This project looked at the needs of children in Wales with a parent in prison. It included interviews with parents in prison, their partners in the community, and education staff, with the aim creating a model of good practice.
In particular the project reviewed the current School Zone project in HMP Parc, and gathered information on other support available to children in Wales with a parent in prison.
Overview
The study was a one-year project funded by Welsh Government. The project was headed by Nancy Loucks from Families Outside (Scotland), and the research team was made up of Professor Alyson Rees from CASCADE, Dr Ben Raikes (University of Huddersfield), Sarah Beresford, Polly Wright and a research associate.
Activities and Methods
The ASPIRE project has now concluded. In addition to visiting Parc Prison, we also visited Cardiff prison and observed their first Invisible Walls event. We undertook interviews with professionals and those with lived experience; we held a round table consultation event at Cardiff University with major stakeholders from across Wales, including the Children’s Commissioner. We liaised with our steering group throughout.
The final report was signed off by Welsh Government in March 2025 and has been very well received. The report concluded that any support scheme must be based foremost on the needs of children, not on the parent in prison, nor should involvement in any scheme be used as an incentive for good behaviour by a prison. It is vital that there is a parity of service for children, regardless of whether their mother or father is in prison (there is no women’s prison in Wales), where in Wales they live, whether or not they attend school, and indeed whether they still wish to have contact with their incarcerated parent.
There are numerous service providers and projects operating across Wales, and these are perceived as being in competition with each other, often because of the nature of the commissioning process. Many provider contracts are short-term, and this leads to a turnover of personnel, a loss of expertise and lack of consolidation of learning. There needs to be consistency of training and messaging across all projects and providers.
There is a need for an easily accessible national hub of information and resources (which will need to be resourced) for supporting children with a parent in prison, including child impact assessment. Support and information should be quickly accessible for children to help ameliorate the immediate and devastating impact of having a parent sentenced to custody.
Findings
The report is available on the Welsh Government website below:
You can also watch an ExChange Wales webinar by the research team.
Lead Person
| Principal Investigator | Nancy Loucks |
| Principal Investigator | Alyson Rees |
Related Information
| Related Schools | N/A |
| Related partners | N/A |
| Funders | Welsh Government |
| Related publications | N/A |
| Related links | N/A |
| Related documents | N/A |