For social workers and foster carers, the consensus
appears to be that there is very little formal
training on working with the criminal justice
system, and particularly prisons. Rather they
learn and develop skills by experience on the
job. Common assessment framework training does
provide an opportunity to highlight the needs
of children of prisoners and encourage a range
of staff to initiate an assessment, although
they are not a distinct priority group.
There is a lack of awareness among staff working
in social care, education, and health. Guidelines,
training tools and practical materials, particularly
for multi-agency working, have all been identified
as requirements to fill the gaps in knowledge
and ensure a better response to the issues, alongside
the full implementation of the children and families
pathway in the Reducing Re-offending plan.
Social workers should undertake a training
module as part of their continued professional
development to raise awareness of children of
prisoners. Training should be part of social
work degrees, and POPS already have some input
at the University of Salford.
Tools and materials are available but not widely
used or known about. Several of the voluntary
sector organisations have produced excellent
materials for training staff and working with
children and families.
Specific tools are available for schools (Ormiston
and Thames Valley), prisons (Kids VIP), foster
carers (Ormiston), multi-agency training (String
of Pearls, Thames Valley Partnership) and more
general training tools for working with children
(Ormiston, Action for Prisoners’ Families,
Barnardo’s and NIACRO in Northern Ireland).
Please send us your comments and suggestions about 'Children of prisoners - maintaining family ties' (Guide). It will help us to continue to improve our work in the future.
