answer text |
<p>Although responsibility for the children of offenders sits with the Secretary of
State for Education, we are actively committed to joined-up working across Government
and, in our Female Offender Strategy 2018, encouraged a partnership-focused approach
to addressing the needs of both imprisoned mothers and children affected by maternal
imprisonment.</p><p>The Female Offender Strategy, published in June 2018, sets out
our commitment to improving outcomes for women at all stages of the justice system,
and this includes supporting those who have children. We know that female prisoners
are more likely than male prisoners to be a primary carer and imprisoned mothers are
more likely to be living with their children prior to custody – around 60% of women
compared with about 45% of men in prison who have children.</p><p>We recognise that
maternal imprisonment can have particularly detrimental impact on family life, and
that children whose mothers are in prison are a vulnerable group and may need additional
help to address both the short and long-term impacts that maternal imprisonment can
have.</p><p>We have accepted the recommendations made in your secondary report on
women, which demonstrated that supporting women to build and maintain health family
ties is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation. We are making
good progress with implementation of the Review and where needed we are working across
Government to deliver the recommendations to their best effect. Going forward<strong>,
</strong>we acknowledge the need for improved collection and transparency of data
on primary carers in prison and their dependents in the community.</p><p>At the moment,
information on a prisoner’s caring responsibilities and children living in the community
is monitored locally by prison Governors/Directors to ensure the appropriate support
can be provided to women and their families. On reception into custody, all prisoners
are asked if they have any children living at home and what their ages are. Currently,
this information is not captured in a way that can be centrally monitored, and we
know that there are challenges around parents being reluctant to disclose this information
due to fear of involvement from social services. However, we are considering how to
monitor and publish this information.</p>
|
|