Clinks Light Lunch | Issue 304 | 12th July 2013

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In this week's edition...

 

CLINKS RESOURCE: assess your strengths and weaknesses

'Take your temperature' is an easy-to-use tool to help you to assess organisational strengths and weaknesses in the context of a rapidly changing funding landscape and to flag up areas that require development. It helps you to pin-point the things you might consider doing to improve your organisation’s health and sustainability, rather than offer guidance about how to do things. It can also be used to brief any external consultant or support organisation that you engage to address development priorities. Download it here  

CLINKS RESOURCE: are your finances ready for commissioning?

Our 'Finance for contracts readiness checker' will help your organisation understand the financial competencies and management systems required to be contract ready. Developed in partnership with Locality, the checker highlights the standards of financial management necessary to demonstrate contract readiness and helps organisations identify areas of development by ranking their current performance against standards required and by noting areas for development. Download it here  

CLINKS RESOURCE: signposting to commissioning resources

'Signposting to commissioning resources' is a guide for Clinks Members who want to find out more about commissioning, understand the differences between commissioning and procurement, prepare themselves to be ready for tendering, or read case studies and learn from others' experiences. Download it here  

CLINKS CONSULTATION: how can we improve our events and training?

Clinks’ Events Co-ordinator, Robert Price, is currently undertaking a small piece of research on behalf of our Members. We would be really interested to hear your views about Clinks' current training and event offerings. Is there a field of work we should be gearing new training courses towards? Is there an existing training course you would like to see repeated or more of? Is there a particular policy area which you would like to learn more about in the form of an event, for example? Although we can't promise to act on every suggestion, if there are emerging themes we will try our best to deliver. Please email your thoughts and suggestions to Robert Price  

CLINKS EVENT: transition from youth to adult justice services

Clinks are holding a joint event [31st July, Swansea, free] to engage and consult with stakeholders to discuss the issues that young people experience when they transition from youth justice to adult justice services. The event is aimed at managers and practitioners from third sector providers who work with young people and adults who are in, or have been in, the justice system. The event is being run in partnership with the YJB and IOM Cymru. Places are limited to one per organisation. Please request a booking form from samantha.tett@yjb.gsi.gov.uk  

CLINKS RESOURCE: Promote yourselves to potential partners

Register now for Clinks’ new supply chain and consortia directory, 'Partnership Finder', to promote your organisation to potential partners, commissioners and prime providers. Partnership Finder will launch on 1st August 2013, and will allow users to search by service provided, location, target group or track record.  If you’re a Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisation, don’t miss out on any opportunities:  Register for free today at www.clinks.org/partnership_finder 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: resettlement prisons announced

The Ministry of Justice have announced 70 resettlement prisons to be introduced in England and Wales, aligned with the 21 Contract Package Areas as detailed in the TR consultation paper. A trial is scheduled to begin in the North West of England this Autumn, with the full roll-out anticipated to be completed by 2014.  The list of prisons can be found here 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: funding to support probation mutuals

The Cabinet Office have published a list of the Probation Trusts who are spinning out into mutuals, and has awarded £500,000 of funding to consortia who will support this process. The first cohort includes 7 spin outs covering 12 probation trusts. This means that groups of staff from within more than a third of the UK’s 35 probation trusts are actively preparing to bid for services in the national competition for rehabilitation services. Read the full story here  

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: inspection of adult offending work in the North East

HM Inspectorate of Probation will be inspecting work in Northumbria during the weeks commencing 2 September and 16 September.  Local providers who work with people supervised by the Probation Trust, or with victims, may be contacted by a probation inspector to discuss their work.  If you have any queries about this, please contact HMI Probation admin mailbox at admin.hmiprob@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk 

FUNDING: major new CJS funding launched today

In partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), Cabinet Office is pleased to announce the Rehabilitation Social Action Fund is now open for applications. The Rehabilitation Social Action Fund is for those civil society organisations who can demonstrate that they have a strong track record in using social action to rehabilitate offenders, commitment to improving their evidence of impact, and ambition to scale up. Clinks is pleased to bring you advance notice of this important new funding stream for rehabilitation services. At the time of circulating Light Lunch, we had no more information than the above, but we expect further information to be present at some point on Friday on this link. 

FUNDING: to benefit disadvantaged people in London

Grants of up to £5,000 are available to local charities or projects that benefit disadvantaged people in London. Projects supporting health, skills and employment outcomes for young people in the capital are especially encouraged. Anyone can nominate a favourite local charity for the Community Plus London grant including charities themselves and members of the public. The deadline for applications is 12th September. Full details here  

CLINKS MEMBER'S EVENT: prisoners' family support programmes

'Transforming Rehabilitation: Transforming Relationships' is a Pact event [23rd July, 9.15am - 12pm, London, free] to share the evidence of impact from family and relationship support programmes for offenders and their families. Speakers include Jeremy Wright and Andy Keen-Downs. Find out more and book your place here
 

