In this month's edition...
Building on the past decade of our State of the Sector research, we have published our 2023 research, providing a snapshot of the voluntary sector working in criminal justice in the 2022-23 financial year. It looks at the profile of the sector, its finances, its future, and the changes it wants to see from the government that wins the upcoming general election.
From the research, three key themes emerged:
- The voluntary sector working in criminal justice continue to operate in a challenging environment
- Organisations prefer grant funding over contract arrangements, including for future government commissioning
- Organisations were cautiously confident about their financial sustainability over the next two years but uncertain about what service delivery might look like.
Get up to speed with the view of the sector by reading State of the Sector 2023.
We have now published the first in a series of three reports looking at the barriers to accessing accommodation for people leaving prison. This is part of the work of the RR3’s Special Interest Group (SIG) on Accommodation and will be followed by further reports looking at accessing the private rented sector and accessing housing-related support. Clinks’ Head of Influence & Communications, Sam Julius, will present the findings at the Cross-Whitehall Accommodation Board in May.
We will be publishing a report from the RR3 SIG on Employment in the coming weeks that explores the barriers to employment for people in prison and on their release. This will form the basis of a private roundtable with senior Ministry of Justice officials, held on 10 April. We look forward to reporting back following that roundtable.
The team is also working on a policy paper focused on early intervention, prevention and diversion for women in contact with the criminal justice system. The work is being done in conjunction with HMPPS’s Women’s Team and the MoJ’s Female Offenders and Health Policy team. The paper’s findings will be presented at the next Women in the Criminal Justice System Expert Group meeting, which will be held in either the last week of April or the first week of May.
Cookham Wood to be repurposed | The government announced young people held in HMYOI Cookham Wood will be transferred to other establishments and the site will be repurposed as an adult men's prison. The announcement outlined young people will be moved to other sites across the secure youth estate, on a case-by-case basis accounting for individual needs, the views from other professionals, and the need to maintain family ties. This follows Cookham Wood being issued an Urgent Notification in April 2023 and further improvements which cannot be delivered to the scale required in an acceptable time frame. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons said, “This rerole is driven by failure to plan for the growing population of adult prisoners, and not the urgent need to provide better support for children in its care, who will now face the uncertainty of being moved to another establishment.”
Government response to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee | The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee published the government's response to its inquiry into community sentences report. This response goes through 48 conclusions and recommendations that the Committee made in its report, published at the end of December 2023. In its response, the government notes that "delivering public protection is not just about a better use of custody and that custody should be imposed as a last resort". It also highlights the Sentencing Bill and its provisions for a duty to be placed on the courts to suspend sentences of 12 months or less.
Further changes coming into force under Charities Act 2022 | On 7 March 2024, further changes were introduced by the Charities Act 2022. These include changes around charities making changes to governing documents; selling, leasing, or otherwise disposing of charity land; charity mergers. The changes also extend to other provisions, including authorising a trustee to receive or retain a payment for work completed for the charity where the Commission decides it would be inequitable for a trustee not to be paid, and confirming defective of potentially defective trustee appointments.
Female Offender Strategy delivery dashboard | The Ministry of Justice has published a Delivery Dashboard for the Female Offender Delivery Strategy. This is a web-based visualisation tool that allows users to view and customise charts based on key metrics within the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan. The Dashboard can be used to discover data available on women in the criminal justice system and as a starting point for further investigation.
Prisons and probation
Prison performance data for 2022 to 2023 | The Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published the latest prison performance data to supplement the HMPPS Annual Report and Accounts. This performance data sets out the cost per prison place and per person in prison in England and Wales. In 2022-23, the overall resource expenditure (including the net expenditure managed and recorded in each prison and the net expenditure met at a regional and national level recorded in the Annual accounts of HMPPS), was £51,724, representing a real terms increase of 3.7% on 2021-22.
Number of recalls for people serving determinate sentences | The Ministry of Justice published an ad hoc set of statistics looking at the number of fixed-term and standard recalls of people serving determinate sentences between January 2017 and September 2023. This found fixed-term recalls had fallen as a proportion of all recalls between 2017 and January to September 2023, down 20 percentage points. Conversely, standard term recalls had risen in both volume and proportion, making up 75% of recalls from January to September 2023, compared to 55% in 2017. There had also been an even greater increase in the proportion of standard term recalls for people serving sentences of less than 12 months over the same time period. Between September 2017 and September 2023, the recall population nearly doubled, reaching 12,031.
Mental health in prisons | Nacro published the second report of its Justice ExChange, a network of people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system and received support from Nacro, looking at mental health in prisons. This explores the level of mental health issues in prisons and how people in prison who have mental health issues are identified, the impact the prison environment can have on people's mental health, the support currently available in prison, and the impact all this can have on people's ability to transform their lives on release. Recommendations include passing the draft Mental Health Bill 2022, improving screening and training to identify mental health needs, better support provision and relationships with staff, and improving transfers to secure mental health facilities.
