Estimates of children with a parent in prison
A Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) report which uses linked government data to measure the scale of parental imprisonment.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
This report from the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme is an official statistics in development publication from the Ministry of Justice.
The analysis links data from HM Prison and Probation (HMPPS) data sources, as well as Child Benefit data from HM Revenue and Customs, to derive an estimate of the number of children with a parent in prison. This is the first time HMPPS data covering the entire prison population for England and Wales has been linked together to produce aggregate numbers of prisoners with children on a national scale and a corresponding estimate for the number of children with a parent in prison.
The report and accompanying Technical Guide details the methodology to derive this estimate, as well as findings on:
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Count of prisoners identified as parents
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Differences in prisoners counted as parents by data source
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The population of prisoner parents by sentence length and sex
Children with a parent in prison are considered to be a hidden population, with data on these children held in multiple places across a number of government services. This report takes steps to bring this data together and to identify the scale of parental imprisonment, building collective understanding of the estimated number of children with a parent in prison.
As this is an official statistics in development publication, we are consulting on the methodology; further details on this can be found in the Technical Guide.
The following post holders are given pre-release access before the release of the Estimates of children with a parent in prison report. Analysts and policy professionals involved in the production and quality assurance of the report are excluded from this list.
Ministry of Justice:
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons, Private Secretaries (x2); Special Advisor; Director General Policy - Prisons, Offenders and International Justice; Director General - Service Transformation Group; Director - Prison Policy; Deputy Director - Prisoner Outcomes, Resettlement & Reoffending; Deputy Director - Female Offenders and Health Policy; BOLD Programme Director; Chief Data Officer; Data Director; policy officials (x6); press officers (x3)
HM Prison and Probation Service:
Deputy Director - Rehabilitation Strategy and Interventions; Executive Director - Rehabilitation; Public Protection Group Director; policy officials (x3)
Department for Education:
Minister for Children and Families, Private Secretary, Director of Children’s Social Care, Safeguarding and Workforce, policy officials (x6), press officers (x2)