State of the Sector 2023

State of the Sector 2023

About this report 

Building on the past decade of Clinks’ State of the Sector research, this report provides 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 election.  

For the sixth consecutive year, Clinks has partnered with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) who collected and analysed data as part of this project. Clinks then authored this report, based on our analysis and knowledge of the sector, built through our ongoing engagement and dialogue with voluntary organisations working with people in contact with the criminal justice system across England and Wales.  

Following feedback on last year’s research, we have refined the survey questions, to home in on the financial challenges that organisations are facing considering the elevated levels of inflation, and wider commissioning and funding environments.  

The report draws on several data sources: a survey of voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system, two focus groups with voluntary organisations, interviews with charitable funders, and analysis of financial records submitted to the Charity Commission by ‘crime and justice’ charities, based on the UK Charity Activity Tag classification system.  

Read more about the research and methodology

Key findings 2023

Three key themes emerged from our 2023 research:

1. The voluntary sector working in criminal justice is continuing to operate in a challenging environment.
2. Organisations preferred grant funding over contract arrangements, including for future government commissioning processes.
3. Organisations were cautiously confident about their financial sustainability over the next two years but uncertain what service delivery might look like in that time.

In anticipation of the next UK General Election, expected to take place in 2024, we asked organisations and funders what they would like to tell the incoming government. They want a new government to focus on:

• Investment in prevention and rehabilitation
• Leaning on the expertise of voluntary organisations
• Empowering local organisations to deliver in their communities.

Explore the findings



Who we heard from
Who organisations support
Service delivery
Financial sustainability

General Election 2024

With a General Election required to take place by January 2025 and anticipated at some point in 2024, we asked focus group participants and funders what they would like to tell a post-election government, and what support they might hope to see from it.

What organisations and funders wanted to tell the next government centred on three areas:

• Investing in prevention and rehabilitation
• Leaning on the expertise of voluntary sector organisations
• Empowering local organisations to deliver in their communities.


Both organisations and funders wanted the next government to invest in preventing offending and in support that helps people to rebuild their lives after prison, as well as more long-term community support.

‘The prison service needs more investment, particularly in education and rehabilitation.’ - Small organisation

‘Be great to see greater investment in preventative work to prevent people from becoming part of the criminal justice system in the first place rather than dealing with the consequences once they’ve been prosecuted.’ - Large organisation

‘Invest in early interventions, or even that crucial 72 hours on release. That is often where we hear stories of people, nowhere to go, released on a Friday afternoon, no housing sorted, £76 in their pockets and you expect somebody to carry on with their life… it’s just setting people up to fail.’ - Funder

Participants also felt voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system held an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise. They wanted a new government to utilise this, to listen to organisations about which approaches work and support them to continue to deliver their services.  

‘[We want a new government] to see the real value that the voluntary sector brings. We plug a lot of gaps that there shouldn’t need to be and so opening doors to be able to work with us and actually invest in the support that we provide would be transformative.’ - Small organisation

 

‘There’s a huge amount of knowledge and expertise in enriching marginalised groups, but also generally in terms of service delivery in the voluntary sector.’ - Large organisation

 

‘They [voluntary organisations] are doing incredible things on a shoestring and that needs to be properly funded and they [the government] need to not put so much focus on value for money and more focus on holistic intensive long-term support that actually makes meaningful change in people’s lives.’ - Funder

 

Focus groups felt local organisations were well placed to deliver in their communities, and a desire for the next government to recognise that. Local organisations were often seen as preferable to national organisations who might come in with less knowledge of the local context. A few participants suggested that more decision making and commissioning should be done locally. 

‘We’ve touched upon the increasing complexity of needs among individuals and increased need as well, and I think the voluntary sector are very well suited to be meeting that in a local level where people need more support than the existing statutory provision is able to provide.’ - Small organisation

‘The idea that everything has to be decided or modelled in Westminster [is wrong] because generally speaking what happens or what works in London does not work [elsewhere in the country]… there’s something about localism and looking at local solutions… the voluntary sector have got a lot of those solutions.’ - Large organisation

When participants were asked about the support they would like from the next government, reform to funding and commissioning processes was the most common theme.

Underlying this was a desire to reduce bureaucracy and demands placed on funding applicants; to see longer contracts and grants, especially for organisations with a proven record of delivery; and to see more funding available to organisations operating in the sector.  

‘Longer term funding where there’s a proven track record. I can understand first time round it being short-term funding, but when there’s a proven track record for that organisation for it to become more long term, however long term that looks.’ - Large organisation

‘Funding or grants that we can access without the due diligence is needed, without the many, many hoops that there are with some of the current commissioning processes. That’s proportionate funding, that is proportionate to the application, processor is proportionate to the funding as well.’ - Small organisation

Other support mentioned included paying voluntary organisations for their expertise, rather than expecting it for free and more emphasis on arts provision.  

Final thoughts and recommendations

In our State of the Sector research this year, several key themes have echoed previous years. Voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system continue to support increasing numbers of new service users, whose needs have increased and become more acute. At the same time, the voluntary sector, like many other organisations and families, has been faced with the cost-of-living pressures brought about by high levels of inflation, while continuing to work to deliver their services to more people with greater need.

Drawing on these findings, Clinks has identified six recommendations to help ensure the voluntary sector working in criminal justice can continue to provide high-quality sustainable services.

1. Clinks recommends that all commissioners and grant-makers are aware of the increased pressures and challenges that voluntary sector organisations and their staff are facing and consider how they can commission and fund to avoid placing additional burdens on already stretched staff. Organisations delivering services, along with commissioners and grant-makers, should explore how voluntary sector staff can be supported to stay well in their roles, and ensure that the burden of increased pressure on the voluntary sector as a whole is not pushed onto individual members of staff.  

2. Clinks recommends government commissioning processes offer realistic timeframes for applicants and timely decision making and access to funds. The processes should also ensure that small and specialist providers are also able to meaningfully engage with them and apply for government funding.  

3. Clinks recommends contracts reflect the true value of the services being delivered under them, and they are appropriately uprated each year to reflect things like inflation and changes in the demand for services. Alongside this, a formal test or mechanism needs to be developed and implemented by the government to assess whether the costs of delivering the services set out in the specification is covered by the amount of money offered to potential providers for the delivery of those services. This is especially the case in funding processes that are exclusively open to the voluntary sector.  

4. Clinks recommends the government and other statutory agencies should look to make funding available through multi-year, unrestricted grants wherever possible. These grants should be awarded to best support the sector to deliver high-quality, sustainable services that enable service users to transform their lives.  

5. Clinks recommends that charitable trusts and foundations, the government, and other statutory funders work together to provide the most effective funding to the voluntary sector to deliver high-quality services for people in contact with the criminal justice system. This should include learning from one another about best practice, and considering opportunities for the pooling of money and co-commissioning.  

6. Moreover, Clinks recommends the complexity of the commissioning processes is proportionate to the amount of funding that is to be awarded, and the outcomes that the funding aims to achieve. To ensure small and specialist organisations are able to compete for funding, complex paperwork should be kept to a minimum, and the size of the minimum award should be considered so these organisations are not de facto excluded. This is particularly important when providing funding for specialist services for people with protected characteristics.