We’ve just published a summary of the recent updates we’ve made to our Information Hub.
You can read the summary on our Hub here.
Author: Unlock Admin
Volunteer Vacancy – Helpline Advisor
About the role
We are an independent and highly respected social inclusion charity based in Maidstone, Kent. In this office-based role you will help to deliver Unlock’s peer-led Helpline, by providing advice and support by telephone, email, and letter, and producing information for our online Information Hub.
We’re looking for somebody who…
- Is a person with past convictions
- Is a confident person with experience in a customer-facing role
- Has a passion for making a difference and challenging inequality
- Loves working in a small team but who is self-motivated enough to excel without heavy supervision
- Has excellent verbal, written and research skills and are able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people
- Is confident using computers (including use of internet and emails)
- Is able to commit to volunteering 2 days per week for at least 6 months
- Lives near to our Maidstone office – Travel costs can be covered where agreed in advance (up to a maximum of £15 per day).
Interested?
- Closing date – 16th December 2014
- The Role Description provides more information about this position.
- If you wish to apply, please complete an Volunteer Application Form and return along with a covering letter.
- Send your application by email to admin@unlock.org.uk or post it to Unlock, MCSC, 39-48 Marsham Street, Maidstone, ME14 1HH.
For more information about vacancies at Unlock, click here.
Charity Commission respond to our concerns about governing documents
We recently met with the Charity Commission, where we discussed a number of areas of concern as part of work to enable people with unspent convictions to become trustees of charities.
In particular, we discussed an issue that we raised in our report of February this year relating to a charities’ governing documents, and how the way that the Commission were interpreting these were causing problems for charities like Unlock to recruit people with convictions.
We’re pleased to report that the Commission have, following our meeting, provided us with the response below.
Turning to one of the specific issues we discussed, I referred the governing document point to one of our lawyers I can confirm that we seem to have been mistaken in 2011. The Articles as they were then did not mean a waiver would have been ineffective. If one had been granted it would have meant, as we thought at the meeting, that the individual was no longer disqualified and so could have been appointed as a trustee.
Charity Commission representative
We’re pleased that the Commission has taken a more common-sense approach to this. It removes what was otherwise a cumbersome bureaucratic hurdle that many charities would have had to go through (amending their governing documents) and now makes it somewhat easier for a charity to recruit somebody with unspent convictions.
You can find out more about our work on enabling people with convictions to become trustees of charities here.
Unlock speak at CCJS Anti-poverty roundtable
Today the CCJS held an event entitled ‘ Prisoners and looked after children – a common cause?’ The roundtable was full to capacity, with many delegates representing organisations working directly with people in need. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies’ Research Director, Roger Grimshaw, presented the case for a new social policy on poverty that introduces a principle of reparation for the harms experienced by individuals.
An international literature review, published by the Centre, has reinforced awareness that children looked after by local authorities and prisoners often have impoverished backgrounds, experience risks of deprivation while in institutions, and face enhanced prospects of poverty after leaving care. Any effective anti-poverty strategy cannot ignore these needs. In findings published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in August 2014, Roger Grimshaw set out a new strategic approach to reducing poverty among children looked after by local authorities and among prisoners.
Christopher Stacey, from Unlock, and David Graham, from the Careleavers’ Association, gave graphic accounts of the difficulties and challenges faced by young people leaving care and people with criminal convictions in establishing decent lives with few resources. The CCJA will be reporting the discussion to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which sponsored the event, so that they can develop their anti-poverty strategy. Comments from attenders will also feature in the March issue of Criminal Justice Matters alongside specially commissioned articles as part of a themed section on institutional care and poverty.
Unlock wins an award
We are delighted to announce that Unlock has been awarded 1st prize in the 2014 Helpline Awards for the category “Best innovative use of technology”.
The Awards were held last Friday at the Annual Conference of the Helplines Partnership, who coordinated the awards as it reached its 25th anniversary of supporting helplines.
Explaining the reasons for why we were given the award, the judges’ commented;
- “Excellent presentation of the impact user developments have had for the users/callers of the service. The combination of offline and online technology brings together an accessible and impressive support package.”
- “Very sensitive area and this helpline has gone to extra lengths to ensure that callers can access information and advice. The disclosure calculator is particularly impressive and the fact that it achieves all of this with only 4 staff is particularly commendable.”
On hearing the news, Christopher Stacey, Co-Director of Unlock, said “As a small charity, we work hard to find the right balance in delivering our charitably-funded services by using a digital-first strategy, which is reflected in websites such as our self-help information site and disclosure calculator – this helps us to reach the significant numbers of people that are affected by a criminal record. We combine this approach with making sure that we have staff and volunteers, all of whom have personal experience of having a conviction, at the end of a phone line, so that we’re able to provide the kind of one-to-one information and advice that people with convictions often need. We are particularly grateful to the peer volunteers that we train to help us to provide this helpline.”
“I want to thank the Helplines Partnership for their acknowledgement of our work. This award is a fantastic endorsement of our approach, which enables us to punch well above our weight given the size and resources that we have at our disposal, while making sure that at a policy level our independence allows us to challenge unfair policies, and support employers and others to develop fairer, more inclusive practices towards people with convictions.”
