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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Category: For specific groups

Why employers need to change! Three short digital stories from people with convictions

As part of our employment project, we’ve produced some short stories based on the experiences of people with convictions finding work.

Each of the stories show something different, as we explain below. However, although every situation is unique, we think that the stories serve as a helpful way or showing the importance of supporting employers to recruit people with convictions and in challenging employment discrimination.

We’ve uploaded all three videos onto our YouTube account, but you should be able to watch each of them below. We’ll also be using them as part of our work to support and challenge employers.

We’re grateful to the three individuals who took part, as well as all of those who got in touch after we put a call out for volunteers. We’d also like to thank Carlotta Allum for her help us in producing the digital stories.

 

Steve’s story

Steve’s experience shows how, since a minor incident when he was 19, he forged a successful career in the City for the next 16 years, but then it caught up on him. When he applied for his ‘dream job’, he disclosed his minor conviction as the employer had suggested he needed to. Their response was that they could no longer offer him the job.

He believed honesty was the best policy and that he wouldn’t be judged on that one moment, instead that he would be credited for the last 14 years.

His experience shows the importance of employers being clear to applicants what they do and don’t need to disclose; Steve didn’t need to disclose because of his conviction is now legally ‘protected’. Legally, his employer had a legal duty to disregard it and they’ve left themselves open to potential legal issues.

Finally, it shows the importance of employers looking beyond what they see on paper. Steve’s minor conviction from 16 years ago was no longer relevant to his job role. His potential employer should have been able to work this out. Given they didn’t, they clearly have to work to do to improve their recruitment practice.

 

Ricky’s story

Ricky’s experience of applying for work with a criminal record shows the benefit of employers that ‘ban the box’ from application forms and deals with criminal records at the job offer stage, giving people a chance to be interviewed on their merits.

His story also shows the importance of looking behind what you might see on paper – the circumstances surrounding a particular drugs offence on his record causes him particular problems as employers rarely give him a chance to explain the circumstances.

 

Sean’s story

Sean’s experience shows how important it is for people with convictions to be supported by mainstream employment support agencies to help them into employment.

He was rejected from jobs because he was overqualified. He found it frustrating that probation didn’t have the means to help him back into work and didn’t have links with local employers and recruitment agencies.

He feels that employers should find out more from applicants – those that are willing to open up about their past will enable the employer to get a better understanding and take a more balanced approach.

 

Useful links

 

Monthly Update – December 2015

We’ve just published our update for December 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months updates include:

  1. Information about restraining orders including when they become spent, when they should be disclosed and the ongoing implications of living with one
  2. Details of how to apply for a gambling licence (known as a Personal Functional Licence) and how a criminal conviction may impact on the successful granting of one
  3. A personal experience of seeking work in a university and the consequences if an employer carries out the wrong level of criminal record check
  4. A link to details of the legal challenge to the Government’s disproportionate disclosure scheme which Unlock is supporting.

 

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 December 2015 update in full here

 

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.

 

Extension of disqualifications in charities bill are unnecessary

Charities working with offenders say tougher disqualification rules are a ‘direct threat’ to their mission, and could see 50,000 people automatically banned from being trustees. Unlock comments in this Third Sector article, click here to read it in full.

Unlock supports legal challenge to disproportionate criminal records disclosure scheme

The High Court will tomorrow hear a legal challenge, with the support of Unlock, to the Government’s criminal records disclosure scheme.

There are two cases being heard on Tuesday 8th December, both focusing on how the system forces people with more than one conviction to disclose them forever when applying for areas of work that involve standard or enhanced DBS checks – regardless of specific circumstances.

One case is being brought by Liberty. Their client – referred to in this case as P – committed two extremely minor offences in 1999 while suffering from a then undiagnosed mental illness. P has committed no crimes since and – more than 16 years later – is seeking voluntary positions in schools with a view to achieving her aim of working as a teaching assistant. However, under current rules, she is forced to disclose her two convictions when applying and – in explaining the circumstances of the offences – to reveal details of her medical history. Liberty will argue that this represents a breach of P’s rights under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to a private and family life. Liberty will also argue that the system is too arbitrary and disproportionate, and requires urgent reform to allow for greater consideration of individual circumstances.

Unlock is supporting this case by providing a witness statement for the High Court.

The second case is being brought by Stephensons. Their client – referred to in this case as A – was convicted of two minor crimes in 1981 and 1982 when aged 17 and 18. He has since worked as an accountant, a company finance director and now project manager – work that often requires due diligence and criminal record checks – and is concerned that he may be forced to disclose his convictions.

The current system

The Police Act 1997 created the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS – formerly the Criminal Records Bureau), which provides details of a job applicant’s previous convictions. For certain types of work, particularly work with children or vulnerable adults, standard or enhanced certificates issued by the DBS used to list all the job applicant’s previous convictions.

However, in 2013, the Government amended this scheme following a Court of Appeal ruling to introduce a “filtering” process. Single convictions for non-violent, non-sexual offences that did not lead to a suspended or custodial sentence will be “filtered” (i.e. not disclosed) after 11 years (five-and-a-half years if the person was under 18 at the time of the offence).

The new filtering process does not apply if a person has more than one conviction – regardless of the minor nature of the offences or the person’s circumstances at the time.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which governs the circumstances in which a person has to admit to a previous conviction if asked, operates in a similar way. A person applying to work with children or vulnerable adults does not have to disclose a conviction which is “filtered”.

James Welch, Legal Director for Liberty, said:

“Too many people find their work prospects blighted because of minor offences committed in their distant pasts.

 

“The Government accepted the logic of letting people move on when it introduced “filtering” two years ago. But, in restricting this to those with only one conviction, it has created a scheme which is deeply unfair to people like my client, with two very minor – and, in this case, connected – convictions.

