Talking Early Years: June O'Sullivan and Andy Keen-Downs

According to Barnardos, it is estimated that there are up to 310,000 children every year with a parent in prison in England and Wales. And for those children, this can lead to poor physical and mental health and significant trauma, especially as some of them will have witnessed some of the criminal activity or even the arrest of their parent.  It is not unheard that no one collects a child from school because they have been convicted at a court hearing earlier in the day.  Can you imagine the impact on a child?

These conversations led to an introduction to Andy Keen-Downs, CEO of PACT.  He described the125 year-old children’s charity within the prison service as a well-kept secret! In this podcast he tells us more about PACT and the National Prisoners Helpline 0808 808 2003 which provides lots of support and information for families and  had 30,000 calls over the past 12 months: Prisoners' Families Helpline (prisonersfamilies.org). There is some support for older children and professionals: For children | Prison Advice and Care Trust and For professionals | Prison Advice and Care Trust but this podcast is all about what we can do in the Early Years to help. Here is a taster statistic that will make you think!

Six out of 10 boys with a father  in prison  will follow their father into prison, and they're more likely to go to prison than to go to university.

One of the LEYF managers recounted a story that sadly supported this statistic. She remembered one of the children aged 4 announcing that her Dad was in jail and when she grew up she would go to jail too.  She said:

            “I will be a burglar because I am very good at creeping around and climbing”

At LEYF we have now developed a pack for the Early Years sector in collaboration with PACT to help people respond when they know or suspect that a child’s parent may be in prison.  It is such a sensitive situation requiring deep levels of compassion to navigate because people remain very ashamed of the situation.   We know that when families are able to support the prisoner , reoffending drops by 39%, which is significant for the children living in those families. Our job is to remember that we must never write off children of prisoners and reject the expression of  ‘the apple doesn't fall far from the tree’.

Every child has promise and if you believe this and you want system change then listen to the podcast!