Notes
- Press/media
- Unlock is an independent award-winning charity, providing trusted information and advice services for people with criminal convictions. Our staff and volunteers combine professional training with personal experience to help others overcome the long-term problems that having a conviction can bring. Our knowledge and insight helps us to work with government, employers and others, to change policies and practices to create a fairer and more inclusive society so that people with convictions can move on in their lives.
- Our website is unlock.devchd.com.
- A background to why Unlock was give the award is below
“Unlock helps people that are very unpopular. It does not attract any government funding. It is genuinely beneficiary led. With over 9.2 million people in the UK with a criminal record, and a quarter of people unemployed having a criminal record, the challenge is great.
The charity runs its national helpline in a particular way – its staff and volunteers (who all have convictions themselves) provide to thousands of people every year. The recent increase has been achieved by utilising email (30% of enquiries) and other ‘accessible’ routes (such as text, Skype). However, the helpline strives to achieve national impact on minimal resources by harnessing the power of innovative technology to reach as many people as possible.
In November 2013, the charity took its old, inaccessible information to launch a dedicated self-help website. unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/ is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive source of practical information. In its first year, over 200,000 unique visitors used the site, with over 2,500 subscribed for email updates powered by MailChimp.
The charity turned complex disclosure legislation into a simple online tool to help people understand their rights; in the last year alone, www.disclosurecalculator.org.uk helped over 8,400 individuals. Its online peer forum provides a safe space where individuals with convictions can go, 24/7, to receive advice from others, and its online magazine provides a way for individuals to share positive stories of their successes.
It achieves all this, and more, with just two full-time staff, two part-time staff, and a small team of volunteers.”
Find out how we can help you
If you’re a front-line practitioner, or you work for an organisation that delivers services and support to people that include those with criminal convictions, download a leaflet which explains how we can help you. Continue reading “Find out how we can help you”
Government publish Draft Protection of Charities Bill
Last week, the Government published their Draft Protection of Charities Bill, following the consultation they held earlier this year.
This paper sets out the Governments plans.
We’re continuing to raise a number of issues that we addressed in our consultation response, in relation to how people with convictions are treated.
Latest updates to our self-help information site – October 2014
We’ve just published a summary of the recent updates we’ve made to our Information Hub.
You can read the summary on our Hub here.
One year into the Ban the Box campaign; pioneering employers change their practice, but more must follow their lead
Business in the Community’s Ban the Box campaign, which Unlock actively supports, has reached its one year anniversary. It was launched in October 2013 in response to widespread and costly discrimination against people with convictions who are seeking work.
So far 24 employers, with a combined UK workforce of over 200,000, have committed to support the campaign. They assess jobseekers on their skills and abilities first, taking criminal convictions into account later in the recruitment process. This gives candidates equal opportunity to get to interview based on their competency for a role rather than excluding them because of an unrelated conviction. And employers benefit from a wider pool of diverse talent and contribute towards reducing the estimated £11 billion annual cost of re-offending.
But when 1 in 5 unemployed jobseekers has a criminal conviction, much more must be done to ensure that a tick box approach is not blocking them from work. Ban the Box isn’t about positive discrimination, or removing disclosure altogether. It is the first step that all responsible employers can take to level the playing field for people with convictions whilst still protecting themselves from risk.
“In the last year, we’ve seen real benefits to individuals who are simply trying to do the right thing by getting a job and becoming taxpayers. The employers who have signed up give people with convictions the confidence to apply” said Christopher Stacey, Co-Director of Unlock. “People with convictions simply want a fair chance to provide they’re the best person for the job, and that’s what Ban the Box is all about. And the end result is that employers have the best possible opportunity to recruit the best people. But people with convictions continue to face widespread blanket attitudes by many employers. That’s why, in the year ahead, we’ll be doing to more to encourage employers to support this campaign. We’ll also be doing more to work alongside employers to help them to develop and implement positive recruitment practices.”
“Business has a huge opportunity and responsibility to make the workplace more accessible to ex-offenders that simply want to contribute their skills to society” said Catherine Sermon, Employment Director, Business in the Community. “24 pioneering firms have banned the box and ask about convictions later in the recruitment process – sending the message that they value applicants’ skills and potential over past mistakes. If just 5% of UK private sector employers followed their lead, over a million roles would be more accessible to ex-offenders. Now is the time to dramatically improve the life chances for the huge numbers of people with convictions and make fair consideration of criminal convictions the norm.”
You can find out more information about Unlock’s support for employers here.
Visit www.bitc.org.uk/banthebox for more information about Ban the Box. Follow the campaign at #BantheBoxUK
Google removes search results of person with spent conviction
Today, the Guardian has published an article on Google’s response to the ‘right to be forgotten’.
In response to a particular example on their website, Google said: “A man asked that we remove a link to a news summary of a local magistrate’s decisions that included the man’s guilty verdict. Under the UK Rehabilitation of Offenders Act this conviction has been spent. The pages have been removed from search results for his name.”
