Dear colleagues,
State of the Sector 2024 is live! Your voice has been heard, and Clinks has captured it for our 2024 report. This year we have taken qualitative approach to our research, listening to the sector via a series of focus groups and interviews with voluntary organisations and funders. Check out our State of the Sector webpage to read the report and find out more information below.
Clinks’ role is to lead, support, inform and collaborate within the criminal justice sector. Our annual State of the Sector research, produced in partnership with NCVO, is a free resource evidencing what our members and the sector are experiencing.
We have compiled this report so all organisations can better understand the current criminal justice voluntary sector climate. The information supplied to Clinks during our research phase provides us with extensive evidence which we present to a wide range of stakeholders, including key decision makers. The report covers the impact of early release schemes, probation changes and initiatives planned or launched by the new government and the ongoing challenge of meeting growing need in the face of shrinking resource.
State of the Sector 2024 key findings
- Concerns about how criminal justice issues are presented in the media.
- The value of coalitions and alliances, and how these might be expanded.
- How the reverberations of the pandemic are continuing to affect the sector.
- Staffing challenges, including recruitment and retention, supporting the mental health of frontline staff.
- Vetting and challenges around lived experience engagement.
- How funders and others can support the sector over the coming year.
We have summarised key findings relevant to you
The context
- Organisations spoke positively about working in groups and coalitions like the National Women’s Justice Coalition, and welcomed further development of these.
- Some women’s organisations reflected positively on comments the Lord Chancellor made about women in the criminal justice system, and the plans to establish the Women’s Justice Board.
Meeting needs
- Many organisations, primarily those focussed on working with women, discussed the particular needs of this group, including women’s intersecting needs and the failure of short sentences in addressing these, whilst causing further harm.
- Whilst there was hope around some of the messaging about women’s services from the new government, and the previous commissioning of holistic services for women, some raised a lack of understanding about women’s needs in the agencies with whom they worked, particularly the police and social care.
- Organisations also raised the locations of women’s prisons and the impact of being imprisoned away from home, and the discrepancies between men and women under the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme.
- The needs of racially minoritised women were also raised, with some pointing out that some racially minoritised women in prison were being given less information and support about their release, and women’s faith and cultural needs were not being taken into account in custody.
Funding
- Some organisations mentioned the impact of the probation reset on their women’s services provided through their statutory contract, as they had continued to find ways to support women who were no longer eligible through this route. We know this is an issue of particular importance for women’s organisations given that reduced duration of support disproportionality impacts upon women who can often take longer to trust, and therefore to engage, with support. In addition, the complexity of need for women often only emerges over longer periods.
- Organisations stressed the need for more funding for services specifically for women, including as part of large programmes.
- Some also highlighted the importance of more funding for preventative work with at-risk women.
Clinks’ Women’s Network
The Clinks Women’s Network connects our members that provide specialist services designed for women. It comprises over 300 individuals from around 160 organisations working in England and Wales.
We host quarterly Women’s Networking Forums to build connections and provide a platform to address opportunities or challenges your organisation may be facing. The Women's Seat-holder on the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) attends the forum to gather feedback about key issues raised by the women’s sector to reflect these to national government at RR3 meetings.
Find out more and join the network here
Our pledge to you
The sector’s voice is one of its key strengths, and Clinks will continue working to make sure it is heard. As the infrastructure organisation for the criminal justice voluntary sector, we want to continue to support organisations. Over the coming year, we will continue to advocate for the sector. We will share learning and offer opportunities for connection, providing a platform for the sector to come together to highlight issues that matter to organisations and the people they work with.
View the 2024 report here
Download the executive summary here
Share State of the Sector on Twitter and LinkedIn
Best wishes,
Jackie
Jackie Lowthian
Women's Network Coordinator
Clinks
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