What is Clinks' member advisory forum?

Clinks’ member advisory forum was established in late 2021 with the aim of providing strategic and operational advice from voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system in England and Wales, to ensure that Clinks is best informed by the organisations that it supports. The forum is integral to how we measure how we are meeting our strategic objectives, how we understand the current challenges our members face and what the sector needs from Clinks.  

What is it like to be part of Clinks' member advisory forum?

We are excited to be recruiting additional members of the forum to make sure that it represents the range and diversity of the voluntary sector. You can find out who our current advisory forum members are here.

We asked current member Riana Taylor, CEO of Circles UK why she joined the forum and what she gets from being involved: 

I joined the Member Advisory Forum because it is a very practical way to support Clinks in their advocacy and support of the criminal justice charity sector.

I have found the experience worthwhile and interesting, so much so that I have extended my term on the Forum. The members represent a wide range of charities. I find it very helpful to hear from other charities and being able to support and learn from others has been a rewarding experience.

Clinks manages the Forum well and has requested member input on a range of areas which have been relevant and thought provoking. I enjoy the meetings and being part of the Member Advisory Forum and would recommend it to anyone who is considering joining. 

At a time where we are looking to grow our forum membership, we want to reflect on the value and expertise that this group has brought to our organisation over the past couple of years.

Six objectives for the forum were developed when it first formed, and below we have reviewed our progress against them and highlighted some successes that we are ever grateful to our members for helping us achieve!

1. To ensure voluntary organisations are involved in Clinks’ planning at a strategic level  

Clinks has a membership of over 500 voluntary organisations ranging from small and specialist local organisations which are led by 1-2 individuals or solely volunteer led, to large national organisations providing support across England and Wales and employing hundreds of staff. In order to achieve our vision and mission, we strive to consult and learn from our membership in all aspects of our strategic planning for our current and future activity. The member advisory forum provides a safe and confidential space to facilitate this, with involvement of many of the Clinks team across the last 2 years sharing ideas and updates for input and challenge from forum members.  

There have been 18 voluntary sector representatives that have been members of the forum for varying lengths of time since its creation, with every forum member sharing valuable insights and suggestions and volunteering their time to attend meetings to help shape Clinks’ future activity and direction.  

2. To provide an opportunity for Clinks to seek structured advice and feedback from voluntary organisations on specific developments and decisions regarding Clinks’ strategic direction and activities, via a formal group, which reflects the diverse interests and needs of the sector  

We place great value on the importance of the diversity of the voluntary sector working in criminal justice, and therefore identified 10 specialism categories that must be represented within the forum to ensure we achieve reliable and balanced discussion and outcomes. You can find out the details of the 10 specialism categories in the terms of reference for the forum.  

The quarterly member advisory forum meetings have provided a structured way in which the Clinks team have been able to engage with members to share proposals and ideas relating to both strategic direction and operational activity for Clinks, encouraging open and honest feedback and useful challenge when needed. Over the last 2 years the expertise of forum members has been utilised to influence and shape key strategic developments at Clinks, such as the re-introduction of membership fees following the pause during the COVID pandemic and our wider approach to fundraising and income generation, the newly launched Clinks Consultancy offer and the upcoming organisational strategy for 2024-2029. 

3. To help Clinks understand the opportunities and challenges its members are facing 

During forum meetings we prioritise a standing item on the agenda for members to share current opportunities and challenges that the sector is experiencing, which provides us with an additional route to access current intelligence alongside our existing geographic and thematic networks. The information shared is incredibly valuable and contributes to Clinks’ influencing activity with key statutory and voluntary sector stakeholders, as well as helping shape our support offer to our membership base, as we strive to be reactive to the needs of the sector.  

A common challenge that is raised during forum meetings is the complexity and inaccessibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)/His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS)’s commissioning opportunities for the voluntary sector. This theme has been raised regularly at Clinks’ quarterly commissioning forum with the MoJ/HMPPS and will be the focus of this year's sub-group work for the member advisory forum, where we will focus attention on capacity building specific to commissioning opportunities for small and specialist organisations.  

4. To advise on priority areas for development and when to stop or reduce activities in existing areas 

In early 2023 the forum discussed the priority focus areas for the year ahead as a way of sense-checking that Clinks is moving in the right direction with the support provided to our members. This process helped narrow down the extensive list of support needs into two overarching themes; capacity building for small and specialist organisations (including commissioning processes, evidencing impact and outcomes, organisational governance, strategy development and fundraising) and the voluntary sector workforce (including staff retention and wellbeing, building a resilient workforce, diversity of the workforce and employing staff with lived experience of the criminal justice system).  

We then formed two sub-groups that met separately to the advisory forum meetings to determine what we wanted to achieve and commit to in order to utilise the expertise of forum members to provide support to our wider membership. The main aim for the sub-groups was to organise sector events encompassing these themes which could be recorded for use as a resource by both Clinks members and the wider sector. This approach led to the successful delivery of an event titled “Building a resilient workforce – lessons learnt” which was facilitated by advisory forum members and emphasised the importance of prioritising wellbeing within the workplace, shared examples of good practice and discussed what lessons had been learnt over the years. You can watch the recording of the event here. This year we will be shifting our focus to our second sub-group theme; exploring capacity building opportunities for small and specialist organisations.  

5. To advise on partnership and collaboration opportunities through which Clinks can best achieve its goals 

We have welcomed suggested opportunities from the forum to engage with and promote the work of our members, ensuring that we always advocate for the needs of the voluntary sector to key stakeholders. This is an area that we would like to continue to develop over the next year, as we would like to gain knowledge of potential partnership and collaboration opportunities through the extensive networks that forum members are part of.  

6. To provide a forum in which other stakeholders can gain input from a range of voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system 

Despite not having any external stakeholders attend our forums to gain input directly, we have utilised the forum to gather feedback on behalf of others, such as HMPPS. We have had discussions around what our priority areas to influence should be for the quarterly commissioning forum that Clinks and HMPPS/MoJ convene, as well as how newly introduced government branding requirements for grants funding were perceived by voluntary sector organisations. We have also utilised the expertise of forum members to help contribute to our responses to Government inquiries, such as our response to the Justice Committee inquiry on public understanding of sentencing.  

Looking back over the last couple of years, having the opportunity to engage with our membership via this forum at key points of the Clinks development journey has been invaluable. We’re excited to bring some new faces and fresh perspectives to the ‘virtual’ table, so if you are interested in finding out more about how you can be a part of our member advisory forum then please head over to our Jobs Board posting, or feel free to get in touch with our Support and Development Manager, Emma Kidger, who chairs the forum meetings by emailing emma.kidger@clinks.org.