Clinks Membership | Help us to amplify the voice of the voluntary sector

Clinks membership – join today and help us amplify the voice of the voluntary sector

Clinks supports, represents and campaigns for the voluntary sector working in the Criminal Justice System, working with our 500+ members to put the sector’s voice across to government. As well as representing the sector, we also offer advice and support to our members and provide networking opportunities.

Our members shape our priorities by telling us what the situation is like where they work, both for themselves as organisations and for their service users. This email gives you some information on how we’ve been working with our members in the first half of 2016.

The larger our membership, the stronger our voice. You are not currently a member of Clinks – if you’d like to help us better represent the sector why not join? Membership starts at just £40 for a year, or is free for volunteer-run organisations, and you get a whole host of benefits such as discounts on events and training, access to a funding database and exclusive policy and health updates. For more information, or if you’d like to join, please either visit our website or contact our Membership Officer at tom.worley@clinks.org

Anne Fox
Chief Executive Officer

State of the sector

125 of our members responded to our State of the sector 2016 survey. They told us that exploring new funding sources is a major priority, so we arranged a 50% discount off the DSC Directory of Grant Making Trusts for our members. We have also presented the findings of the State of the sector report to trusts and foundations to better inform them about the sector’s needs.

The survey revealed that many organisations need more support with developing service user involvement. To address this we published two guides: an introduction to developing a service user involvement programme and a selection of good practice case studies.

Prison reform

This is a key issue for our members and the wider voluntary sector, so we’re currently meeting the executive governors of the ‘early adopter’ reform prisons to discuss how they could involve the voluntary sector. The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3), chaired by Clinks, has also written a paper on prison reform and the voluntary sector which is being used by the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service to inform the prison reform programme.

We have also worked with our members to look at best practice in engagement between the voluntary sector and prisons. As a result, we published a guide for prisons on how to work with the voluntary sector which has been sent to all prison governors. Prison reform is an issue that we will continue to focus on. We have recently begun a pilot with three prisons in the South West to develop good practice between prisons and the voluntary sector.

Release on Temporary License (ROTL)

Our members told us that the restrictions on ROTL placements were affecting their ability to help service users, so we partnered with the Prison Reform Trust to publish a joint briefing to inform the government’s review of ROTL. A number of our members gave us their views; the briefing highlights the importance of ROTL and the negative impact the recent restrictions have had. Clinks will continue to advocate on this issue on behalf of the sector.

Transforming Rehabilitation

We had 151 responses to our latest survey on how Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) has affected organisations, which is summarised in Change & Challenge. We used the feedback to make seven recommendations for change that involve more transparency, better communication, support for quality services, and championing the survival of local services that help change lives. We will work closely with the Ministry of Justice, probation services and the voluntary sector to take practical steps that change the direction we’re heading in.

The first half of 2016 in numbers

From the start of January to the end of June, Clinks has:

 

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© Clinks, 2016