Clinks- The Role of the Voluntary Sector in Criminal Justice

Attendees

TinaRosenowBerkeley Foundation

KateAldousClinks

NicolaDrinkwaterClinks

AshleyHorseyCommonweal Housing

MayOsmanJohn Lyon's Charity

CathrynPenderJohn Lyon's Charity

ChristopherD'SouzaLondon Borough of Lambeth

GeraldineToveyLondon Funders

DavidWarnerLondon Funders

AmandaHill-DixonProject Oracle

JackJoslinThe City Bridge Trust

JamesRowntreeThe Social Innovation Partnership

Meeting Notes

Introduction to Clinks

Clinks is a national infrastructure organisation which supports the work that voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations undertake with those in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) of England and Wales.It does not provide frontline support for members, rather it represents promotes and supports the sector to add value.

Clinks has over 550 voluntary sector members, and its wider national network reaches 10,000 voluntary sector contacts and stakeholders

The criminal justice system

The UK has the highest prison population in Western Europe. The prison population has doubled between 1995 and 2010- despite that crime has decreased. Below are some statistics relating to the UK prison population:

  • 46% of adults are reconvicted within year. This rises to 60% of short sentences. 2/3 prisoners reoffend after 2 years. This clearly demonstrates that rehabilitation is failing.
  • Reoffending by all recent ex-prisoners costs the economy between £9.5 and £13 billion annually
  • In fact community sentences are more effective and cheaper – 7% lower reconviction rate and fewer crimes
  • 25% are prisons “of concern” to inspectorate in 14-15.
  • There has been a 50% cut to MoJ by 2020. Cuts have resulted in reduced staffing. This alongside new Psycho active substances have caused an increase in safety issues. Suicides, self harm and violence have all increased

Overall, prison has a negative impact beyond loss of liberty: prisoners tend to lose their jobs, homes, families. Some become drug users and some are traumatised. The challenge to turn a life around is made harder.

Although women only make up 5% of the prison population, they tend to suffer disproportionately and also tend to come from more impoverished backgrounds. Below are statistics relating to women in prison:

  • 29% prisoners abused as children – 50% of women
  • 24% in care – 31% women
  • 41% observed violence in the home – 50% of women
  • 47% no qualifications
  • 16% have symptoms of psychosis –25% women
  • 25% experience anxiety and depression - 49% women
  • 22% reported drinking daily in 4 weeks before custody
  • 38% men, 66% women committed offences to pay for drugs
  • Disproportionality of BAME people throughout system 26% of prison population, 14% of population.

Voluntary sector in criminal justice

The voluntary sector is diverse. There are 1,750 organisations whose primary beneficiary group is offenders. 4916 organisations list criminal justice as one of their areas of work.

There are Campaigning organisations such as the Prison Reform Trust and the Howard League as well as advocates likeUnlock and Women In Prison. Furthermore there are service providers such as community services which are often person centred, holistic.

Voluntary organisations working in criminal justice are particularly reliant on trust funding and government funding. This means that cuts are hitting the sector particularly hard.

The Prison Service in London

Prisons:

  • Pentonville,
  • Brixton,
  • Wandsworth,
  • Wormwood Scrubs,
  • Thameside

With Holloway now closed, women are now sent to Downview or Bronzefield (Surrey). These prisons are less accessible by public transport, making family visiting more difficult. There has been a proposal by the Prison Reform Trust for proceeds of the Holloway sale to be used to establish a women’s centre. As yet, nothing has come of this.

226/550 of Clinks members work in London. Services across London and the UK are quite patchy and there is no systematic strategy. It will be interesting to see the how the devolution deal including justice with a deputy mayor will change the landscape in London.

Ministry of Justice Policy

There have been huge reforms to the probation service in the last two parliaments. Both changes from Chris Grayling and Michael Gove are still being embedded. When Gove was Minister there was a shake-up of the department and a bit of a vision for justice. It is still to be determined what Liz Truss’s style will be like. Moreover, the current team at the MoJ is quite inexperienced and it is unclear how the political earthquake and aftermath of Brexit will affect policy.

Gove oversaw the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. Transforming Rehabilitation is the name given to the government's programme for how offenders are managed in England and Wales from February 2015. The programme has involved the outsourcing of a large portion of the probation service in England and Wales. Furthermore prisons were to be given a lot more autonomy over their institutions.

