Family Rights Group | FGC and Lifelong Links Network Discussion Forum

Hi all, this is the thread for you to add your examples

When I worked in Kent in the NW there was an issue where the coordinator was at the point of organising the LL FGC however the prison would not allow family into the prison for the FGC as it was seen as an additional 'visit'. The FGC was held in the community once the young person had been released, all invited attended.

Coventry have had success and a good number of young people saying yes to LL FGC, I think this is because the details of young people entering custody are supplied to us by our colleagues and the LL coordinator will visit them to explain what LL is about. It's beneficial to have an experienced coordinator make the offer and we then aim to allocate the referral to that coordinator.

We have had issues booking visits at times, this varies by each establishment, some are easy to get in. We have been trying to compile a list of prisons, key contacts and useful information. It's a work in progress but happy to check it if someone has a specific query about a prison.

We learnt that young people in category A prisons might be more likely to be strip searched after visits and so try to bear this in mind and consider how best to contact them. We use email a prisoner and buy credits, although this also has challenges because emails aren't always passed on or in a timely way.

We've had varying levels of success using prison offender managers as a way to pass information to young people. We aim to ask the young person if they are working with any professionals in particular that we can speak with who can pass information to them and offer support when needed, for example mental health services, pastors etc.

Holding FGCs in prisons has been tricky because it relies on people having checks carried out and being added to visitors lists and as mentioned in another post it is sometimes easier to do this when the young person is released.

If anyone has specific questions I'd be happy to share with the team to see if we have any useful suggestions.