Today we are announcing some exciting changes to Clinks which we believe put the charity in a better position to best serve the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system into the future. We are restructuring our senior staffing to provide dedicated leadership on each of our five strategic objectives.

We are 9 months into the delivery of our new strategy which we developed following an intensive listening exercise with the voluntary sector and partners. Much of what's in our strategy represents business as usual in many ways but there are also areas where we aim to develop more. These include how we better support organisations in specific localities and whether we need to provide more networks for organisations who work with specific groups of people or in specialised ways.

In this restructuring we are saying goodbye to two of our staff - Kate Aldous and Richard Nicholls - who have each been with us for almost 12 years and have decided to take voluntary redundancy. Kate and Richard have worked tirelessly as part of our senior team to deliver consistent support to the sector in the face of some major challenges and changes facing the sector and Clinks. They have contributed to Clinks’ growth from ten staff when they were recruited, to 25 today. We are incredibly grateful to them for all they've done and helped Clinks do and become and we wish them the very best of everything into the future. Kate will leave in April and Richard in May.

If you have any concerns about who you should go to in Clinks after Kate and Richard have left, please get in touch with Anne.

Future plans

We are making these changes to continue to be the charity that organisations can rely and call on in good times and in challenging times. We are building on success over 21 years, growing from a small project to an established national charity serving a diverse sector across England and Wales.

In this restructure we have created a new senior leadership group which includes our CEO and two new roles to work alongside our Board on specific strategic areas and objectives. See our new structure here.

Our Director of Influence and Communications will develop and deliver plans and lead teams to:

• Promote the work of the voluntary sector in the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on smaller specialist organisations
• Represent and advocate for the voluntary sector and its service users.

Our Director of Support and Development will develop and deliver plans and lead teams to:

• Support voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system with individuals and their families
• Identify challenges and opportunities facing the voluntary sector and its service users, and work together to find and implement solutions.

Jess Mullen is taking on the role of Director of Influence and Communications and we are excited to see what she can help us do for the sector in this new role.

We have also created two new dedicated roles to assist the CEO and the Board with delivery on Clinks’ 5th strategic objective “Clinks being effective, efficient and professional in its work and operations. Ensuring we have the systems, resources and processes to achieve maximum impact”. A Head of Business Development will lead on development of Clinks' future projects and income generation and a Head of Corporate Services will manage all of our resources in line with best practice. Victoria Sadler is taking on the role of Head of Corporate Services and we look forward to seeing her develop our internal management systems so that we can ensure we are always managing what we have as best we can.

We are now on the lookout for new talent for our team to take on the two new roles of Director of Support & Development and Head of Business Development. These roles are essential to our further and future development and we are excited to see who we can welcome into our team to help make us better at what we need to do – be the backbone of a diverse and essential part of the voluntary sector for people who deserve nothing but the best in life.

We can't and don't want to do any of this alone and we'll rely on the support of our members, partners, funders and networks as much in the future as we do now and have done in the past. We look forward to working with you all to deliver on our strategy towards our goals and our vision of a vibrant, independent and resilient voluntary sector that enables people to transform their lives.

Anne Fox, Chief Executive Officer

Roma Hooper, Chair

Cover image courtesy of Khulisa