i-HOP (Information Hub on Offenders’ families with children for Professionals)

Every year in England and Wales, around 200,000 children will have a parent in prison. In addition many children will experience a sibling or family member being imprisoned. Research has shown that parental imprisonment has a direct impact on children’s mental wellbeing, academic achievement and behaviour and increases the likelihood of intergenerational offending.

The i-HOP website, which will be launched on 1 August, will provide a national one-stop information and advice service for all professionals working with children and families of offenders, including frontline staff from the criminal justice system, voluntary sector, education, health, housing and social care, as well as those responsible for strategic development and commissioning. Barnardo’s and POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group) have joined together to deliver the service, funded by the Department for Education.

i-HOP will be a web-based knowledge hub, bringing together all the up to date resources to support professionals, including: research, support service details, practice examples, policy frameworks, events and training programmes. There will also be a free helpline for professionals working with the children of offenders.

By consolidating research and practice in this area i-HOP aims to:

• Improve support provided to children in offenders’ families.
• Improve integrated working across agencies working with children in offenders’ families.
• Increase awareness and knowledge of issues impacting on children in offenders’ families.

For further information about i-HOPcontact Polly Wright, i-HOP Strategic Development Officer at polly.wright@barnardos.org.uk.

If you would like to submit information, resources or a practice example to i-HOP, email i-hopsubmit@barnardos.org.uk.

You can also follow i-HOP on Twitter at @barnardos_ihop.