1. The i-HOP Quality Statements & Toolkit in action…
Lindsay Sutherland, i-HOP Research & Policy Officer
Anna Jenkins, CAPI Lead for Bristol Children’s Centres
…with a film from the Barnardo’s Bristol CAPI young people’s group
I’m LS, i-HOP R&PO, and I’m here today to talk to you all about the i-HOP Quality Statements & Toolkit, a resource for all services working with offenders, their children and their families.
I’m aware that talking at you about a Toolkit for any length of time might not be excessively stimulating, so to provide practice examples that will bring this resource to life, I have Anna Jenkins here from Brentry and Henbury Children’s Centres in Bristol to talk about how they’ve used the Toolkit so far to guide their work with offenders’ children in Bristol.
We also have a short film from the young people’s support group at Bristol Barnardo’s CAPI service to tell you what the resource means to them.

2. i-HOP: The national one-stop information service for all professionals working with offenders’ children & their families
Running since 2013
Delivered by Barnardo’s
Web-based knowledge hub
Produce publications & resources for professionals
Before we get started, for anyone who isn’t aware…i-HOP is the national….
We’re primarily a web-based knowledge hub. Our website pulls together all the key research on offenders’ children, as well as resources to use in practice with them, relevant training, policy frameworks, practice examples and events. We have sector-specific pages and produce briefings on offenders’ children targeted at different groups of professionals.
Among other projects, we engage with academics through a quarterly steering group to keep on top of the latest research coming out in the field and we have an engagement programme with higher education institutes where we present on the issues using our academic resource pack.
We also produce our own publications – we have a practice handbook due to be published in March and released a guide for community health practitioners last year which was endorsed by PHE. I’m here today to talk to you about our most recent resource…

3. “Supporting services to work with children and families affected by parental offending.”
What is it the QS & Toolkit?
- It’s a practical resource which enables all services to assess their approach to work with offenders’ children, and to work that impacts on offenders’ children, and plan achievable service-wide improvements in 8 key areas.
Really importantly, this toolkit has been designed to be used by all kinds of services, whether universal, targeted or CJ. If you don’t engage directly with children, but work with offenders for example, this Toolkit is still relevant to you. Each service can pick and choose elements of the toolkit that are especially important for them - it’s totally flexible according to your service’s objectives.
Why did we produce it?
There is no national framework for developing service provision for offenders’ children - we produced this resource to raise awareness of the needs of a hidden group of children, and to enable all services to respond systematically.
How did we produce it?
Commissioned RiP, a consultancy who champion evidence-informed practice in children’s services.
Together we looked at the key research on offenders’ children’s experiences, their needs and recommendations re the best ways to work with them, as well as national and local policy frameworks and examples of good practice. RiP analysed this information for key messages and from that formulated the 8 “Quality Statements” which are standards for services to aspire to in 8 key areas of work. You will hear in more detail about each QS throughout the presentation…
A vital part of the development process was that it was informed by practitioners as well children and young people who have experience of a loved one going to prison. We spoke to 122 practitioners who were engaged with i-HOP through our national training programme which ended in April We visited two young people’s groups, in Bristol and Liverpool, showed them the draft and went through each QS with them to find out what they meant to them and if they were relevant to their lived experience. We took their views on board and adapted the final product accordingly.
The toolkit has been piloted and endorsed by Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s Early Help/Troubled Families team and an Integrated Offender Management team.

4. How does the Toolkit work?
It’s structured around 8 ‘Quality Statements’ – standards for services to aspire to in 8 key areas of work.
Each Quality Statement has a short chapter: rationale, practice examples, outcomes for children.
Self-assessment charts for each of the 8 areas of work
Template action plan
Resource database for more practice examples and resources
How does it work?
- The Toolkit is structured around the 8 “Quality Statements”; each has a chapter which succinctly outlines the rationale behind it, gives examples of existing good practice from the i-HOP directory, and examples of children’s outcomes that could be improved if the standard is reached.
At the end of each of the 8 chapters is a self-assessment chart you can use to assess what’s in place already in your service, what’s in progress and where the gaps are.
The Toolkit ends with an action plan template – you pull targets from the self-assessment sections throughout to plan achievable improvements across the 8 eight areas. Or just some of the 8 areas, as you see fit.
Accompanying resource database….many more practice examples and references.
I want to take you through each Quality Statement. I have Anna here to give us examples of the work the Bristol Children’s Centres are developing in each area. We hope this will give you ideas about work you could be doing within your services, but also gives you a sense of how the Toolkit can structure and guide practice development.
Anna: before we go through the Statements, can you tell us a little about your role and work with CAPI.
And how have you used the Toolkit so far? (Training, self-assessed our work at the CCs and created a joint action plan which we refer to in our group meetings)
Great. And now we’ll go through the QS…

5. 8 Quality Statements
“You’ll actually have some background knowledge to go ‘ok, well what can we do?’ rather than ‘oh my god, I don’t know what to say to this child’”
Young person
We know that 200, 000 children experience a parent going to prison each year, and that many more are impacted by a parent or loved one’s involvement in the wider criminal justice system. Research points to poorer outcomes for these children from mental ill health to higher risk of becoming involved in crime themselves. But there is a low level of awareness among professionals, and research shows that services such as schools are not aware of the scale of the issue and its impact on children. For children to be supported, and their outcomes improved, first staff must be aware of the issue and this is why Awareness is the first key area of work in the Toolkit.
Anna, what are the Bristol Children’s Centres doing to raise awareness of CAPI?

