Our Evidence Base
Safe Ground understands the importance of evaluation and have committed to a rolling programme of independent research over the lifetime of both Family Man and Fathers Inside. Our programmes are constantly being developed and refined in response to this research to ensure that the needs of prisoners and their families are always at the forefront of what we do.
Programme Evaluations
Evaluating the Man-Up Programme in Youth Offending Teams
- Year
- 2017
- Evaluator/s
- Dr Nicholas Blagden and Christian Perrin
- Aims
Explore young offenders’ perceptions of the programme and whether the programme contributed to any personal change or development, and what core learning they took from the course.
- Methodology
Convergent mixed-methods design.
Quantitative method explored pre and post course differences on measures related to the outcomes of the Man-Up Programme.
Qualitative method used semi-structured interviews with 7 participants to gain understanding of their experiences and learning from the Man-Up Programme.
- Key Findings
The quantitative method found a pre/post course reduction in ‘toughness’ and increases in self-esteem and risk-taking perceptions.
The qualitative method found 4 superordinate themes: ‘Reconstruing masculine self’, ‘Self-realisation, awareness and reflection’, ‘Group dynamics and course relationships’ and ‘Unintended consequences’.
The impact of a brief structured intervention on young offenders masculine identity: A mixed methods study – Journal of Criminal Psychology
- Year
- 2017
- Evaluator/s
- Dr Nicholas Blagden and Christian Perrin
- Aims
Explore young offenders’ perceptions of the programme and whether the programme contributed to any personal change or development, and what core learning they took from the course.
- Methodology
Convergent mixed-methods design.
Quantitative method explored pre and post course differences on measures related to the outcomes of the Man-Up Programme.
Qualitative method used semi-structured interviews with 7 participants to gain understanding of their experiences and learning from the Man-Up Programme.
- Key Findings
The quantitative method found a pre/post course reduction in ‘toughness’ and increases in self-esteem and risk-taking perceptions.
The qualitative method found 4 superordinate themes: ‘Reconstruing masculine self’, ‘Self-realisation, awareness and reflection’, ‘Group dynamics and course relationships’ and ‘Unintended consequences’.
Father Figures Programme: Final Report
- Year
- 2016
- Evaluator/s
- Professor Rosie Meek and Hannah Baumer
- Aims
To assess the impact of the programme on participants’ family relationships, parenting confidence and emotional maturity.
- Methodology
Qualitative interviews with delivery and prison staff, 1:1 semi-structured interviews with participants and observational studies of sessions.
Quantitative data included pre and post questionnaires.- Key Findings
Participants were able to identify and articulate a range of positive outcomes that they attributed to the programme.
An increased sense of self-esteem, confidence and heightened mood associated with the feeling of being spoken to as a parent, and not just as a young offender.
Justice Data Lab Re-offending Analysis: Family Man (5)
- Year
- 2015
- Evaluator/s
- Ministry of Justice
- Aims
To assess the impact of Family Man on re-offending
- Methodology
Quantitative statistical analysis of 184 offenders who had completed the Family Man course across nine different prison between 2005 and 2013
- Key Findings
The one-year proven re-offending rate for 184 offenders who completed this intervention was 31%, compared with 37% for a matched control group of similar offenders.
GROUNDation Poetry Project 2014-15
- Year
- 2015
- Evaluator/s
- Obinna Nwosu (Safe Ground)
- Aims
To assess the impact and efficacy of the GROUNDation Poetry Project.
- Methodology
Methodology Quantitative statistical analysis of 95 post course questionnaires completed.
- Key Findings
92% of respondents wanted to attend another GROUNDation workshop
94/95 respondents said they would recommend GROUNDation to others
97% of respondents said they would continue to engage with poetry in the future
87% of respondents were attending their first ever poetry workshop
Man Up Interim Report across Three London Prisons
- Year
- 2015
- Evaluator/s
- Dr Nicholas Blagden and Christian Perrin (Nottingham Trent University)
- Aims
To assess the impact of the Man-Up programme across.
- Methodology
Qualitative semi-structured interviews with prisoners were undertaken as well as quantitative statistical analysis of 21 pre and post course questionnaires.
- Key Findings
Inferential statistical analyses have been omitted from this interim report, but will be included in the final full report.
Man Up Development Project Evaluation
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- Safe Ground
- Aims
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Man Up Development Project in Isis, Glen Parva and Littlehey prisons
- Methodology
Questionnaires distributed to participants across all three prisons to assess attitudinal changes
- Key Findings
There was an average 86% completion rate
All groups reported improved wellbeing scores
There was overall positive attitudinal change
There was a statistically significant positive attitudinal change in participants in relation to perceptions of and reaction to ‘alpha’ male behaviour, as well as substantial positive shifts in attitudes to aggression and towards gender equality in the role of the ‘provider’
All of the custody-based groups rated the programme above 7 / 10 in terms of considering it an effective challenge to offending behaviour
Justice Data Lab Re-offending Analysis: Family Man (4)
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- Ministry of Justice
- Aims
To assess the impact of Family Man on re-offending
- Methodology
Quantitative statistical analysis of 151 offenders who had completed the Family Man course across nine different prison between 2005 and 2013
- Key Findings
The 151 participants do experience a reduction in
frequency of re‐offending by 0.31 offences per individual. However, due to sample size there is insufficient
evidence at this stage to draw a conclusion about the impact of Family Man Programme run by Safe Ground on the one year proven re‐offending rate.
