HEADQUARTERS Calton House 5 Redheughs Rigg Edinburgh EH129HW

SCOTTISH PI~ISON S E R VeE

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0131-244-8523 0131-244-8648

Kezia Dugdale MSP The Scottish Parliament Edinburgh EH99 lSP

John Ewing Chief Executive

14 October 2011

Dear Ms Dugdale Thank you for your letter of 26 September in response to my reply to your Parliamentary Question (S4W-02476) to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. It would be difficult for the SPS to gather and maintain accurate information on the number of children affected by the imprisonment of a parent. To do so, we would need to rely on the information provided by prisoners, most likely at the time of reception to prison. Prisoners frequently do not wish their families to know of their imprisonment or are reluctant to volunteer such personal information because of what they perceive the 'authorities' might do with this. This information would also be subject to change, sometimes during the period of imprisonment, which would make it difficult to track this information accurately. My reason for suggesting that local authorities would be better placed to gather this information is that they are likely to be the principal point of contact for people who have a family member in prison and, of course, they have responsibility for the child's welfare in such circumstances. Social work colleagues in local government can have access to information not always available to the prison. SPS is, of course, committed to helping prisoners to maintain positive family links. In 2009, SPS published the Good Practice Guidelines for Children and Families. These guidelines are in place in all prisons to ensure children and families visiting prisons are treated with dignity and respect and that their visit is as productive as possible. The guidelines provide a framework that encourages prisons to: provide relevant and useful information provide a suitable, children; comfortable for families; area catering for the needs of

visiting

work with local transport prisons;

providers

to improve

services for families

visiting

consult with families when planning service provision; encourage families management; provide child-focused to become involved in the prisoner's sentence

visits; and events .

respond to the needs of families in times of significant

RF0809.11

1.

In response to recommendations made by Scotland's Commissioner Young People, the Good Practice Guidelines are currently under review. I hope you find this information Yours sincerely helpful.

for Children and

JOHN EWING Chief Executive

RF0809.11

2.