What the service offers
Ormiston Families works with Nacro and a range of other partner agencies to deliver the government’s Probation Family Services programme across the East of England.
Relationships are fundamentally important if people are to change. Through our work at Ormiston Families we aim to ensure families and ex-offenders can keep in touch and have the best relationships possible in often very difficult circumstances.
We work with ex-offenders across Suffolk and Hertfordshire providing a range of support services to help break and reduce the likelihood of the cycle of re-offending. Lord Farmer (2017, 2019) in his report described good family relationships as a ‘golden thread’ that should run through work with families and ex-offenders to support the rehabilitation process.
We have entwined the ‘golden thread’ into our values and work ethic within our family support services working with all those impacted by imprisonment.
The sessions we hold help to:
- Establish or maintain supportive community networks
- Reduce the impact of offending on children
- Break intergenerational cycles of offending, including domestic abuse
Referrals
How do we work with families affected by offending in our sessions?
We deliver a number of interventions within either a lived experience supportive peer group setting or through a tailored 1-2-1 approach to provide a safe environment for reflective thinking and to assist in the ex-offender’s development of tools for change in building positive, healthy, safe and resilient family relationships.
The imprisonment of a household member is one of the ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) known to have a significant impact on long-term health and well-being of CYP’s.
Our support allows the ex-offender to see how their behaviour impacts on family relationships but in particular on their child/children. We can then help them to develop positive role modelling behaviours which will then help not only the likelihood of re-offending but also the likelihood of intergenerational offending.
Examples of programmes / support offered include:
- Accredited Parenting Support programmes
- Reflective behavioural change programmes
- Understanding of Behaviour and its impact in a societal context ‘How others see me’
- Self-awareness and perception ‘How I see myself’
- Support related to application process to Family Court
- Pro-social modelling as a positive concept for children
- Tailored support to understand, manage and address various child behavioural responses
Referrals
For professionals
To make a referral this will need to be completed by the individual’s Probation Practitioner.
Enquiries
Please email probationfamilyservices@ormistonfamilies.org.uk
Dylan’s Story
“About a year ago I woke up to the sound of banging on the front door. It was pitch black outside and the loud noise frightened me. The door was broken down and I heard lots of shouting downstairs. It was the Police. They had come to arrest my Dad but I didn’t know what he had done wrong…”
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