Prisoners’ children ‘ignored’ by councils
originally published:
19th October 2009
More than 90 per cent of prisoners’ children get no special help when a parent is in jail, despite being at much greater risk of turning to crime themselves, according to research.
Barnardo’s examined the provision of services in Britain’s 208 local authority areas. The charity found that 188 made no reference to prisoners’ families, despite a government directive that they are a vulnerable group whose needs should be met. The vast majority of local authorities do not even count the number of prisoners’ children in their area.
Barnardo’s estimated that there were about 160,000 such children — more than twice the number of children in care and six times the number on the child protection register.
Local authorities must by law produce a Children’s Plan to show how they are caring for the young people in their area. They are, however, only advised, rather than required, by the Government to include provision for prisoners’ children, and the research shows that most have decided that they are not a special case.
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