Clinks Light Lunch | Issue 593 | 19th July 2019

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In this week's edition...

 

CLINKS PUBLICATION: Employment support for people with convictions

Clinks have published a recommendations paper from a special interest group of the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) on employment support for people in contact with the criminal justice system. The paper highlights key challenges facing people with convictions looking for employment. The group’s recommendations include a cross-government approach to address the multiple disadvantage people in the criminal justice system often face, access to sufficient income on release from prison and a strategy for supporting those in the community with convictions that are looking for employment. Read the paper here 

 

CLINKS GUEST BLOG: Are personal stories too personal? 

Penelope Gibbs, Director at Transform Justice explores the challenges of using case studies and personal stories to advocate for more progressive media coverage of criminal justice. She discusses the work of the Frameworks Institute and research by Shanto Iyengar, which shows that, without contextualising stories and individuals within the systems, personal stories can divert people from thinking about, and understanding, social context and policy solutions. Read the blog here

 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: Community led Desistance – a report of findings and community solutions for Muslim women in prison

Bradford based Khidmat Centres have produced a film Sisters in Desistance and a good practice guide on culturally competent community-based solutions for Muslim women on release from prison. The film, guide and an earlier report in 2014, seek to address the absence of discourse about the challenges facing Muslim women, from within the community and the criminal justice system. Find out more here 

 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: Double Discrimination? The impact of criminal records on people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds

Unlock, the charity that provides a voice and support for people with convictions who are facing stigma and obstacles because of their criminal record, have published a new report on the impact of criminal records on people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. Over three-quarters of those surveyed for the report felt their ethnic background had made the problems they face as a result of their criminal record harder and the overwhelming majority cited employment as one of the problems they faced. The report makes several recommendations for the government, including the introduction of fair chance hiring practices and a statutory requirement for all employers to delay any questions about criminal records until the pre-employment stage. Read the full report here.

 

CLINKS MEMBER'S NEWS: Making the best use of doing time

The Prison Reform Trust have released the second report from their prison policy network, What do you need to make the best use of your time in prison?  The report is based on the contributions of 1,250 people in prison. Most respondents saw imprisonment as an opportunity to turn their lives around (with appropriate support), but that this opportunity was so often wasted by a prison system in crisis. The report sets out three core needs for people to make the best of their time in prison - basic needs (including physiological and safety needs), psychological needs (including needs relating to self-esteem, belonging and love) and self-fulfilment needs (which relates to self-actualisation and achieving one’s potential). Read the report here

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: New Incentives Policy Framework

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have published the new Incentives Policy Framework for prisons. The framework is intended to give governors more freedom to tailor the incentives scheme to their institutions and the prisoners held there. Clinks submitted a response last year to MoJ’s stakeholder consultation on incentives. Given the growing recognition of how important it is for prisoners to maintain relational ties, we are disappointed to see additional visits, visit lengths and improved visit surroundings being used as incentives in the policy. We are also disappointed that our recommendations on the implementation of the Lammy Review recommendation for prisoner forums, intended to provide scrutiny to the incentives policy, have not been taken on board, in particular for them to meet at least four times a year and have prisoner membership that is representative of the diversity of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in each institution. Read the full policy here. 

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: Ministry of Justice plans to make changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Unlock has welcomed the Ministry of Justice announcement about the intention to make changes to the Act. Unlock has long campaigned for fundemental changes to the Act, highlighting that offences remain unspent for too long, sentences of over four years in prison can never become spent, and there are fundamental questions as to how effective the legislation is in a society where information can be found online and employers regularly ask people to disclose spent convictions even if they are not entitled to know about them. Read more about reforming the Act here.

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: Prison release protocol guidance report published

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Ministry of Justice have published guidance aimed at supporting local government and public authorities to develop prison release protocols, to help them adhere to their duties set out under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 Duty to Refer. The guidance outlines a suggested process for local authorities to follow, from how to develop and structure the protocol, to implementing the policy and creating processes for reviewing its effectiveness. The guidance was developed after interviews with both national and local stakeholders, and includes examples of protocols already being used in local areas. Read the report here

 

FUNDING: The Clothworkers’ Foundation Open Grants

The Foundation’s Open Grants Programme accepts applications from UK registered charities or not-for-profits for funding towards capital projects. The work of the organisation must fit within one or more of the Foundation’s specified programme areas. This Programme does not award grants for work outside the UK, even if the organisation is a UK-registered charity. The Foundation has an online eligibility checker to help prospective applicants assess if they meet its criteria for consideration for funding. Find out more here

 

FUNDING: Impact Partnerships Fund deadline approaches 

The Impact Partnerships Fund is part of the Mayor of London’s Sport Unites programme and Young Londoners Fund. It provides funding for two-year projects that use sport to support young people aged 10-25 who are at risk of getting involved in crime. The funded projects create employment and training opportunities for participants. More information here. [Deadline for applications 14th August 2019]

 

CLINKS MEMBER'S EVENT: Howard League Community Awards

The 2019 Howard League Community Awards are now open for nominations. The awards recognise the country’s most successful community projects in encouraging desistance from crime.  They celebrate best practice in diversionary work and champion work in the community that challenges and changes people for the better – be it with children, women, mental health programmes or restorative approaches. The awards recognise projects and organisations whose work and practice is delivered above and beyond normal service delivery. Find out more here

