Clinks is delighted to have been awarded the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) grant for infrastructure support for small and medium-sized voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations 2025-29. In this blog we outline Clinks’ focus and the key areas of work the grant will enable us to deliver over the next four years.

State of the Sector 2024

Infrastructure support for the voluntary sector working in criminal justice has never been more needed. Our State of the Sector 2024 report  highlights how crucial it is that organisations are recognised, heard, valued and properly resourced as a design and delivery partner within the criminal justice system. 

The findings reinforce what we have heard year-after-year. Demand for voluntary sector support continues to grow, with people presenting with more complex and urgent needs against a backdrop of declining public services and a rising cost of living. In response, organisations are increasing caseloads, stretching staff capacity, and making difficult decisions about what they can and cannot sustain. Staff burnout is a major concern, as is the ability to recruit and retain skilled workers when salaries cannot compete with those in the public sector. Vetting remains a barrier to employing people with lived experience, despite widespread recognition of the value they bring. At the heart of this is the precarious nature of funding. Short-term contracts, underfunded commissioning, and a competitive funding environment have left many organisations subsidising public services just to keep them running.  

Our new model

Within this context, the support that this grant enables us to offer will be structured in a different manner than previously. The grant has been structured to reflect the recent implementation of the One HMPPS operating model. This model comprises of seven distinct geographical areas (six areas in England, plus Wales), enabling a more co-ordinated and collaborative approach between prisons and probation within each of the areas. This will enable increased engagement with voluntary sector partners on a regional, and local basis to meet area-specific priorities and needs. 

This grant will enable us to: 

• Provide practical support for the voluntary sector 

• Improve communications between the sector and HMPPS and the MoJ 

• Develop strategic engagement with the sector on matters of policy.

The focus of the infrastructure grant aligns with Clinks’ main priorities, enabling us to deliver activity across the organisation under each of our strategic goals. The principles and ambitions underpinning our strategy will ensure that we can: 

• Co-ordinate support for the sector, bringing organisations and leaders together in networks and through collaborative projects with others.

• Inform the sector of evidence, developments, and sources of support. We will inform others of the role and value of the sector. 

• Connect organisations to one another through our specialist networks and within geographical areas.  

• Lead the sector, following good practice and evidence in how to evolve to meet emerging need and achieve effective policy change.  

Clinks recognises that the context in which we operate has changed substantially, and that to meet the aims of our strategy and the delivery of this grant, we must adjust our focus. This has meant further developing existing staff roles and operational focus so that we can foster greater local and area-based engagement and influence. By embedding our reach, presence and networks at a more localised level, we will ensure that the support we provide to the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system remains as powerful as ever. In turn, intelligence gathered at a local level will be fed back to our national team, ensuring that we continue to represent the views of our members among national policymakers.  

Strengthened leadership team

We have also strengthened our leadership team to enable strategic growth. Our previous Heads Of roles have now take on Director roles and responsibilities with Sam Julius, Director of National Influencing and Networks, leading on our policy work and thematic areas of support and influence, and Angela Lucas, Director of Area Engagement and Partnerships, leading on our area engagement and member support and digital development functions. Joni Emery, Director of Business Operations, will lead on our governance, fundraising, finance and admin support. 

What we will do 

Practical support 

Clinks aims to maintain and grow the members it has, increasing engagement with, and support to, locally based voluntary sector organisations across England and Wales. This funding allows us to build on the extensive experience we have built through our area development model and will allow us to provide dedicated area engagement roles within each of the seven HMPPS areas. This will support communication routes and increase engagement opportunities between the voluntary sector and prisons, probation and other key criminal justice and statutory stakeholders.  

We will also provide and facilitate events and forums in each of the seven areas, increasing information sharing opportunities to identify and respond to local and regional specific need and influence. This will help us to ensure that the voluntary sector always has a voice and access to those it is looking to work with, as well as improving partnership working and collaborative approaches. Additionally, we will engage with and develop joint working opportunities with regional and local infrastructure organisations to ensure greater reach and access to smaller and specialist community-based organisations.   