 

“We need a system that’s flexible enough to consider individual circumstances – and we hope the High Court will agree that the DBS scheme still needs reform.”

Christopher Stacey, Co-Director of Unlock, a charity for people with criminal records, said:

“Since the filtering scheme was introduced in 2013, we know it’s helped many people with old and minor criminal records to be free of the stigma and discrimination that so many face when they have something on their criminal record. However, it simply doesn’t go far enough. We’ve had thousands of people contact us who continue to have old and minor records disclosed to employers when they have no relevance to the role they’re applying for. That’s why we’re supporting this legal challenge.  The current system is blunt, too restrictive and disproportionate.”

More information

Monthly Update – November 2015

We’ve just published our update for November 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This months updates include:

  1. Details of how the DVLA share information on driving licence records with employers, insurance companies and car hire companies
  2. Information about possible scam employment offers and criminal record checks
  3. Two personal experiences of successfully gaining work with a criminal record
  4. A link to the opening comments of the Information Commissioners Office Policy Conference – the ‘Google effect’.

 

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 November 2015 update in full here

 

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.

 

Calling all forum supporters

Over the summer work has been continuing on re-designing the Unlock forum.

When we sent out an update back in June explaining our plans and sharing a survey asking for your views, several of you who responded expressed an interest in helping us test a pilot version when it became available.

We hope that a pilot version will be ready early in the new year and we are keen to hear from anybody who would be interested in helping us test it.

If you feel this is something you are able to help us with, please email forum@unlock.org.uk.

We’ll be in touch soon directly with those who have already expressed an interest.

 

Written by Debbie Sadler, Advice Manager at Unlock

Extension of disqualifications in charities bill ‘unnecessary’

Today, we have published a briefing that we’ve produced in advance of a debate in the House of Commons this coming Thursday, 3rd December, when the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill is due its Second Reading.

The concerns raised in this briefing focus on issues relating to criminal records, and represent the views of Unlock. Unlock is an independent award-winning charity that supports ex-offenders (a group which we refer to as “people with criminal records”) and seeks to remove the barriers that result from criminal records. Unlock is a peer-led charity – this means that we recruit staff, volunteers and trustees that have criminal records. At a board level, we aim to have at least 50% of our trustees who have personal experience of living with a criminal record.

These concerns have the support of a number of charities; the Prison Reform Trust, Clinks, User Voice, The Howard League for Penal Reform, Transform Justice, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, and the Criminal Justice Alliance.

The concerns that we’re raising in this briefing were featured in an article by Third Sector last Wednesday.

Download the briefing here

There are proposals within the Bill that represent a direct threat to Unlock and to other charities that work to rehabilitate people with criminal records, many of whom employ former offenders either as trustees or in senior management positions. At the heart of the voluntary sector is the principle of working with our service users, rather than doing things to them. This is no less important with people in the criminal justice system than with any other group. Any unnecessary barriers to the recruitment of people with convictions as trustees and in senior positions is a threat to the core mission of our sector.

As the Secretary of State for Justice himself has stated, we should not judge individuals by the worst moments in their lives. Instead of seeking to narrow opportunities for ex-offenders to reintegrate and contribute to society, we should be supporting efforts to contribute to civil society through paid employment in the voluntary sector or as volunteers.

The provisions of the Bill, which extends the disqualification framework to a broader range of offences and roles within charities, will undermine the ability of people with criminal records to participate actively in society through legitimate voluntary and paid work. The automatic barring of people on the sex offenders register from becoming charity trustees is a crude and ineffective means of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Although the Government acknowledges the potential for waivers to be issued in cases where an individual seeks to be a trustee of an “ex-offender” charity, our own direct experience and the support we’ve provided to other organisations shows the waiver process is woefully inadequate and not workable in a way that allows charities like Unlock to fulfil their charitable purposes. This briefing seeks to address these concerns as well as others that we have about the Bill.

In a comment I provided to Third Sector for their article last week, I said:

“The Bill represents a direct threat to Unlock and a number of other charities that work to rehabilitate people with criminal records, many of whom employ former offenders either as trustees or in senior management positions. The provisions of the Bill, which extend the disqualification framework to a broader range of offences and roles within charities, will undermine the ability of people with criminal records to participate actively in society through legitimate voluntary and paid work for charities.

Although the Government acknowledges the potential for waivers to be issued in cases where an individual seeks to be a trustee of an “ex-offender” charity, our own direct experience (and the support we’ve provided to other organisations) shows the waiver process is woefully inadequate and not workable in a way that allows charities like Unlock to fulfil their charitable purposes.

The automatic barring of people on the sex offenders register from becoming charity trustees and senior managers, a provision which was opposed by the former coalition government, is a crude and ineffective means of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. It also defies rehabilitation legislation, as it would have the impact of taking into account convictions long after they become ‘spent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

We’ve put forward alternative proposals that would help achieve the important aim of safeguarding charities from abuse without the unintended consequences of the current provisions. Automatically barring people with criminal records from volunteering or working for charities is no way to help them lead a law-abiding life.”

Useful links

Unlock responds to review of education in prison

In September, Michael Gove announced a review of education in adult prisons.

Unlock as a charity focuses on the problems that people face as a result of their criminal record. We do not provide education in prisons or in the community to individuals. However, we run a Helpline that deals with over 5,000 people with convictions each year. We also run training for practitioners, including prison education providers, on criminal record disclosure.

As a result of this work, we believe we have some valuable comments to make to this consultation process, particularly in ensuring that people leaving prison are properly prepared for life with a criminal record through improved education in prison.

You can download our response to the review here.

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