6. “In an ideal world, I’d want the police, as soon as they do an arrest…to ring through to the school or children’s centre or anywhere the child was going to be that day and let someone know” -Young person
Some information about offenders’ children is collected locally but there are no national requirements to do so and these children are not routinely identified. Stigma further isolates this group.

8. “It’s affecting you not them, they have to know how you feel not how they think you feel.” -Young person
This area was highlighted as the most important by the young people we consulted with in developing the Toolkit. Keeping children’s voice central to the services we deliver ensures we understand their experiences and can provide better more effective services. Children’s voice is central to the Toolkit and you will see quotes from the young people we consulted with in each chapter.

9. “And if you have too many people then you don’t know who to go to
“And if you have too many people then you don’t know who to go to. If you have too many people that you know are looking out for you then you don’t know, if I told them that, will they tell them this?” –Young person
No single stat body / lead agency with responibility for this group of children. Support for offenders’ children can be disjointed, provided in the main by voluntary and community sector agencies with children and families vulnerable to gaps in geographical coverage and funding.
This chapter of the Toolkit highlights some really interesting local multi-agency partnerships where services have come together to share information and skills and address gaps and duplication in provision.

10. “…if they’re just gone into prison then that’s going to be different from when they’re going into court, so you’ll need different help at different times” –Young person
A key area of work. We talk a lot about parental imprisonment but there are six key stages to the CJS and many more children than the that we estimate experience a parent’s imprisonment, have a parent or loved one involved in one of the other five stages. And each stage has different meanings and brings different challenges for children and families. Those working at each stage of the CJS can work with an awareness of its impact on children. And practitioners in the community can build a little knowledge about each stage so they feel better able to respond to families experiencing them.
If services achieve this standard, there’s the potential for children to have a better understanding of each stage and to receive the support they need at each. Another outcome could include an improved experience of visiting prisons.
Anna, how do Children’s Centres in Bristol work to reach this standard and recognise the impact of each stage of the CJS?

11. “…if you can’t say to them, right, I can do this to help you or this person can do this to help you, then you can’t do anything for that child when it comes to having a parent in the Criminal Justice System.” –Young Person
Targeted support can improve outcomes for children and families affected by this issue and for imprisoned individuals maintaining family ties reduces reoffending by 39%. Yet many families don’t receive the support that they might want and need. As we’ve heard, services and interventions are not consistent across the country. Specialist services for offenders’ families are less and less available and so it’s all the more important that other services are able to respond to some extent and to signpost and provide access to other services where possible appropriate.
Anna will tell you a bit more now about the Champions scheme in Bristol and the support offered to meet the needs of children affected by offending.

12. Bristol Children’s Centres CAPI Champions – Role description

13. “It wasn’t our choice to be here” -Young Person
Research tells us that stigma can affect offenders’ children in various ways – some are bullied, become isolated from friends and community, experience shame or internalise a sense that they are bad too, or they may withdraw and avoid sharing their experiences with others, including professionals. The video we watched together earlier, Reversible Writing, touches on how stigma can impact on a child’s self-esteem and life chances. Practitioners can challenge negative stereotypes about offenders’ children and make sue these issues are discussed and considered more widely. See the Toolkit chapter on stigma for practice examples in this area.

14. CAPI Support and Information drop-ins widely advertised in local communities

15. “I think professionals should learn what to do, but by asking the young people – Young Person”
Measuring the impact of your practice with offenders’ children is challenging…but monitoring the impact of services and sharing learning is vital in improving practice and outcomes for children.

16. “What it means to us”
The Barnardo’s Bristol Children Affected by Parental Imprisonment young people’s group
I’ll now play you a short film from the Bristol CAPI group. These young people were involved in the initial consultation when we were developing the Toolkit and their views directly shaped the resource you have received today.

17. What services say:
Excellent. I will be using it across 11 – 19 services and with the LSCB.
Service Manager
Very workable and straightforward to use.
Children’s Centre CAPI Champion
We’ve promoted the Toolkit widely and also delivered some workshops to groups of Champions in the South West and had some great feedback so far.
Anna – brings structure to our work with CAPI and a strategic focus. Some of the work we were already doing, some in progress, and action planning has resulted in new work too. But it’s all brought together in a focused way. We use the action plan during our Champions meetings to inform agenda items.

18. What next?
Visit the i-HOP Quality Statements webpage where you can download the editable PDF of the Toolkit for free:
Share your example work plans with i-HOP to inspire other services!
You’ve all received a Toolkit today…
Visit the dedicated webpage…edit, save and share the digital Toolkit easily…
There’s an example of a completed action plan from a Troubled Families team at the end of the Toolkit but you can see more examples on the webpage, including Anna’s! We’d love to receive example action plans to upload to encourage others.
Thank-you very much for listening.
Does anyone have any questions for myself about the resource or for Anna about her work in Bristol?
Thank-you for your vital work supporting children and families of offenders