‘Reform Prisons’ will be prototyped in 6 sites in London (with 3 executive governors), the East Midlands and north-east, including one of Europe’s largest prisons – HMP More than 5,000 offenders will be housed in reform prisons which have unprecedented freedom by the end of 2016.None of these prisons support women.

However, Michael Gove's flagship prison reform plan could be under threat after the Justice Secretary Liz Truss refused to commit to new legislation.Thus far Liz Truss has focused on staff conditions rather than prisoner safety.

There are currently five Ministry of Justice reviews, all at different stages of reporting:

  • Coates- this review is looking at education reforms in prison. The government has accepted its recommendations encouraging learning and IT support in particular.
  • Lammy- looking at the disproportionality of BAME prison population. The evidence for this is currently being collected and the results will be published in 2017.
  • Taylor- a review of the youth justice system. This was due to be published this summer but still has not been released.
  • Care of management of transgender people- This is following up on two high profile deaths of transgender prisoners in the past couple of years. Currently prisoners are incarcerated based on their legal gender. The recommendations from this were expected in March , but we are currently still waiting for them.
  • Islamic Extremism- the summary recommendations have been accepted in March. The report warned against ‘political correctness’.

Wider Policy

  • A ‘Life Chances’ strategy and a focus on social justice- the life chances ideal was launched by David Cameron when he was PM. He committed £80 mil in funding to social impact bonds and payment by results contracts. An emphasis on social justice is expected from Theresa May.
  • The devolution deals including in London- there are 12 devolution deals occurring across England which may play out in a different way under a new prime minister. There is an early devolution deal in London looking at Health and Social Care and potentially justice. We are still yet to see what the Mayor’s office will do in this space. Sadiq Khan does have a background in justice.
  • Changes to employment support and benefits
  • Changes to supported accommodation and benefits
  • A relatively new and evolving health landscape- it is yet to be seen how the Care Act will be implemented in practice.
  • The Charities Act and it’s implementation- the Charities Act has given organisations “a power to disqualify individuals from acting as trustees. While a person is disqualified under this power they are also disqualified from holding senior management positions in the charity or charities concerned”.This disqualification can relate to the previous convictions of either a serving and potential trustee, or senior manager in a charity. This is concerning as the new laws may disqualify people with lived experience.
  • The Cabinet Office and gagging clause- this is currently paused, but there are concerns that conversations around charities not being able to lobby govt will emerge again.

State of the Sector Report

Clinks’ State of the Sector report is the best indication of how the voluntary sector working in criminal justice is faring. They have run the survey for the last 5 years. The next report is due in early November. Clinks is currently working with NCVO on its methodology.

The State of the Sector report shows that most organisations work at a regional level rather than nationally, and that there is a good geographical spread of organisations working across a vast range of services.

In terms of funding for organisations:

  • 98% receive grants
  • 77% receive contract funding (an increase)
  • Majority bidding for new contracts but only 7% won the contracts they had bid for
  • Organisations unlikely to achieve full cost recovery on the contracts they were delivering.
  • Over half were using their reserves but we aren’t sure why- it is difficult to know whether this is managed cash flow or whether it signifies genuine problems.
  • The majority of organisations stated that looking for funding is negatively impacting time spent on service delivery. 80% told Clinks they had spend more time generating income than in the previous year
  • Recruiting and managing volunteers is also a problem.

Client Need

The number of clients being supported by the voluntary sector has remained stable in the past few years, but needs are changing and are becoming more severe. Voluntary organisations are struggling to adapt their programmes to fill in that gap.

Transforming Rehabilitation

This programme has brought about the biggest change in the Criminal Justice sector for almost 100 years. Essentially the low-risk portion of the probation market has been put out to tender from private organisations. National Probation Service (NPS) and public sector is still responsible for high risk offenders & assessment, reports and breach. This could be seen as dangerous and difficult however as need/risk can often change quite quickly.

There are currently 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), run by 8 different companies. All bar one contract was won by the private sector. 71 Resettlement prisons are to facilitate through the gate resettlement services. The programme has had an 18 month delay, slowing the pace of change. Furthermore, a number of voluntary sector organisations are leaving contracts as they feel that they cannot fulfil them well.

Chris D’Souza- Voluntary Sector Commissioning for Criminal Justice in Lambeth

Chris explained the context in Lambeth back in 2013-14 in which it has been agreed to commission support for offenders.

