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Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | January 2017
In this month's edition...
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Happy New Year to all our members. A big thank you to those of you who filled in Clinks' State of the Sector survey - we received the highest response rate so far, with 235 submissions. The next State of the Sector report will be published in the coming months, accompanied by a launch event. You can read previous State of the Sector reports on our website.
Clinks is also planning the launch of a new survey into the voluntary sector’s experience of Transforming Rehabilitation, alongside our partners the Third Sector Research Centre and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. The new survey will be launched early this year and will remain open for two months. We plan to publish the full findings and report in the summer of 2017. We have been encouraged by the response from government to our last trackTR report, Change and challenge, which was published in May 2016.
On 6th December, Lord Farmer and Clinks held a stakeholder engagement event at the House of Lords for the Farmer Review of family ties for men in prison. The event was attended by the Secretary of State for Justice Liz Truss and Iain Duncan Smith MP, who both gave speeches. Attendees also heard from Diane Curry, Chief Executive of Partners of Prisoners, as well as a former prisoner. Find out more about the review here.
The next Women’s Networking Forum will take place on 17th January, giving voluntary sector organisations offering specialist services for women in the Criminal Justice System the opportunity to network and receive policy updates. Clinks’ Chief Executive, Anne Fox, attended a meeting of the Advisory Board for Female Offenders in December in order to represent the views of the sector.
This month, Clinks, in partnership with Homeless Link is holding an event to inform members about the government's proposals for future funding models for supported housing and to allow them to inform Clinks' response to the government's consultation. You can sign up to attend the event on our website.
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New standards announced for government grants The Cabinet Office has published ten new standards to promote effective management of grant applications across all government departments and arms-length bodies. The standards set out how the government will manage the process of grant approval across all departments. They include having a named senior responsible officer with clearly defined responsibilities throughout the lifetime of the grant, ensuring all grants are competed by default and undertaking annual reviews of all grants with a focus on financial reconciliation. Standard six requires robust grant agreements including terms of eligible expenditure and replaces the ‘anti-advocacy clause’ announced in February.
Putting small charities at the heart of public services The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which now houses the Office for Civil Society, has announced three new measures as part of a programme to help tackle the challenges of getting small charities into the public service supply chain. The government have pledged to develop a place-based Public Service Incubator to record the barriers that small charities encounter in this process and create guides to overcoming them; to look at developing a kite-mark for commissioners to demonstrate their commitment to small charities; and to recruit a voluntary, community and social enterprise crown representative to champion commissioning practices that help small charities contribute effectively to public services.
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Clinks publications
Clinks response to the Prison Safety and Reform white paper Following publication in November of the Government's Prison Safety and Reform white paper, Clinks has taken the opportunity to respond to the proposals contained within it, drawing on all our work to build the sector's effective engagement with the prison reform programme throughout 2016. The response presents an analysis of its proposals in terms of what is welcomed, what areas still require more detailed development, and in particular what offers Clinks and our members can make to the Ministry of Justice, National Offender Management Service and prison governors to support this important work as it progresses.
Clinks response to the Justice Committee inquiry on prison reform In September 2016, Clinks submitted evidence to the Justice Committee’s inquiry on prison reform. This submission highlights that voluntary organisations have a key role to play as strategic and delivery partners in the prison reform programme, helping prisons to become more community-facing institutions and enabling in-reach by volunteers and non-criminal justice agencies to undertake a range of activities known to support desistance. The submission urges the Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service to actively consult with the voluntary sector throughout the design and implementation of the reform programme.
Criminal Justice System
Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile Autumn 2016 The Prison Reform Trust has published the latest edition of its annual factfile on prisons. The briefing shows that 77 of the 117 prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded and that there is a clear correlation between overcrowding and prison performance. It also finds that 324 people died in prison in the year to September 2016 – the highest number on record – only one in seven prisoners said they spent 10 hours or more out of their cells each day and that rates of self-harm are at the highest level ever recorded.
Synopsis for Rehabilitation by Design: Influencing Change in Prisoner Behaviour Construction consultancy Gleeds have published this report, examining the way in which prison design can help reduce reoffending rates. The report takes inspiration from the ‘normalisation model’, pioneered in Scandinavia and argues that prisons should be designed for incremental behaviour change and promote individual responsibility for rehabilitation. It recommends better use of natural light and the reducing levels of noise to address poor mental health in prisoners, better use of technology to increase contact between staff and prisoners, and providing more opportunities for agency through washing facilities in cells, communal kitchens and allowing more personal belongings in rooms.
A whole-system approach to offender management Published by the Institute for Public Policy Reform, this report argues for a new ‘whole-system’ approach to offender management, with powers, resources, and decisions being transferred to a local level. It finds that, while many of the policy levers for reducing reoffending lie at a local level, the current system of offender management is highly centralised and fragmented, involving a range of structures with overlapping geographical jurisdictions. The report proposes that city region mayors – or outside of city regions police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – should have responsibility over probation services and custody budgets for short-sentence, young people and women in the Criminal Justice System.
