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Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | April 2017
In this month's edition...
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On 21st March, Nathan Dick, Head of Policy and Communications, gave evidence to the Justice Committee about the effect of Transforming Rehabilitation on the voluntary sector as part of their inquiry into Transforming Rehabilitation. He highlighted the difficulties created by the speed of implementing the reforms, concerns about the quality of through the gate services being commissioned by Community Rehabilitation Companies and the need for a strategy concerning the sustainability of voluntary organisations providing services for people under probation supervision.
Earlier in the month, Clinks held a roundtable event with the Children’s Commissioner to explore issues facing children affected by the imprisonment of a parent. The event brought together voluntary sector organisations with expertise in supporting the children of people in prison as well as children’s charities who work with children who face disadvantage and representatives from statutory agencies in justice and education. Clinks’ Policy Officer Oonagh Ryder has written a blog summarising the key topics discussed at the event.
In late February and early March, the second round of Clinks’ regional policy forums were held. These forums are being held quarterly and give organisations the opportunity to hear the latest national developments in criminal justice, improve their access to decision makers and also use their experience to inform Clinks’ national policy work. The latest policy forums focused on probation and Clinks’ Development Officer for the South West, Isabel Livingstone, has written a blog giving an overview of the issues discussed at the South West forum.
Having received evidence from voluntary organisations, the Lords Select Committee on Charities has now published its report on sustaining the charity sector and the challenges of charity governance. It makes 42 recommendations, including that the Government takes measures to get senior business leaders involved with charities to foster relationships with the business community, that the Charity Commission seeks to recruit individuals with a range of demographic characteristics and that contracting authorities embrace recent changes to public procurement rules allowing for smaller contracts. Clinks responded to the Committee’s call for evidence advocating for the sector’s role in supporting people with multiple needs and providing people with lived experience with a voice in shaping services and policy.
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Justice Secretary announces plans to create 5,000 modern prison places The Secretary of State for Justice Liz Truss has announced plans to build four new prisons. They will be located in Full Sutton in Yorkshire; Hindley in Wigan; Rochester in Kent and Port Talbot in South Wales. The new prisons are expected to provide 5,000 of the 10,000 additional prison places the government has commitment to creating by 2020.
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Women
Lost Spaces: Is the current procedure for women prisoners to gain a place in a prison Mother and Baby Unit fair and accessible? The Griffins Society has published this report by Maya Sikand, which records the experiences of women prisoners who have applied for a place at a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). It finds that women in the criminal justice system report that they are not routinely told about MBUs and that they find the decision-making process around admission to MBUs unclear and obscure. It recommends that: MBUs should be prominently and persistently advertised throughout the women’s estate as a nationwide Ministry of Justice initiative; that the equivalent of service level agreements should be put in place between MBUs and Local Authority Children and Adult Services; and that prisons should be required to record more information about applications and admissions to MBUs.
Corston+10: The Corston Report 10 Years On This report, published by Women in Prison examines the progress made against the recommendations of Baroness Corston’s 2007 report on vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. The report highlights five key areas for systemic change: expansion of and sustained funding for women’s centres; expansion of liaison and diversion schemes nationally to divert women away from custody; development of specialist community support, including mental health and accommodation support for women affected by the criminal justice system; sentencing reform with greater use of alternatives to custody; and coordinated working between all agencies involved with women affected by the criminal justice system.
Fair Cop? Improving outcomes for women at the point of arrest The Prison Reform Trust has published this research paper, which finds significant variations in how police forces deal with women who come into the criminal justice system, and considers how a problem-solving approach could improve outcomes for them. It makes a number of recommendations to a range of agencies involved in the criminal justice system, these include: that police forces work with strategic partners to ensure professional services integrate support around individual women; that local commissioners explore options for greater co-production of services to women with local voluntary sector organisations; and that women with experience of the criminal justice system should be involved in developing new and improved problem-solving responses. The paper concludes with a review of promising practice.
Self-inflicted deaths among female prisoners The publication of this Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) bulletin was prompted by a recent rise in self-inflicted deaths of women in prison. It takes learning from PPO investigation reports into self-inflicted death of female prisoners and finds failings under a number of themes including mental ill health and bullying, and the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process. It details five lessons to be learnt: all prisoners should be accounted for during roll calls; all staff should carry cut-down tools; ambulances should be despatched without delay for a medical emergency; staff should bring all relevant emergency equipment promptly to the scene of an emergency; and staff should be aware of guidance on when it is appropriate to attempt resuscitation.
Voluntary sector
Facing Forward: How small and medium-sized charities can adapt to survive The Lloyds Bank Foundation has published this report looking at the challenges faced by charities with an annual income between £10,000 and £1 million, such as reductions in government grant funding and the aggregation of smaller public service contracts into larger ones. The report highlights ten trends that small charities need to be aware of when preparing for the future and includes recommendations for stakeholders whose actions influence small charities. They include: that central government should actively seek the voice of smaller charities and their connections to local communities to inform policy and practice; that local government and commissioners should recognise the long-term value of local smaller charities and nurture and support them; and that larger charities should focus on a better sector and society in the long-term, rather than just their own size and market share.
