We're here for children and teens in Liverpool with a mum or dad in prison

When a child's mum or dad goes to prison, it can have a huge impact on their life. Many children and teenagers feel confused, alone and ashamed, often hiding what they’re going through, unsure of what to tell people.

Fighting the stigma

There's still so much stigma attached to having a family member prison - and so many children carry that round with them every day - at school, with friends, and when just trying to get on with their lives. It can affect everything, from their mental health and behaviour to how they do at school. In a way, it's not just the parent who's serving time, it's the child, too. We call this their hidden sentence.

How can PSS Prisoners Families Service help?

The PSS Prisoners' Families Service is here to help in Liverpool. With the right kind of support, children can learn to cope with their emotions, understand what's happening and begin to shed that stigma.

One-to-one support for children with a parent in prison

Our specialist team is here to provide one-to-one support for children and teens who have a family member in prison. They might find hard to talk to parents, grandparents, teachers or siblings about what they’re going through and how they’re feeling – and that's where we come in.

Each child or teen 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 and teens we support get to know each other really well, and we find that this relationship helps them really start to relax and open up.

Meeting other children and teens going through the same thing

We’ve got lots of opportunities for children and teens to meet and make friends with people their age who also have a loved one in prison. This helps them feel that they're not alone, and helps them feel relaxed, safe and happier.

We get up to lots of things together – from days out doing fun stuff through to quiet activity sessions to help us feel calm.

Support to visit family in prison

Lots of children and teens want to keep in touch with their parents who are in prison. Afterall, to them, it's just dad, or just mum.

This can be done by writing letters to each other, or by going to visit them in prison. If it's the right thing to do, we can support your child or teenager to go and see their parent in prison, during family visiting hours.

Going into a prison environment can be a bit scary for the teens and children we support, but we're experienced in making sure they feel safe and emotionally prepared both before and after the visit. This is only ever something we'd do if it was right for everyone.

Who can PSS Prisoners' Families Service support?

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
Those in prison or leaving prison, where possible.

Coming to PSS has helped me. Jess feels like a friend but so much more, because I couldn’t speak to an actual friend about this stuff. We made a memory box and filled with stuff that reminds me of dad. There’s photos of holidays and his watch in there. He loves his watches! All his letters go in there, too. It’s nice to look at that. I’ve got a whole folder on my phone with funny pictures of him. They make me howl laughing.

Evie, aged 16

What do people think about Prisoners' Families?

Every yeah we ask people we support, their carers, parents and guardians to tell us what they think about the support they receive from PSS. We received feedback from 48% of the people we support and 100% of the parents, carers and guardians of people supported by Prisoners' Families. Here's what they told us: