EVALUATIONS
Family Man and Fathers Inside were evaluated during their development phase, and again several times in their final version as taught across the network. The evaluations and reviews below include detailed information about the delivery and outcomes of both courses.
(Click on the report title to download a full pdf version.)
The purpose of the review is to examine the progress which has been made with Family Man and Fathers Inside between July 2006 and September 2007. The review is located in the context of the surrounding policy framework for supporting family ties and parenting from prison. It focuses specifically on the extent to which key recommendations from the 2006 review have been implemented by Safe Ground staff and others upon whom their implementation depends. In particular, it examines the impact of the pilot Family Action Plan on programme participants and their relatives, and reports the view of staff and a range of 'national players' about the ongoing developments in Safe Ground's work. It also poses the outstanding questions which need to be answered by a wider and longer-term research study.
The purpose of the review is to assess what is know about the existing arrangements for programme graduates to progress to other appropriate learning opportunities, and about the support available to them as they try to implement their learning, both from prison and release.
The two programme teaching manuals are currently the only bespoke manuals for combined educational delivery to prisoners.
The findings from this review have demonstrated Safe Grounds commitment to the progression and implementation process in respect to its students learning. They have reinforced the benefits to prisoners, their families, prison and the wider society of this learning and highlighted the development and support of programme staff through the Family Man/Fathers Inside network and associated symposia.
The drama-based and experiential nature of this learning have been shown to raise the levels of confidence of groups of men, many of whom may previously have had only negative experiences of education and none of educational achievement. The evidence of high programme completion and award rates speaks for itself in terms of the achievements that do follow. As observations from men and staff in this review and elsewhere have demonstrated, some learn to reflect, possibly for the first time, on how others are feeling. It is this empathy element which has been shown to begin the process of change of attitude and behaviour across the board, and thus, has the capacity to contribute ultimately to the reduction of re-offending.
A nine month evaluation of Fathers Inside at HMP Ashwell that includes a range of data from programme documents, comparative literature and research, direct observation of the programme, and from semi-structured interviews with participant prisoners, their partners, child-carers and children. It concludes that Fathers Inside brings about changes in parenting attitudes and behaviour from the prison setting and beyond, and acts as the first rung on the ladder for a prisoner to address his offending behaviour.
Fathers Inside has a firm basis in adult learning theory. It appears to be making a valuable and singular contribution to parenting education for prisoners. It also affords them a pathway into wider education and qualifications, potentially improving their employment opportunities. It spurs some of them to continue achieving and it inculcates in them an ability to reflect, possibly for the first time, on how others are feeling. This has the capacity to change their attitudes towards prison staff and to other people beyond their immediate family.
With the Learning and Skills Council taking over responsibility for the funding of prison education, the DfES Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit – OLSU (now the Social Inclusion and Offenders’ Unit) commissioned a review that identified how Family Man and Fathers Inside met the Skills for Life Agenda.
Family Man and Fathers Inside make an excellent contribution towards the success of the Skills for Life strategy. Both courses recognize that anxiety and lack of confidence are powerful barriers to learning. Adults with poor basic skills are reluctant to read and write and may develop their verbal skills in order to avoid discovery. The courses build on existing strengths and encourage the self-confidence that is essential for further learning.
Adult learners respond to teaching and learning that has relevance to their life experience. Families, however they are defined, are where learners recognize the significance and complexity of relationships. Possessing vocabulary to voice thoughts and feelings and the confidence to speak, listen and respond is essential to the teaching and learning relationship. Fathers Inside and Family Man focus on active involvement in learning with outcomes that are personal to the learner and support their return to their families and the community.
The teaching materials are detailed, well laid out and enable the tutor to plan, implement, observe and evaluate every lesson. The tutor notes are comprehensive and the schedules support course planning.
This evaluation outlines how Family Man and Fathers Inside were developed and trialled, the value and effects on students and teachers of using drama, film and groupwork, and the behavioural and relationship outcomes for the students who attended the programmes. Interviews and surveys were carried out with Safe Ground course developers, non-Safe Ground teachers and students on trial courses in prisons across the country.
The Safe Ground family relationships and parenting course owed much of its success to its evolutionary history it rose out of the ideas and experiences of prisoners. The resulting materials were well received by participants, who saw them as relevant, credible and easy to relate to.