Clinks Members’ Policy Briefing | July 2015
In this month's edition...Policy news
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Summer Budget 2015 On 8th July, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered the Summer Budget 2015 to the House of Commons. Announcements likely to impact on you and your service users include: the introduction of a £3 million fund to encourage innovative approaches to people suffering domestic abuse; the introduction of a ‘youth obligation’ for 18-21 year olds receiving Universal Credit; and a cap on benefits for out of work families from £26,000 to £20,000 for those outside of London and £23,000 for those in the capital.
What does a one nation justice policy look like? On 23rd June 2015 Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Justice gave a speech at the Legatum Institute, where he set out his vision for what a one nation justice policy should look like. The Justice Minister’s main priorities are to uphold the rule of law, ensure that the justice system works for all and to reform the courts to ensure they are delivering value for money for tax payers and fair treatment for all citizens. He said that this will lead a programme of work “to make our justice system work better for victims; to deliver faster and fairer justice for all citizens; to make sure our system of family justice safeguards children, especially those at risk of abuse and neglect, more effectively than ever; to make sure the laws we pass provide protection for the weakest; to make our prisons places of rehabilitation which give those who have made the wrong choices opportunities for redemption; to help offenders when they leave custody to make the right choices and contribute to society; to rescue young offenders, and those who may be on the path to offending, from a life of crime.”
Building civil society together On the 25th June 2015 Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society gave a speech at the Coin Street Community Centre, London. He set out his vision for a bigger, stronger society. To achieve this vision, he said: "First, we need a confident and capable voluntary sector, armed with the skills it needs to meet the challenges ahead; Second, we want to see more social action and volunteering, with community participation embedded in our lives from school days onwards; Third, increased levels of giving, and more social investment, helping people who want to use their money to transform lives to connect to organisations who can put those funds to work and; Fourth, stronger, more resilient, more capable and more empowered communities."
Third Party Campaigning Review: call for views and evidence The Third Party Campaigning Review are an independent review who are working closely with the Cabinet Office. They are seeking views and evidence from organisations or individuals who are actively campaigning at elections but are not political parties or candidates. To inform their response to the consultation and to determine how the Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (the Lobbying Act) has affected charities, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations has launched a short survey. The results from the survey will be shared anonymously with the Third Party Campaigning Review. The survey should take approximately 10 minutes and can be accessed here.
An independent review of children in care This review, chaired by Lord Lamming and established by the Prison Reform Trust, aims to consider the reasons behind, and how best to tackle, the over representation of looked after children in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in England and Wales. The review team are calling for evidence from all those who have experience of the care system and the CJS, including children and young people in care who have been involved in contact with the CJS, their families and carers, social workers, youth offending team managers, police and local authority leads and others who work with children in care and children in contact with the CJS.
Criminal Justice System
T2A response to the ‘Harris Review: Changing prisons, saving lives’ Clinks contributed written and oral evidence to the ‘Harris Review: Changing prisons, saving lives’ both as a member of the Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance and through our work to support the Young Review into improving outcomes for Black and/or Muslim young men in the Criminal Justice System. The Harris Review is a review into self-inflicted deaths in National Offender Management Service (NOMS) custody of 18-24 year olds in England and Wales. Lord Toby Harris led the review, which considered 87 self-inflicted deaths from 1st April 2007 to 31st December 2013 and examined the evidence about the range of vulnerabilities experienced by young adults in custody. The review concluded that much more needs to be done to support young adults both before and after they have contact with the Criminal Justice System and makes a total of 59 recommendations for change. Find out more about the Review here.
Crime and Justice since 2010 This edition of the Criminal Justice Matters journal published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies is based on their conference held in March 2015. Articles focus on issues including: an exploration of the Scottish Government's distinctive approach to criminal justice policy; the role of the Justice Select Committee; and what criminal justice policy developments occurred since 2010 across the UK and why.
UK justice policy review: Volume 4 This is the fourth report in an annual series published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies that tracks developments in criminal justice and social welfare across the UK between May 2013 and May 2014. It includes, amongst other information, the first UK-wide analysis of suicide, self-harm incidents and assaults in prisons, as well as an analysis of criminal justice expenditure, staffing and caseloads across the UK.
Policing
Crime and policing news update: June 2015 Published by the Home Office, this update gives the latest news and information on police and crime issues. This month’s edition includes information about new legislation that strengthens Gang Injunctions, plans to amend police powers under the Mental Health Act and the review of police targets.
