Around 200,000 children every year have a parent in prison in England and Wales. In addition, many children will experience the imprisonment of a sibling or family member. 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.

In 2013 Barnardo's and POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group), funded by the Department for Education, joined together to develop i-HOP, with the aim to:

•improve support provided to children in offenders' families,
•improve integrated working across agencies supporting children in offenders' families, and
•increase awareness and knowledge of the issues impacting on children in offenders' families.
i-HOP provides 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.

As a web-based knowledge hub, i-HOP brings together all the up-to-date resources to support professionals: research, support service details, practice examples, policy frameworks, events and training programmes. We also provide a free helpline for professionals working with the children of offenders: 0808 802 2013 .

Verona House,
Filwood Road,
Bristol,BS16 3RY

0808 802 2013

Information currently not available

Information currently not available

Available from 14/03/2014