Parenting Matters is the long-running Barnardo’s NI prison work programme. Originally incepted as a general parenting programme in 1993, Parenting Matters started supporting imprisoned fathers in 1996, in the then Maze prison. Since 2010 the service has been wholly dedicated to prison work.
In Northern Ireland, the Parenting Matters brand of prison work is unique in that its primary goal is to improve the lives of children by focusing on, developing and maintaining the links (where appropriate) between children, families and imprisoned parents (Butler et al., 2015).
This briefing provides a rapid overview of four research studies and a handbook for schools. All five contributions relate to Parenting Matters work in Northern Ireland’s prisons.