 

CLINKS MEMBER'S EVENT: International Day Of Peace

Peace Partners, in association with Youth Futures and the Tutu Foundation UK, are celebrating the United Nations International Day of Peace with the next in its series of Waves of Change events.  The aim of this event is to help make peace a possibility at the national, community and individual level. The day will include speakers sharing the work they are doing in partnership with communities and organisations around Croydon and South London, and aims to inspire new initiatives and forge new partnerships that will continue to make peace possible. Peace Partners will announce more details nearer the time. [Saturday 21st September]

 

EVENT: Expert Citizens CIC’s INSIGHT Awards 2019

Expert Citizens is a Community Interest Company based in Stoke On Trent led by and for people with lived experience of homelessness, mental ill- health, addiction, domestic abuse, poverty or contact with the criminal justice system. Through the INSIGHT awards they want to celebrate examples of positive and outstanding practice in supporting people with lived experience. Find out more here

 

EVENT: Probation Reform Programme - Practitioner Workshop Rehabilitation & Resettlement

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service invite feedback on the future design of rehabilitation services (RARs) and resettlement services. These events are to gather views on how to ensure responsible officers and courts have confidence in RAR interventions, practitioners have the right access to prison-based services, better sentence planning (especially pre-release) and better support for people on short sentences. These events are intended for operational staff and are not commercial participation events. Leeds [Wednesday 25th July] details are here. Newcastle [Tuesday 24th July] details are here.

 

EVENT: The Centre For Social Justice 2020 Awards

The Centre for Social Justice annual awards honour grassroots, poverty-fighting charities and social enterprises across Britain. Six winners will receive a £10,000 grant and be profiled in front of hundreds of leading figures from across the country. The Centre for Social Justice Awards 2020 are focussed on finding charities and social enterprises that are proving effective at preventing and tackling poverty in Britain. Find out more here

 

SURVEY: Use of police custody for adults

Transform Justice is a national charity working for a fair, humane, open and effective justice system. They are currently engaged in a project looking at the use of detention for adults in police custody. They are conducting a survey to understand how detention of adults in police custody is used – both pre- and post-charge - and what could be done to reduce its use. They want to hear from workers, volunteers and those with personal experience of police custody. Take part in the survey here [Deadline July 30th 2019]

 

PUBLICATION: Youth justice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

In the latest in a series of academic insights papers, in which Her Majestie's Inspectorate of Prisons commissions leading academics to summarise evidence around key questions, Professor Barry Goldman highlights evidence that suggests youth justice systems are both fairer and more effective when children are treated in accordance with international human rights standards, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). He argues that there is no tension at all between doing the right thing and doing the effective thing. Read the paper here

 

RESOURCE: The Hardman Directory goes digital

The Hardman Directory is the go-to resource for people in contact with the criminal justice system seeking funding support for personal development and resettlement purposes, and it is also a guide for those who support them. The directory is now available free via android or iPhone. Go to www.hardmantrust.org.uk/directory or Google Pay or the App Store. The print edition will be sent to all prison libraries in the UK with the August edition of Inside Time.

 

FEATURED VACANCY: Recovery Community Development Coordinator

Community Led Initiatives (CLI) deliver the Support, Advice, Mentoring and Advocacy Service (SAMAS) which provides recovery-based interventions for people who want to make lasting changes from addictions to drugs and/or alcohol.This role is pivotal in expanding the links between services to give broader opportunities for people to move towards a healthier and happier life. The project not only offers recovery focussed interventions, but it is also building peer-led recovery communities and it has become the bridge between the treatment services and the wider community.  With an ethos and belief that recovery is self-defined, infectious and achievable by any individual, irrespective of their circumstances, we want to recruit a dynamic person to support our existing team to promote recovery throughout Bedfordshire. View full details here

 

CLINKS MEMBERS' VACANCIES

Lecturer in Multi-Skills with Weston College (Offender Learning) [HMP Elmley], Complex Keyworker with Engage Nacro [Stockport], Director of Nursing with Humankind (formerly DISC) [Yorkshire], Prison Partnerships and Development with Kids Matter [London], Project Manager with Trailblazers Mentoring Ltd [HMP Wandsworth], CSE Practitioner with The Magdalene Group [Norfolk], Non Crime Duty Worker with ADVANCE (Advocacy and Non-Violence Community Education) [Brent], Support Worker – Women’s Community Project with Parents and Children Together – Alana House [Reading], Visits Services Catering Worker with NEPACS [County Durham], West Midlands CARA Sessional Facilitators with The Hampton Trust [Various], Good Prison Project Worker with EDP Drug & Alcohol Services [HMP Dartmoor], Area Manager with Changing Lives [Durham & Tees Valley], Project Worker with Hibiscus Initiatives [West Sussex, Surrey & London], Corporate Partnerships Manager with St Giles Trust [London]. For more information about these vacancies, and many more, click here 

 

TIPS OF THE WEEK

  • Tip I – Lancashire coast: 2-night seaside break with meals.  Only £99.  Details

  • Tip II – 4hr Spa Day with Coffee & Cake @ The Cadbury House for 2 – half price.  Details

  • Tip III – Wine tasting accompanied by cheese and charcuterie for up to 6.  Details

EXTRA INFORMATION


 

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