This project or publication was produced before or during the merger of What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) and the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF).
Thematic review of characteristics and family histories of women who applied to Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) in prisons.
A thematic review looking at the characteristics and family histories of women who applied to Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) in prisons, as part of the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families’ review of the decision making process used in MBUs (full review here). Our findings show the importance of understanding more about the histories and experiences of women who apply to MBUs.
The aims of the review were to answer the following:
We reviewed the characteristics of 67 women whose applications to an MBU were accepted, and 39 women whose applications to an MBU were rejected and have reported important contextual information about their applications.
Alongside this, we present a more in-depth thematic analysis of the applications of 15 women whose applications were accepted and 15 women whose applications were rejected by the MBU.
Our sample size was too small to carry out any statistical analysis on the data, so any differences between women whose applications which were accepted or rejected may not be statistically significant although they do illustrate potential trends.
We did not analyse the MBU Boards’ decisions themselves, as this was the main focus of the Chief Social Worker’s wider review.
This report should be read alongside the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families’ wider report. The wider report contains more detailed recommendations about improving the MBU application process with the aim of improving outcomes for women and children.
