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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Category: For specific groups

Our response to the Charity Commission’s consultation on power to disqualify from acting as a trustee

We have today published our response to the Charity Commission’s consultation on power to disqualify from acting as a trustee

Background

  1. In May 2016, the Charity Commission launched a consultation on power to disqualify from acting as a trustee.
  2. Download: Submission: Unlock’s response to Charity Commission consultation on power to disqualify from acting as a trustee
  3. More information about our policy work on enabling people with convictions to become trustees and run charities

Appeal against High Court ruling on disproportionate criminal records disclosure scheme scheduled

Since the High Court ruling in January, which found that the current criminal record disclosure scheme for standard/enhanced checks was disproportionate, lots of people have been asking us what would happen next.

We’re now in a position to say that the Government has appealed against the High Court ruling (which to some extent we expected) – this means that the case will go up to the Court of Appeal. The case is being heard with three other cases that involve the ‘type of offence’ exclusion (which is another area we think needs to change).

The case has been listed to be heard in February 2017 with a judgement expected later in the year.

In the meantime, nothing changes. The current DBS filtering system remains in force. If the outcome of the appeal goes the right way from our perspective, the government would need to look at extending the filtering process.

More information

Monthly update – July 2016

We’ve just published our update for July 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months update includes:

  1. Some new information on an A-Z of job roles and their eligibility for basic, standard and enhanced criminal record checks
  2. Our updated information on applying to university
  3. A personal view on becoming a solicitor with a criminal record
  4. Details of our response to the Government’s consultation on the childcare disqualification arrangements
  5. A link to case studies of bad employer practice that we’ve challenged as part of our employment project.

 

The full update provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

 

Read the July 2016 update in full

 

Best wishes,

Unlock

 

Notes

  • All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
  • For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
  • If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
  • If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
  • If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

 

DBS publish independent review into their barring operations

Last week the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) published an independent review that has been conducted into their barring operations.

As part of our fair access to employment project, we acted as a stakeholder and fed in our thoughts to the review team.

Although the review has only just been published, the date on the review is November 2015, which seems to reflect when the review was completed. After that point, the DBS appear to have set about responding to the recommendations.

Of particular interest to us was that it was good to see the review recommend that the DBS consider situations where oral representations (instead of just written ones) could be made by those at risk of being barred. This is something that we featured as an update to our information site back in February of this year.

The review also recognised how the letters and factsheets sent out by the DBS are not as effective as they might be in:

  1. encouraging those at risk of barring to participate in the process and to make representations, or
  2. communicating the outcome in a fashion that is both easy to understand and accurate.

The review recommended a ‘mini-review’ and suggested working closely with those who have experience of would be barrees, such as Unlock. The DBS has since done some of this work and we’ve engaged with them to improve the information and communications with those subject to the barring process.

More information

  1. This post relates to our work to improve the way the DBS works as part of ourfair access to employment project.
  2. There’s practical guidance on barring on our information site.

Some examples of people we’ve helped

Looking back over the last couple of months, we’ve written up a few examples of the people we’ve helped.

We hope they give a good idea of how we help people.

However, more importantly than our role, we think that these examples show how people with convictions are able to overcome some of the barriers that have been put in their way due to their criminal record.

We’ve posted the examples below as case studies in the support section of our website:

 

Patricia – Proof of disclosing for employment disputes

Bernadette – Not disclosing on the application form

Alisha – Don’t be too honest if you don’t need to be

 

Monthly update – June 2016

We’ve just published our update for June 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months update includes:

  1. Some new information on getting a reference from a previous employer
  2. Advice on the best way of approaching a panel interview if you have a criminal record
  3. A personal view on how to deal on a daily basis with a sexual offences order
  4. Christopher Stacey’s response to the government’s announcement to reform prisons and improve prisoner education
  5. A link to a paper published by the Financial Conduct Authority on access to financial services.

 

The full update provides a summary of:

  1. the latest updates to our self-help information site for people with convictions
  2. recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord
  3. other news and developments that might be of interest to individuals with a criminal record

 

Read the June 2016 update in full

 

Best wishes,

Unlock

 

Notes

  • All previous updates can be found in full in the ‘Latest updates‘ section of our Information Hub
  • For more self-help information, please visit unlock.devchd.com/information-and-advice/
  • If you have any questions about this information, please contact our helpline
  • If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can sign up to receive these updates directly by clicking here and selecting to receive ‘News/updates for people with convictions’
  • If you have found this information useful, please leave us your feedback and/or consider making a donation.

 

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12.5 million people have criminal records in the UK. We need your help to help them.

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