Case study: Innovative provision for imprisoned dads and their families
Parc Supporting Families at HMP/YOI Parc is a group of staff who, along with the help of external agencies, have evolved an innovative and progressive provision for offenders, their children and families.
Building upon the evidence that working with the whole family reduces the likelihood of recidivism for the offender, and also the likelihood that children drift into crime, PSF opened the Family Interventions Unit at HMP & YOI Parc in November 2010. This is the first and currently only unit of its kind for male offenders, where the whole environment is focused upon family, parenting, and relationships. Six different group programmes work with the offenders, but also involve their children and families.
In 2010 PSF also took the ground-breaking step to shift the management of the visits department from Security to Interventions. Thus encouraging a more family focused approach with the new ‘Interventions Led Visits’, staffed by operational and non-operational members of the PSF team. More than 30 PSF volunteers support the remit, with profit from the visits café being used to fund family provisions such as twice monthly special family visit events, books and toys, a free shuttle taxi service for families, and some of the group interventions for families themselves.
Click here: Parc Supporting Families to read more about this innovative programme including parenting skills courses for fathers (Family Man and Fathers Inside) developed by Safeground who train HMP/YOI Parc staff to deliver them.
Tags: African-Caribbean fathers, Imprisoned fathers, Vulnerable families