How to run a country: crime and policing This report by Reform recommends that policing reform in this Parliament should be based on the following objectives: reducing high harm crime; creating a smaller, smarter and more flexible police service capable of meeting changing demand; and integrating policing with other key public services.
Young people
Youth to adult transition principles and guidance (Wales) This Youth Justice Board for England and Wales and National Probation Service report has been created to reflect the need to focus on young people and young adults as a specific group within the Criminal Justice System and to improve the transition between youth offending teams and the National Probation Service. The principles in the report are jointly agreed by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) in Wales, Youth Offending Team (YOT) Managers Cymru, and the Youth Justice Board Cymru. The principles and guidance provide a framework to: enable clarity of process; promote consistency of services across Wales; and build upon previous transition arrangements and current good practice.
An Inspection to assess the effectiveness of the reporting, monitoring and learning from the Youth Justice Board’s community safeguarding and public protection incident procedures The Youth Justice Board Community Safeguarding and Public Protection Incidents procedures govern how and when Youth Offending Teams (YOT) report safeguarding and public protection incidents. This thematic report published by HM Inspectorate of Probation assesses the effectiveness of the reporting, monitoring and learning from these procedures and finds that despite some promising practice, more needs to be done to learn lessons from serious incidents involving children known to YOTs.
Exploring the impact of gender-sensitive approaches to youth offending This report by Carlene Firmin, as part of her Winston Memorial Trust Fellowship, identifies five principles for building a gender sensitive approach to respond to youth offending, as well as focusing on developing such an approach in cases where abuse has occurred between young people. The research is informed by policy and practice in New Zealand, Australia and Brazil.
Effective resettlement of young people: lessons from Beyond Youth Custody Published by Nacro, this report brings together learning from the first three years of the Beyond Youth Custody project’s research into effective resettlement of young people leaving custody and sets out what effective resettlement looks like for young people.
i-HOP: Assisting professionals who work with young offenders’ children and families This briefing, published by Barnardo’s, gives advice about how professionals can support the children and families of young offenders.
Substance misuse and mental health
Predicting recidivism for offenders in UK substance dependence treatment: do mental health symptoms matter? This research paper by RAPt was recently awarded the prestigious honour of ‘Outstanding Paper of 2014’ by the Journal of Criminal Psychology. To celebrate the achievement, the publishers of the journal, Emerald Insight, have now made it freely available to the public for one year. The research found that: the symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder at the start of substance dependence treatment increased the likelihood that someone would reoffend; experiencing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms decreased the likelihood that an individual would reoffend; and experiencing Antisocial Personality Disorder symptoms show a trend towards increasing the likelihood to reoffend.
The Arts
A Narrative-Based Evaluation of Changing Tunes Music-Based Prisoner Reintegration Interventions This report by Shadd Maruna and Jo Cursley gives the results from their research into the work of Changing Tunes, a charity that uses music both within and outside prison with offenders and ex-offenders. The results showed that the pro-social impact on the participants came as a result of both participation in music and the roles this gave them, as well as the longevity of support and mentoring from Changing Tunes staff which continued both inside and outside prison.
Prison Reading Groups Annual Review 2014 The University of Roehampton's Prison Reading Groups (PRG) has released its Annual Review for 2014. Director Sarah Turvey says "prison restructuring and cuts to library services produced a tough climate in 2014, especially for informal learning initiatives like reading groups. But thanks to the extraordinary determination of our librarians and volunteers, PRG group numbers have grown. Nine new groups started last year and eight more are taking off in 2015."
Systems change
Systems change: a guide to what it is and how to do it This guide published by NPC clarifies what is meant by systems change; describes the main perspectives on systems change; outlines good practice for systems change; identifies what is and is not agreed upon by experts in the field; and provides recommendations for charities, funders and the public sector on how to act systematically.
Vital support to women with personality disorder In this blog Ben Watson, Communications Officer at Clinks, tells us about his recent visit to the ‘Changes project’ run by Clinks member Community Links, that provides vital support to women with personality disorder.
Safe Ground’s story: meeting changing needs in the Criminal Justice System This blog gives details of an interview Ben Watson, Communications Officer at Clinks undertook with Charlotte Weinberg, Executive Director of Safe Ground. The blog highlights the charity’s experiences, 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.
Streetcraft scholarship- reflections on the journey In this Clinks guest blog, Lisa Rowles from Clinks member Khulisa shares her thoughts and reflections on being a Streetcraft scholar.
Extrainfo
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