucial. This is an opportunity to ensure the child and/or sibling is asked for their views too. Child impact assessments could be an effective way of gathering these.

4.4 Recommendation 4: Support the right to family life by promoting consistent opportunities for children to have relationships with a family member in secure care or prison, where in the child’s best interests

Scottish legislation and practice already includes at its core supporting children and their parents/carers to maintain contact with each other. The Promise is clear on the importance of nurturing sibling relationships when children are not able to live together, where appropriate. Ensuring this commitment is fully and consistently realised will help children to have their rights to respect for family life upheld. It will also enable both caring and sibling relationships to be ‘cherished and protected across decision making, and through the culture and values of the people who care for them^[20]”. Research indicates that sibling relationships are complex so an individualised approach to promoting familial relationships is needed [21].