Human rights
Civil and political rights in Great Britain: February 2024 | The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published a report responding to the United Nations' list of issues, ahead of its examination of the UK, providing updates since 2020. It notes the record prison population in England and Wales and the warnings of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on a "prison population crisis". The EHRC raises concerns about the provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill to allow the transfer of people in prison overseas and the implications for the rights of people who may be transferred. It also raised worries about the conditions and treatment in adult prisons and the youth estate, including severe staff shortages and the roll-out of PAVA. Based on these observations, the EHRC go on to make a number of recommendations.
Youth justice
Inspection frameworks: Youth diversion and out of court disposals | The Centre for Justice Innovation published a briefing, commissioned by the Youth Endowment Fund. It aims to provide an overview of the national inspection frameworks (including joint inspections) used to monitor the delivery of diversion work undertaken by youth justice services and the police, summarise findings from recent inspection reports, and outline recommendations for improvements around the types of inspections and how these are undertaken. The paper is based on discussions with experts, including representatives of the police, youth justice service, Youth Justice Board, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and HM Inspectorate of Probation.
The Big Ambitions: Ambitions, Findings, and Solutions | The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, published the findings of The Big Ambition research, which saw engagement from 367,000 children and adults. In the Ambitions, Findings, Solutions paper, 33 ambitions for change were set out. One ambition is for any child who needs secure care to receive it in an integrated, homely environment to replace current forms of secure provision. This includes calling for the phase out of young offender institutions and secure training centres and replacing them with an integrated model of care that can support all children with high levels of needs relating to mental health, welfare, or offending. Another ambition is for every child to be safer after an interaction with the police or youth justice system.
Data on youth diversions | The Centre for Justice Innovation published a briefing, commissioned by the Youth Endowment Foundation, providing an overview of youth diversion data, who collects this data, what it includes, and an assessment of the currently available data. The paper concludes that the current gaps that exist in youth diversion data do need to be filled. However, this comes with the caveats on minimising the amount of stigmatising contact children have through diversion, and the possibility that more codification and data collection could lead to tightening of the guidance around which children are diverted, how many times they can be diverted, and what they will in the future.
How is youth diversion working for children with special educational needs and disabilities? | The Centre for Justice Innovation published a report exploring how diversion processes are working for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and what can be done to ensure they have the appropriate access to diversion. Drawing on the experience of practitioners from the police and youth justice services, as well as children with SEND, it concludes many parts of the youth diversion process are not fit for purpose for children with SEND. It goes on to make a number of recommendations for change, such as the National Police Chiefs Council should ensure the policing of children is responding appropriately to the needs of children with SEND, and that legal regulatory bodies should ensure children with SEND are receiving adequate and accessible legal advice.
Valuing youth diversion: A toolkit for practitioners | The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) has updated its toolkit for practitioners involved in or considering creating a diversion scheme for children in contact with the criminal justice system. This is the sixth edition of the toolkit, and it sets out the evidence for youth diversion, the policy and practice context, principles of effective practice, and how the CJI can support the police and youth justice practitioners around youth diversion schemes.
The Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children | Action for Children published the Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children, which was chaired by Prof Alexis Jay, Chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection. Based on evidence from 70 organisations and individuals, the Review's findings included the absence of a clear and consistent definition of the criminal exploitation of children is a barrier to protecting and supporting them, too many exploited children are treated as criminals rather than victims and do not receive a child protection response, and early intervention is essential to prevent and disrupt exploitation but funding cuts have restricted the ability of services to respond. Recommendations include a welfare-first approach being taken in the management of offences committed by exploited young people.
Lived experience
Lived experience in policymaking guide | The Civil Service Policy Lab published a guide to lived experience in policy making, which takes specific lessons from the Changing Futures project, particularly the work National Expert Citizen Group co-ordinated and supported by Revolving Doors. This guide aims to make explicit some of the underlying principles policy makers might consider to carry out effective and empathetic lived experience work. The guide sets out seven principles for lived experience work, including giving people time to prepare, reminding people they are valued, and providing opportunities for people to see the impact of their contribution. It also gives some practical consideration around things, including considering commissioning a professional lived experience group, ensuring people are thanked for their time, and reimbursing them so there are no practical barriers to entry.
It's good that boys are being moved out of Cookham Wood, but we should not stop there |Following the government's announcement about Cookham Wood, the Howard League for Penal Reform's Chief Executive, Andrea Coomber, has written a blog arguing that this move should be the first step towards closing all prisons holding children.
People with lived experience enhance prison education | Russell Webster has published a guest blog by a Prisoners' Education Trust lived experience consultant on how the organisation is working together with people with lived experience on their National Lottery Community Fund project.
A lived experience perspective on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system | Revolving Doors published a blog by David, a member of its Neurodiversity Forum. David shared his thoughts after attending the Dyslexia Show, where he spoke on a panel, highlighting the need for neurodiversity support and the importance of early screening in the criminal justice system and beyond.
Neurodiversity in the youth justice system | The Youth Justice Board (YJB) published a piece by YJB Board Member, Sharon Gray, during Neurodiversity Celebration Week. This looked at the over-representation of neurodivergent children in the youth justice system, and argues a greater understanding of neurodiversity is needed to build a more inclusive society that benefits from the strengths that neurodivergent people offer.
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This month's edition was written by...
Clinks Specialist Policy Officer, Franklin Barrington
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