When their mum or dad is in prison (Prisoners’ Families)

Prisoners' Families

If you’re in Merseyside and supporting children while a family member is in prison, we can help.

What is our Prisoners’ Families service?

Prisoners’ Families is a service that supports children and families who are going through a difficult time when someone in the family is in prison or has recently been released – usually the children’s mum or dad.

How can we help you?

We’ve got a specialist team of people who give support and guidance to everybody in the family, if they need it. That could be parents, children or grandparents.

Explaining imprisonment to children

If you have a loved one in prison, it can be difficult to explain this to children and help them to understand what’s happening. Our team can give you advice on how to talk to children about imprisonment and how to support them through the situation.

Support groups

It’s sometimes useful to talk to other people who are going through the same thing. We offer peer groups so you can meet other families who have a loved one in prison. Getting emotional and practical support from someone who knows exactly where you’re coming from can be life-changing.

Helping you with the prison or probation service

We also provide an advocacy service, which means we can speak to the prison or probation service for you if there is anything you need help with, or anything you don’t understand.

You can get access to all of this support whilst your loved one is in prison or once they’ve been released.

It depends on you and your family and the situation you are going through to decide what type of support might help you.

Support for children

One-to-one support

We’re here to provide support to children who have a family member in prison. They might find it tricky talking to their parents, grandparents, teachers or siblings about what they’re going through and how they’re feeling – so we’re here to help. Each child we support is given their own family worker, who’s trained to help them understand how they’re feeling, understand the ‘whys’ in a way that is appropriate for them, process their emotions and come to terms with what’s going on, in their own time and their own way, without any judgement. Our family workers and the children we support get to know each other really well, and we find that this relationship helps children really start to relax and open up.

Having fun with other children like them

We’ve got lots of opportunities for children to meet and make friends with other children who have a loved one in prison. This helps children feel less alone and shows them that there are other people out there in the same position. We get up to lots of fun activities together – days out, fun workshops and lots of other stuff – and children can feel safe, relaxed and happy amongst friends.

Can I get support from the Prisoners’ Families service?

We can support anybody in Merseyside who’s got a relative in prison now, or has done in the past. Our service is for the whole family. We can support:

children with a parent or guardian in prison;
people with children who have a partner in prison;
grandparents who have a child in prison and are now caring for their grandchildren, full-time or part-time;
another family member or carer who is taking care of children while their mum or dad is in prison; or
we can also support those in prison or leaving prison, where possible.

Get in touch:

For more information about our Prisoners’ Families service, contact Rachel:

Call: 0151 702 5533

Email: [email protected]