Clinks Light Lunch | Issue 398 | 10th July 2015

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In this week's edition....

CLINKS BLOG: challenges faced by the voluntary sector

In a new blog, Charlotte Weinberg, Executive Director of Clinks member Safe Ground, looks at the challenges they face as an organisation, and explores what impact this has had on their project participants. Charlotte also explains how Safe Ground has worked to address and overcome these challenges in recent years. She says "changes in the prison service have made it more difficult for many agencies to work effectively with some groups, such as sex offenders, ‘gang’ associated young men, people serving very long sentences, and men on short sentences. It is also taking time for reforms to the Criminal Justice System, for example new probation providers and new resettlement prisons, to settle in." How do these experiences compare with your own? Read the blog and respond to our State of the Sector survey here

CLINKS BRIEFING: changes to the Welsh CJS

'Justice, policing and the voluntary sector in Wales' provides an overview of the legal responsibilities, structures and potential changes to the Criminal Justice System in a Welsh context. The paper considers the implications for voluntary sector organisations, and how they can operate in this environment to deliver the best possible services for their service users, whilst understanding the policy context and responding to the considerable developments in the Criminal Justice System. The briefing was produced in partnership with the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA). Download it here 

CLINKS NEWS: new prisons project

'The Good Prison: Positive engagement with the voluntary sector' is a new Clinks project that will provide support to the voluntary sector, prisons, and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), to enable strong voluntary sector engagement that will support the rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders. Find out more about the project here 

CLINKS EVENTS: prison roundtables

Are you a voluntary sector organisation working in prisons? As part of our new ‘The Good Prison: Positive engagement with the voluntary sector ' project we are holding roundtable events [4th August, London & 5th August, York, free] bringing together voluntary sector organisations to develop a dialogue around what is working well in prisons, with a view to producing new resources, training, and good practice. Find out more and book your place here

CLINKS BLOG: budget announcements

Nathan Dick, Head of Policy and Communications, has posted a short blog summarising this week's budget. Nathan says: "Lots of speculation has surrounded the Summer Budget, and now the veil is lifted. Doubtless we’ll hear a lot more debate over the coming days, weeks, months and years as to what the impact of this will be. Clinks members will likely be focussing their attention on people from our poorest communities, and the impact of changes to the benefits system. We know that people suffer multiple disadvantage as a result of poverty, and we know that multiple and complex needs present most frequently in impoverished communities; often leading to contact with the Criminal Justice System." Read the blog here

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: young care-leavers project needs votes

1625 Independent People beat off stiff competition from 640 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards. 1625 Independent People’s young care-leavers project Future 4 Me is the only nominated finalist in the West of England in the Voluntary/Charity category. They are appealing for votes as they strive for nationwide acclaim as one the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. Future 4 Me is competing against six other organisations. The winner will get a £2,000 cash prize, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and attend a star-studded Awards ceremony, broadcast on BBC One in September. Find out more and vote for the project here 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: supporting vulnerable women having babies in prison

An innovative new Birth Companions project, dreamed up by local midwives and doulas, has been shown to have made a significant difference to vulnerable women having babies in HMP Peterborough. An external evaluation of the project has found that as a result of the support most women felt their mental health and well-being had improved; they felt less isolated and more able to access other services and felt they had been supported to give their babies the best possible start in life. Download the evaluation report here 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: award for reducing reoffending

Blue Sky, the charity and social enterprise that solely employs ex-offenders, won a prestigious Charity Award in the ‘Social Care & Welfare’ category. In the past 10 years Blue Sky has directly employed over 1,000 ex-offenders and offered each one a tailored package of resettlement support in order to reduce re-offending and improve their long-term employability. Furthermore, Blue Sky’s Founder Mick May picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Employability Awards 2015. Find out more here 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: maturity for young adults in the CJS

'You can’t put a number on it' is a new T2A report that explores maturity for young adults in the Criminal Justice System (CJS); finding that the CJS is failing to support young adults adequately by not offering a distinct approach that recognises their development and varying levels of maturity. Participants told The Howard League for Penal Reform that everyone matures at a different rate and that maturity has little to do with age or legal status. A particular concern raised by many young people was that of the so-called ‘paper self’, the identity constructed for them by the Criminal Justice System at a time when they are still finding out who they are. Download the report here 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: budget announcements

A number of our members and partners have issued statements following this week's Budget announcement. Of particular interest to Light lunch readers will be Homeless Link's focus on the impact of removing housing benefit for young people, Mind talking about the 'insulting and misguided' benefit cuts, and NCVO looking at the implications for the voluntary sector as a whole.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: inspection of probation work

HM Inspectorate of Probation will be inspecting 'Early Work and Effective Recording undertaken by the NPS and CRCs' in Southampton and Portsmouth during the week commencing 17th August 2015. If you have any queries about this, please contact the HMI Probation (Enquiries) mailbox