CLINKS MEMBER'S EVENT: dealing with trauma and resilience

'Trauma and Resilience in the Criminal Justice System' is a Kazuri event [24th July, Cardiff, free for VCSE] featuring training, interactive workshops and capacity building for individuals involved in the design or delivery of services to people in the CJS. The event will provide a better understanding of recognising trauma stress and dealing with it early in a support cycle; whilst the training will introduce individuals to the concept of secondary trauma or compassion fatigue and provide an innovative approach and solution. Book your place here
 

GOVERNANCE: Attract and develop leaders 

'Attract and Develop Leaders' is an online article that identifies several ways of developing leaders, including coaching, mentoring and action learning. "The quality of leadership is at the heart of success in the social sector. This is not just at the level of directors and chief executives, but for aspiring and emerging leaders across all positions and for trustees and volunteers too. A key part of the added value of social action organisations is that they are able to foster organic and sustainable leadership support and development within the context of their working practices." Read the full article here 

PUBLICATION: persistent pain in secure settings

‘Managing persistent pain in secure settings’ is a guide for professionals working in custodial settings, to support best practice in diagnosing, assessing and managing the symptoms of persistent pain among prisoners. Download it here 

PUBLICATION: yoga in prisons

A recent Oxford University study suggests that yoga can improve mood and mental wellbeing among prisoners, and may also have an effect on impulsive behaviour. Researcher, Dr Bilderbeck, said: "This was only a preliminary study, but nothing has been done like this before. Offering yoga sessions in prisons is cheap, much cheaper than other mental health interventions. If yoga has any effect on addressing mental health problems in prisons, it could save significant amounts of public money." The findings will be published this week in the 'Journal of Psychiatric Research'; for more information email  amy.bilderbeck@psych.ox.ac.uk 

PUBLICATION: latest theRecord published

"It’s now more than thirty-three years since I was released from prison. I thought then, naively, that the worst was over. I had served two years of a three and a half year sentence. But I didn’t realise then that the real punishment hadn’t even begun." A brilliant piece by Obsidian Black in this month's theRecord - 'the online magazine for law-abiding people with convictions' - published by Clinks Member Unlock. Read this and more here 

RESOURCE: prison learners

Clinks Member Prisoners' Education Trust have developed a 'Learner Voice Toolkit' to provide prison staff with a range of resources to develop the concept of learner voice in their establishments. On their website you'll also find videos about how learner voice can be put into practice and a network to share good practice and ideas. Find out more here 

RESOURCE: iPad app of prison facts

Clinks Member Prison Reform Trust has launched an iPad app 'Prison: The Facts' that reveals that overcrowding and high reoffending rates are a fact of life in today’s prison system. Director, Juliet Lyon, said: "Is Government expecting too much of our overcrowded prisons? This iPad app reveals that the prison system is flooded with petty offenders, addicts, and people who are mentally ill. Given the pace and scale of change, Ministers focused on developing the justice market could easily lose sight of the solutions that lie outside of prison bars in health, housing and employment." Read more here 

OPPORTUNITY: support your service users to shape health and social care services

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) would like to hear from organisations on how they could work with offenders who are using care services. CQC is seeking expressions of interest from suitably experienced organisations wishing to provide support for its Experts by Experience programme in England from 1 April 2014. Experts by Experience (ExE) are people who have experience of using, or caring for someone who uses, health and/or social care services. "They take part in our inspections of health and social care services and our visits to monitor the use of the Mental Health Act. ExE also help us in other ways, such as taking part in consultations and staff training, and in helping us to develop our ways of working." For more information click here 

CONSULTATION: stop and search

The Home Secretary has launched a six week consultation on the powers of ‘Stop and Search’. The consultation looks at whether stop and search is used appropriately and fairly, and how it can be better targeted and more intelligence-led. You can take part here  

CONSULTATION: young adult services in Wales

Integrated Offender Management (IOM) Cymru, YJB Cymru, the Welsh Government and Clinks are seeking the views of young adult (16-24 years old) service users in the Criminal Justice System to inform them on how services could be improved. This partnership has a specific focus on how IOM arrangements can better work with and support this age range. The views of respondents will help shape a Wales-wide strategy, and provide an understanding of how young adult services need to change as well as what new services should be designed. Take part in the survey here  

CONSULTATION: victims' voices

Clinks Member IARS have recently commenced the Victims’ Voices survey. This will provide new evidence for the ‘Restorative Justice in Europe: Safeguarding Victims and Empowering Professionals’ project. They will be gathering the experiences and opinions of victims of crime, in order to develop a user-led evidence base for the application of restorative justice. Although the project is researching victims’ experiences of restorative justice, they also welcome input from victims who have turned down the opportunity to take part in a restorative process as well as those who weren’t even given the offer. The survey is available here 

TIPS OF THE WEEK

Tip of the week I: 100 money saving ideas for the kids' summer holidays. Details Tip of the week II: Stay two nights in the Peak District for £69 per person. Includes breakfast, dinner, pack up, wine and Chatsworth House tickets. Details  

EXTRA INFORMATION

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Clinks

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