POPS provide a range of workshops designed to raise awareness about the issues that face families, explore the impact of parental offending, promote effective inter-agency working and improve service delivery. Families with lived experience of the criminal justice system are involved in the development and delivery of our training programme ensuring their experiences are accurately and sensitively communicated.
Hidden Sentence, half day/full day/online
The imprisonment of a family member can have significant and long-lasting emotional and practical consequences for those who remain on the outside. Stigma and isolation often ensures these families remain hidden from statutory services, and withdrawn from community support, increasing their vulnerability. Increasing awareness is vital to ensuring these families receive the support they need to overcome the potential impact on their mental health, financial stability and social wellbeing.
Hidden Sentence is a training session designed to raise awareness about the issues that families face, highlight the specific impact on children, promote effective inter-agency working and improve service delivery.
‘Excellent workshop, the facilitator was knowledgeable, energetic and engaging.’
Originally developed by Action for Prisoners and Offenders Families (APF), Hidden Sentence is for all professionals who work with children and families including children’s centre workers, social workers, school staff, play workers, health visitors, and family intervention teams. This course gives a clear overview of the issues facing families affected by the criminal justice system, examines in depth the emotional and practical impact of imprisonment on families and explores a range of strategies and resources to help you support them. The training utilises a mixture of taught material, group-work, video content and desk-based activities to engage all learning styles.
‘Very informative, opened my eyes as to how much children can be affected by having a parent in prison.’
We also deliver an online version of Hidden Sentence, delivered via Zoom (or Microsoft Teams), enabling you to join us from anywhere in the UK. Currently these sessions are only available for group bookings.