COMMISSIONING: reducing poverty in neighbourhoods

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is commissioning a review of evidence and practice on community-led approaches to reducing poverty in neighbourhoods. The JRF is in the process of developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy for the UK. As part of this, it wishes to understand what community-led approaches have been employed at a neighbourhood level with the aim of reducing poverty, in order to explore different models of collective action that have worked. A draft report, an accessible report, executive summary of approximately 15,000 words, and a presentation are expected at the end of the review. The four month commission will start in September and have a budget of £20,000. The deadline for proposals is 11th August. Find out more here

FUNDING: encouraging your staff to cycle to work

The Travel SMART Cycle Improvement Fund provides grants of up to £4,000 to encourage more people in Surrey to cycle to work, as well as to reduce the amount of traffic on the roads and create a healthier, fitter workforce. The scheme is open to any business or organisation with more than 50 employees and offices based in the Blackwater Valley, Camberley, Staines, Guildford or Woking. Funding must be used to install facilities which help people cycle to work, for example cycle parking shelters, secure cycle storage or other small improvements. The application deadline is 31st July 2015. Find out more and apply here 

FUNDING: HIV prevention

Public Health England has set up a new national fund to support local projects that offer new and innovative ways of delivering HIV prevention, aiming to turn around the ever increasing numbers of new diagnoses among certain groups of the population: men who have sex with men (MSM) and black African communities. Applications are encouraged from voluntary sector organisations for projects that target groups at high risk, to be supported by their relevant local authority. The deadline for applications is 31st July. Find out more and apply here 

FUNDING: helping people in crisis

Grants of between £300,000 and £500,000 are available for five year projects that support individuals in crisis who have the most difficulty accessing mainstream services; for example disabled people, those with learning difficulties, people with mental health issues and those who live in rural locations. Funding can be used to cover revenue costs, overheads and emergency items (such as hot meals, food parcels, emergency furniture, clothing, travel costs and shelter) where they cannot be obtained through an alternative approach. The deadline for applications is 26th August. Find out more and apply here 

CLINKS MEMBER'S TRAINING: safeguarding in social housing

'Adult Safeguarding in Social Housing' is a Lemos&Crane online training course [from £50 per person, online] that aims to help social and supported housing staff meet increased compliance expectations that follow the recent coming into force of the Care Act and its associated statutory guidance. The course includes: understanding adult safeguarding, abuse and neglect; profiles of perpetrators; and the roles of social landlords and local authorities as well as other non-housing organisations. It deals with practical safeguarding issues in social housing including risk assessments; prevention; information sharing; safeguarding referrals; mental capacity; human rights and safeguarding. Find out more here

PUBLICATION: developments in criminal justice policy

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has published the fourth edition of 'UK Justice Policy Review', its annual publication tracking year-on-year developments in criminal justice and social welfare across the UK. This edition reveals that controversial security companies G4S and Serco received more than seven pounds in every ten spent by the government on prison and probation-related contracts in the four years to April 2014. Download the Review here

PUBLICATION: microvolunteering in prison

'Microvolunteering in Prisons – Can You Change the World From Prison?' is an article on the Help from Home website that claims encouraging prisoners to engage in microvolunteering could be a practical way of helping them to achieve their rehabilitation goals. The article presents the key barrier to microvolunteering in prison - access to the internet - suggesting developments such as Virtual Campus could help to overcome this. Read the article here 

CONSULTATION: third party campaigning

The Third Party Campaigning Review is calling for views and evidence from organisations or individuals that are actively campaigning at elections but are not political parties or candidates. Get involved here. Or feed into NCVO's consultation to inform their response to Lord Harris' Lobbying Act review. Get involved here

CLINKS MEMBERS' VACANCIES

Vacancies this week include: Transforming Rehabilitation Practitioners and Senior Practitioners with Ormiston Families [Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex], a Project Leader with BCHA [Bournemouth], a Restorative Solutions Practitioner with Restorative Solutions CIC [London], a Research and Policy Assistant with i-HOP (Barnardo’s) [Bristol], an RJ Policy Coordinator with Why Me? [London], a Project Manager, 2x Floating Outreach Workers and an Admin Assistant with Gibran (UK) [Various] and a Counsellor for Children and Young People with Changing Lives [Nottingham]. For further information about these vacancies and many more, click here

TIPS OF THE WEEK

  • Tip of the week I: Get a free cinema ticket when you buy £4 of sweets. Details
  • Tip of the week II: For £209, two people can stay two nights at the 4-star Cheltenham Chase Hotel in the Cotswolds. Deal includes breakfast, three course dinner on the first night, bottle of wine, Cotswold cream tea, use of the health club and discount on the spa. Details
  • Tip of the week III: Fly London to Florence for £82 return. Details

EXTRA INFORMATION

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