Employment
Support for ex-offenders This Work and Pensions Select Committee report concludes the committee’s inquiry into the housing and employment support available for people on their release from prison. The report outlines the barriers for people in or leaving prison in accessing employment, noting that people leaving prison face a ‘cliff-edge’ in support once they reach the community. The report makes recommendations including that all prisons should be required to make links with employers, that prisoners should be able to claim Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit while in prison in order to be paid on release and that the Department for Work and Pensions should develop guidance to help employers recruit those with convictions. Clinks’ Senior Policy Officer Nicola Drinkwater has written a blog outlining the key points of the report and discussing Clinks’ evidence to the inquiry.
Substance misuse
An Independent Review into the impact on employment outcomes of drug or alcohol addiction, and obesity Dame Carol Black has published the final report of her independent review of how to improve services that support people with drug and alcohol problems, and obesity towards employment. The report addresses the link between drug and alcohol use and involvement in the Criminal Justice System (CJS), noting that 17% of referrals to drug and alcohol treatment in 2014-15 came from the CJS. The report makes a number of recommendations including the introduction of an expanded recovery measure that includes work and meaningful activity, alongside successful treatment completion and extending the assessment and support services within Access to Work to include all drug and alcohol dependent people who are on a treatment programme. The Making Every Adult Matter coalition, of which Clinks is a member, has written a blog outlining the key elements of the review.
High Stakes: An Inquiry into the Drugs Crisis in English Prisons This report, published by volteface, brings together experts in drug and prison policy to examine the implications of the radical shift in prison drug markets and propose pragmatic solutions to reduce drug-related harms and improve prison safety and security. The report suggests that the actions outlined in the White Paper on Prison Safety and Reform to combat the supply and use of drugs in prison will be ineffective and more should be done to combat demand. It recommends that prisons should move to a model of risk management rather than zero tolerance on drugs and that the prison system should seek to reduce demand through an increase of purposeful activity for prisoners.
Families
Bristol Charter for Children of Prisoners In partnership with Barnardo’s, Bristol City Council have published this charter for children of prisoners, to be used across criminal justice and wider services. The charter was developed by children aged 8 – 16 with a family member in prison and outlines some core principles for supporting children of prisoners, such as ensuring children are told where their parent is and how long they will be in prison for, making sure children are welcomed and respected by prison staff, and professionals having more knowledge of how to support children of prisoners.
Youth justice
Review of the Youth Justice System in England and Wales The Ministry of Justice has published the final report of Charlie Taylor’s review of the youth justice system as well as the government response to the recommendations. The report focuses on the work of youth offending teams, the treatment of children in police custody and the effectiveness of youth custody. It recommends increased devolution in the youth justice system, suggesting that local authorities should take on the statutory roles of youth offending teams and also be financially responsible for bearing the cost of custody for each imprisoned child, with a view to youth custody being locally commissioned. He recommends that youth offending institutions should be replaced by smaller ‘secure schools’, placing an emphasis on education within a therapeutic environment. The government accepted some of the recommendations in the report and announced it will pilot two secure schools, one in the North and one in the South.
Voluntary sector
Commissioning in crisis: How current contracting and procurement processes threaten the survival of small charities This report, published by the Lloyds Bank Foundation, brings together the experiences of small charities who have taken part in 120 tenders and shines a spotlight on a catalogue of errors and unacceptable hoops small charities are forced to jump through to be able to continue supporting local people in need. The report identifies a number of key difficulties facing charities, such as unrealistic payment structures, funding shortfalls and forced mergers. It makes several recommendations to commissioners, asking them to engage in meaningful consultation with existing providers and service users, to allocate funding in smaller lots and to place more emphasis on social and long-term value.
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3 things the voluntary sector can do towards creating safer prisons Clinks’ Prison Engagement Development worker, Lou Clark, has written this blog outlining how the voluntary sector can work alongside prison staff to develop safer prisons for everyone. Lou suggests negotiating working arrangements with prisons to agree staffing levels and review risk, getting up to date on knowledge of new psychoactive substances and engaging with senior members of prison staff to better understand prison strategies and processes.
Family snapshots: from the prison to the football pitch In this blog, Clinks’ Families Development Officer Patrice Lawrence tells the story of Bobby, the founder of Hackney Wick Football Club. Patrice discusses Bobby’s journey through involvement with gangs in South London, financially supporting his family at a young age, spending much of his twenties in prison and eventually establishing his football club to engage young men on the margins of criminal activity. The blog looks at his struggle to maintain his family relationships throughout this process.
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