News Release – Thousands Of Prisoners’ Children Haven’t Seen Their Parents For A Year
One year on from the first lockdown, Families Outside, Scotland’s only national charity working with children and families affected by imprisonment, have highlighted new research findings on the devastating impact of the pandemic on children of prisoners. New research published by Dr Shona Minson from the University of Oxford found that, prior to the lockdown, […]
Families Outside response to national COVID 19 vaccination accessibility survey
Families Outside has responded today to the COVID 19 vaccination accessibility survey run by Voluntary Health Scotland, to help ensure equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. Families Outside has an interest in ensuring that people involved in the criminal justice system, people in prison, and those recently released from prison and their families do not […]
Keeping the Promise
Today marks a year since the Independent Care Review published its far-reaching recommendations to transform Care in Scotland and published “The Promise” to improve radically the lives and futures of young people in care and on the edges of care. A recurring theme across all strands of the review was that what children need most […]

Covid continues, but so will Families Outside
Since the 23 March, when the UK and Scottish Governments made announcements that brought the whole of the UK into lockdown, we have continued to support families affected by imprisonment, with demand for our service increasing by 247% over the Summer. It’s now over 10 months since the first official lockdown, and since then, individuals, […]
Prison visits – the impact of recent Scottish Government announcement
6 January 2021 This continues to be a challenging time for everyone living and working in prisons with the necessary regime restrictions in place to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 infection. At this time, the SPS have been advised that court business is continuing as normal, as are Parole Tribunals. They are also […]