Local Needs, Local Voices: Building Devolution From The Ground Up This National Council for Voluntary Organisations report examines the involvement of the voluntary sector with the devolution agenda, using feedback from voluntary organisations across England. It finds that this involvement has been extremely limited, primarily due to organisations’ lack of awareness of devolution proposals and a lack of engagement by local government. It makes a number of recommendations, including that the Treasury and Department for Communities and Local Government should develop clear guidance on the criteria that will be used to assess devolution proposals, that local government should develop deals in accordance with guidance published by the voluntary sector and that voluntary organisations should engage with local communities on their preferences for devolution plans and relay this intelligence to local government.
Beyond Bars: Maximising the voluntary sector’s contribution in criminal justice Published by New Philanthropy Capital, this report explores the value that voluntary organisations bring to the criminal justice system (CJS) and what can be done to enable the sector to further support improvements in the CJS and reduce reoffending. The report highlights challenges faced by voluntary organisations such as changes to the funding environment and the risk of mission drift. It also puts forward a number of messages for government and commissioners, suggesting that charities should be given more access to prisons and should be consulted about policy proposals much more often.
Accommodation
Future focus: A framework to shape the funding of sustainable supported housing services As the government are implementing a new funding model of supported housing in 2019, Homeless Link has published this framework, which provides five key principles on which a new supported housing system should be judged. These principles are: adequate funding, flexibility, using voluntary sector expertise, commissioning high quality housing and working in partnership with supported housing schemes and their residents. The report also highlights that 23% of those accessing supported housing with additional support needs are prison leavers or ex-offenders.
Housing first: Housing-led solutions to rough-sleeping and homelessness The Centre for Social Justice has published this report looking at the extent of homelessness in 2017 and makes recommendations to the government to address the issue. The report identifies the key drivers of rough-sleeping and homelessness as: lack of access to affordable housing; an increase in loss of private tenancies; and a lack of support for people with multiple and complex needs. Its recommendations include that the Government should create a new funding pot of at least £110 million per year to deliver a National Housing First Programme and that the Government should boost investment in low cost rental accommodation.
Youth justice
Lessons from youth in focus This report, published by Beyond Youth Custody, highlights key lessons from their Youth in Focus programme, using the characteristics identified from five years of research as a framework for understanding and describing these lessons. The report finds that effective resettlement is a process that supports a shift in a young person’s personal narrative, which starts with an acceptance of offending behaviour and moves towards an eventual point where offending has ceased and the young person has a more future-oriented and positive sense of self. It identifies the key characteristics that enable this process, suggesting that resettlement support should be individually-tailored, continuous and coordinated and have engagement and participation as a primary focus.
Sentencing Gypsy, Traveller and Roma children This Traveller Movement briefing responds to the recently published sentencing guidelines for children and young people, which require courts to take into account specific difficulties facing black, Asian and minority ethnic children. The briefing states that the new guidelines offer an opportunity for meaningful change in inequalities for Gypsy, Traveller and Roma (GTR) children in the criminal justice system and encourages legal practitioners to consider a number of issues disproportionately affecting GTR children. These include mental health problems, vulnerability to self-harm, speech and language difficulties and experiences of discrimination.
Mental health
Preventing prison suicide: Staff perspectives This is the fourth in a series of reports published by the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Centre for Mental Health as part of a joint programme aimed at saving lives in prison. It discusses the perspectives of staff working in prison and identifies key challenges including staff shortages, lack of appropriate skills and experience in prison staff and poor staff wellbeing. It makes a number of suggestions for improvement based on the staff interview, which include: engaging the whole prison estate in collaborative working towards stepped care; investing in staff to ensure there are enough well trained, supported, competent staff on the ground; and a tiered approach to staff training to match the tiers of stepped care.
Families
Supporting children and families affected by a family member's offending - A Practitioner's Guide This i-HOP guide is a practical resource aimed at all professionals who have direct contact with children and families and uses key research and theory to highlight the impact of offending on the whole family. The key issues covered include: telling the children about family member offending, organising prison visits, answering parents' and children's frequently asked questions, assessing offenders' families' needs and including them in support plans, exploring feelings with children and providing age-appropriate information, managing children's behaviour and supporting them to cope with change, and keeping in touch.
Restorative justice
Restorative justice action plan: November 2016 to March 2018 The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published the fourth iteration of its Action Plan for Restorative Justice (RJ), setting out the actions that the MoJ will deliver and support to achieve good quality, victim-focused RJ. The plan focuses on three key areas: equal access to RJ, awareness and understanding of RJ among victims and offenders, and good quality RJ. It lists a number of actions under these areas, including making sure prisons and probation services provide a supportive environment for RJ, continuing to support Police and Crime Commissioners and the Restorative Justice Council to raise awareness of RJ with the public and practitioners within the criminal justice system, and continuing to promote the Restorative Justice Council’s Restorative Services Standards and Restorative Services Quality Mark.
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A new narrative In this blog, Chair of the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) Alison Frater, reflects on the readings by four inspiring authors that took place at the NCJAA Annual Meeting on 1st March. Alison writes, “It was by luck that they all found the arts…It seems that the role of the NCJAA and its members is to create this ‘luck.’ We need to continue to create opportunities that people can take advantage of.”
Autism accreditation in prison In this guest blog, Clare Hughes from the National Autistic Society discusses how autism accreditation, an autism specific quality assurance programme managed by the National Autistic Society, is improving prison standards, and talks about how the training benefits staff and prisoners alike. Clare says, “In 2016, HMYOI Feltham became the first prison to achieve Autism Accreditation. Due to this work, HMYOI Feltham, their partners and the National Autistic Society were recently awarded the Sternberg Clinical Innovation Award by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.”
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