Too often, Wales is considered an afterthought when it comes to UK criminal justice policy. Yet, the inequities that exist across our criminal justice system are widespread and many of the concerns that we hear from our members – whether that’s funding constraints or siloed service provision – are concerns we hear from Welsh members too.

Our work in Wales

As Clinks’ Senior Development Officer for Wales, I am responsible for supporting our members in Wales and, as a network within Clinks, we get through a lot of work. Recently, we submitted a response to the Welsh Affairs Committee’s inquiry into prisons, probation and rehabilitation, and I’m delighted to be able to give evidence to the Committee, in person, in May 2025.

We submitted that response after consulting with our Welsh members and holding an online roundtable to ensure that our response reflected their views. We have also submitted evidence to the Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament’s Finance Committee inquiry into the Welsh Government budget, emphasising the value that the voluntary sector brings to delivering justice services in Wales.

On the theme of valuing the sector, I, along with our partners at Inside Out Support Wales, the Welsh Centre for Crime & Social Justice, and Safer Wales, delivered the first ever Wales social justice conference in November 2024. This explored the value of the community and voluntary sectors in Wales and how we as a sector need to be seen as genuine partners in that landscape. We will be holding the second conference, later this year. I also continue to work closely with organisations led by and focused on racially minoritised people in Wales, and the Criminal Justice Board for Wales, to help implement the Criminal Justice Anti-Racism Action Plan. Day-to-day, I am here to provide one-to-one support to our small and specialist organisations in Wales, advising on how to navigate the system and linking organisations in with commissioners and policy makers to ensure that they are visible to those who are responsible for commissioning services.  

Our wider influencing efforts

This work is linked in with our wider influencing efforts, and I work closely with the national influencing and networks team to ensure that Wales is at the top of the agenda when we seek to influence the UK Government. We have a variety of routes through which we seek to exert influence, on top of our direct engagement routes in Wales, which include representing the sector at the Criminal Justice Board for Wales, at local criminal justice boards across Wales and in regular meetings with senior HM Prison and Probation (HMPPS) officials.

One of those UK-wide routes is through the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) This group – made up of senior leaders from the voluntary sector working in criminal justice – acts as a key interface between the voluntary sector and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMPPS. It advises on national policy and operational developments and is an opportunity to platform all the brilliant things that continue to be done by the voluntary sector.

We are both fortunate, and delighted, to have Tammi Owen (the CEO of Cube) who sits as the Welsh representative on the RR3. Her role is to represent the voluntary sector working in criminal justice in Wales. Tammi raises any concerns and challenges to the senior officials and minister who attend the RR3, while sharing the work of the sector in mitigating any challenges faced. She is a champion for the sector and works closely with us at Clinks to ensure that we can most effectively represent the sector with key decisionmakers.

Since taking on the role, Tammi has set out her three priorities for the criminal justice voluntary sector in Wales. These are:

1. Working in collaboration across the sector within the context of limited funding 
2. Safety in prisons, and the need for Welsh-specific data to better understand the Welsh prison context
3. Restorative communities.

We want to hear from you

Moving forward, we want to hear from all of our members working in Wales. Whether that’s through our quarterly forum or through direct contact with either myself or our national influencing and networks team. Share with us your concerns, tell us about the incredible things you are doing, and make sure that we have all of this available to us when we are speaking with policymakers.

To get in contact, please email Bryn Hall

Click here to find out more about our work in Wales