Our regular meetings with HMPPS area senior leaders will explore current needs and challenges. We will provide representation at regional and local strategic board meetings, enabling the voluntary sector's voice to be heard, and the sharing of practice to influence local and national policy and commissioning opportunities. We will continue to support and build voluntary sector capability and capacity to engage with stakeholders and commissioning processes developing greater access to information, resources, and training and networking opportunities.  

Through this grant we will continue to engage with charitable funders to promote the work of the sector and will provide a space to support relationships and engagement between charitable funders and HMPPS and the MoJ. Through our local development we will identify and communicate further funding opportunities and build relationships to enable funders to increase understanding of the vital work of the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice system and the need for increased and more sustainable funding streams.   

Communications between the sector and HMPPS and the MoJ 

This grant enables Clinks to continue to ensure the sector has up to date information on key criminal justice developments through our weekly e-newsletter, Light Lunch, our policy briefing and our specialist thematic and area information bulletins. Through this grant, we will be re-designing our Directory of Services to ensure organisations can promote and highlight their services to increase awareness and engagement across the voluntary sector and with stakeholders, locally and nationally. We are committed to further developing our website and social media presence, increasing understanding of our work and improving access to tools and resources through digital technology to make information available and accessible. 

Under the grant Clinks will continue to strengthen our regular engagement and relationships with senior stakeholders in HMPPS and the MoJ to provide information and feedback. This information and feedback will be based on the knowledge, expertise and experience of the sector gained through our area support, regional and national consultations, our survey of the sector’s support needs and our annual State of the Sector research which provides a comprehensive picture of how the voluntary sector working in criminal justice is faring. 

Strategic engagement with the sector on matters of policy 

Clinks’ strategic focus on Women, Race, Families and Arts will continue to be strengthened through dedicated thematic networks. Through these networks, we will provide extensive support and policy influencing opportunities to those organisations providing specialist services that meet distinct needs and address disproportionality in the criminal justice system. Clinks’ strategy to 2030 highlights our commitment to challenging inequity in all its forms and we will increasingly work in partnership with specialist organisations. This will complement our existing offer, while building out our network of networks, ensuring greater impact across our thematic priorities.

With this grant, Clinks will continue to provide the Chair and Secretariat for the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3), which provides a key interface between the voluntary sector and the MoJ, in order to increase mutual understanding and build a strong and effective partnership. The group is made up of senior experts  from the voluntary sector and meets quarterly with civil servants to provide guidance and feedback on MoJ policy developments. Each year the RR3 will convene a series of specialist interest groups to explore specific policy areas in further detail, developing recommendations that can support our members’ goal of a more effective criminal justice system, and to which additional members from the sector can be co-opted. 

Clinks will continue its representation on the Third Sector Strategic Partnership Board and we will provide support to develop the Board’s programme of work, and facilitate improved relationships with policy makers, including through greater co-production between the voluntary sector and policy makers on priority areas and policy solutions. 

Clinks will also continue to work closely with colleagues in HMPPS and MoJ, providing opportunities to develop policy and strategic change, and advocating for the voluntary sector as a partner in the strategic development and operational delivery of services and support to individuals in the criminal justice system and their families. This work will cover issues, as and when they arise, and will ensure that the voluntary sector’s voice and expertise is always heard. To hear more about Clinks’ current and future area engagement, our State of the Sector findings and our national policy and influencing work, we are holding a series of regional online events during May.

Find out more and register here

Looking ahead

We look forward to the delivery of the grant over the next four years, using it to extend our regional and local support to a sector which – while facing adversity head on at a time when there is optimism about policy direction but continuing concerns about funding amounts and models and sustainability of services – has shown itself time and again to be determined, resilient and resolute in its commitment to supporting people in contact with the criminal justice system to transform their lives.