Lambeth Statistics

  • Lambeth is ranked 1st in London for robbery, 3rd for robbery from the person, 5th for theft of motor vehicles and 7th for residential burglary.
  • Overall reoffending rates are 10% higher in Lambeth than the London average.
  • Brixton Police Station has a new modern Custody suite of 40 cells – providing an opportunity to look at how Lambeth could better support drug using offenders identified in custody to engage in community based treatment.
  • Corston Review has highlighted the need for a different approach to female offenders.

Lambeth’s Approach

The Beth Centre: Lambeth has recognised that women have different needs and has begun a programme of investment looking at drug and alcohol abuse specifically. Lambeth has the Beth Centre – a gender specific service for women involved in /or at risk of becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System. It was run by Women in Prison and Eaves (which has now sadly ceased) both with a strong track record of working with women with complex needs.It is a service run by women for women in a women only space – provision includes 1:1, advocacy, drug and alcohol support, counselling, support with DV, specialist support for women involved in prostitution, housing, debt and ETE It is a women only space and providing a range of tailored support from one base with childcare support / assistance with travel. Despite that Eaves no longer exists, the service is still running.

Lambeth has also been running anIntegrated Offender Manager Service (for prolific male offenders involved in acquisitive crime). The borough has been recognising that there have been increased caseloads for London CRC staff. Furthermore, there is a rich mix of organisations within the borough, providing an opportunity for the Local Authority to start engaging with them better.

Lambeth developed a cost-effective service model working with existing voluntary sector organisations. The Local Authority used the local community centre to work with 8-12 providers to provide holistic and person-centred services as part of a ‘hub’. The hub developed to provide enhanced level of support bringing together arrange of public sector and voluntary sector providers in one place (e.g. Step Change, Princes Trust, Money Champions) – runs on a Tues and Thurs am. Offender Managers can see their clients in an informal space (non-institutionalised space) and this has supported more trusting relationships. Services users can get food and drinks and access a range of support in one place.

Service users have been driving the development of the hub, with some now being trained to be peer mentors. The hub is helping to encourage collaboration and less duplication of services- ultimately saving money. It also held at Stockwell Park Community Centre which provides recreational activities and is a non-institutional environment for service users to meet their offender managers.

Assessment and Referral Service: provides support to drug using offenders identified in police custody or being released from prison (the traditional drug intervention programme). A lot of money was removed from this service, necessitating the need for it to be remodelled. Key to the remodel was the Provider being much more focused and pro-active in the community, building a strong ethos around peer mentors and volunteers.

Assessment and Referral Service is a small team which has used peer mentors and volunteers to engage and support clients in the community e.g. accompanying tem to assessments and to treatment appointments. The service now has much stronger links with the voluntary sector.

Lambeth negotiated a payment by results element to the contract to drive an increase in the number of treatment engagements. This has resulted in much closer working with community based treatment services, providing wraparound support and a significant increase in clients engaging in treatment.

Challenges

There are further cuts to come and offender services are not statutory. The council has to find significant savings which includes investment in drug and alcohol treatment and supported housing. The closure of Holloway and public health spending cuts mean that re-modelling of current offenders support services will have to occur.

Access to housing is not as big an issue in Lambeth as in some other boroughs, and there is a fair amount of hostel provision. However there is an issue with gangs in youth hostels. This has led to Lambeth having a reciprocal relationship with other boroughs.

There are opportunities however, such as the new devolution deal and a new Mayor of London. Lambeth will be working closely with the VCS to ensure that services continue and develop.

Group Discussion

  • Funders need to start being more proactive in the criminal justice sector, including working with the public sector to create more sustainable funding models. Prevention work in particular is being hit by austerity measures.
  • Many trusts and foundations were alienated in the Transforming Rehabilitation process, making it difficult to fund strategically. Devolution should help to improve relationships and encourage co-production.
  • The hurdles that providers have to go through are often disproportionate to the money provided.
  • There is a dilemma over whether funders should fund innovation or replace services.
  • With preventative work it is difficult to measure outcomes, and often re-offending will occur but individuals will benefit more in the long term.
  • The biggest value of the hub in Lambeth is that there are so many services in one place that are practical. It makes things easier for people with complex needs as well as providing a broader culture change.
  • Through the gate funding is particularly complex. It is important to engage with people before they are released and offer good signposting.

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