Out of my comfort zone: An evaluation of the family man programme
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- May, Skrine, Moretti and Webster (Institute for Criminal Policy Research)
- Aims
To assess changes in students’ and supporters’ perceptions of their family relationships and of themselves
To assess the cost-effectiveness of the programme
To assess the impact of the programme on reoffending
To assess the effectiveness of the Family Support Worker (FSW) pilot role for prisoners, their children, families and supporters
- Methodology
Quantitative data based on the characteristics of 928 service users (SUs) and qualitative data based on 128
Qualitative interviews gained from FSWs, relevant prison staff, other involved professionals, prisoners, their families and supporters, to test the extent of the potential of the FSW role and to inform the framework for a possible national model
- Key Findings
24 students claimed they had noticed a general improvement in their family relationships and 5 reported that they felt closer to their partner or wife
A Ministry of Justice Data Lab study suggested that Family Man programme has a positive impact on reducing reoffending by between 3 and 19 percentage points
Justice Data Lab Re-offending Analysis: Family Man (3)
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- Ministry of Justice
- Aims
To assess the impact of Family Man on re-offending
- Methodology
Quantitative statistical analysis of 131 offenders who had completed the Family Man course across six different prison between 2005 and 2011
- Key Findings
One year proven re-offending rate for 131 offenders (those of the 164 who had an identifiable custodial sentence with a release date before 2012) attending the Family Man programme was 37%, compared with 44% for a matched control group of similar offenders (P= 0.05)
Statistical significance testing shows that individuals attending Family Man experienced a real reduction in the frequency of re-offending of 0.33 offences per individual
Sector reports
Sentences in the Community
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
This paper seeks to contribute towards the success of Coalition reforms seeking to improve prisoner rehabilitation by setting out the current challenges facing sentences in the community, and presenting ideas on how to make them more effective at reducing reoffending.
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as a model example of a charity which focuses on families as key to offender rehabilitation (page 43)
Parenting and relationship support programmes for offenders and their families
- Year
- 2014
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
This paper describes best practice in commissioning and service provision and our recommendations for the future in reference to dealing with family interventions and parental learning landscapes for offenders and their families
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as an example of a charity which runs intensive courses intended to move offender attitudes towards a more pro-social and empathetic way of relating to others in order to change offender behaviour (page 20)
Featured as an example of a charity that runs in-house family intervention programmes to help reduce re-offending (page 39)
Fatherhood: Parenting Programmes and Policy
- Year
- 2012
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
This report reviews policies and programmes that promote or facilitate the involvement of fathers and father-figures from the pre-natal period through the first eight years of their children‘s lives; and to establish evidence of these programmes‘ potential to impact on family violence, child abuse or children‘s health or learning outcomes
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as an example of a charity that runs programmes specifically for father-child relationships, as many offenders are relatively young and have young children. The only prison based programmes to be included (page 37)
Brain Cells: Listening to Prisoner Learners
- Year
- 2012
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
This report summarises the results of a survey prepared by Prisoners Education Trust and distributed in the November 2011 edition of the prison newspaper Inside Time.
The aim of this survey was to better understand the experience of prisoner learners by giving them a voice and the affect change to better meet the needs of prisoner learners.
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as an example of a charity that run family/relationship based courses (page 23)
Are we nearly there yet, Dad? Supporting young dad’s journeys through fatherhood
- Year
- 2012
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
Through an evaluation of a study of six young father’s experience of service provision, this report reveals the blockages that can occur when insufficient support is available to young fathers, and the opportunities that arise when services respond to young fathers effectively.
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as an example of work that reduces the risk of offending and reoffending (page 26)
Featured as an example of how Safe Ground helped a young father through his sentence plan (page 28)
Improving prisoners’ family ties. Piloting a shared measurement approach
- Year
- 2011
- Evaluator/s
- Summary
Report evaluating the effectiveness of using a shared measurement approach (capturing the experience of people visiting prison and measuring changes to family relationships) when measuring family relationships in the prison sector
- Safe Ground's contribution
Featured as an example of a charity that meets the necessary criteria for participation in the project that evaluated the shared measurement approach (page 14)
Featured as a charity that facilitates “The theory of change in action” (page 16)
Took part in piloting a questionnaire developed by the project at HMP Belmarsh (page 21)