Category: Latest

Are you a providing probation services? New 2-day criminal record disclosure training course

We’re excited to announce the details of a new a two-day training course, ‘Supporting with Conviction’, designed specifically for probation providers, staff in Community Rehabilitation Companies, and specialists helping people with convictions to get into employment.

At a time when probation provision is going through significant change, both in terms of structure and people, it’s critically important that those responsible for supporting people with convictions have the confidence, knowledge and skills to advise and support their clients on the dealing with the impact of their criminal record.

This ‘Supporting with Conviction’ course builds on the success of Unlock’s one-day training, which we’ve delivered to over 400 practitioners in the last 18 months. Our new two-day course has been specifically designed to meet the needs of probation providers, CRC’s, and other specialist practitioners such as Work Programme advisors.

Christopher Stacey, Co-Director at Unlock said “The recent changes to probation provision present a unique opportunity to ensure that the advice and support provided to people with convictions, both before release from prison and in the community, is of a genuinely high standard.”

“I know from the training courses that we run that there is a huge gap in the knowledge, awareness and understanding amongst those very people who are the primary source of support for people with convictions shortly after their conviction. That’s why we believe this type of training is so important.

“We are particularly keen to work with probation providers to ensure that their staff and practitioners working in a client-facing role have high-quality training on advising and supporting their clients on criminal records, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, disclosing to employers and criminal record checks.”

“It’s clear from the feedback that we get that there’s a demand for more time and detail than what we offer in our one-day course, so this is our response. The two-day course is designed as a comprehensive training package covering all important areas of criminal record disclosure as it relates to people with a criminal record. Split over two days, the course allows plenty of time for discussion and practical exercises. It also allows for attendees to reflect on the complexities of the law around disclosure, which are covered in the first day.”

“We’re looking forward to working with a range of organisations to genuinely improve the advice and support that people with convictions receive.”

To find out more about this training:

More details about the course are on our website.
To arrange to run an in-house course for your organisation.
If you have any questions about this course, or our support for practitioners more generally, please contact Debbie Young. Call 01622 230705 or email admin@unlock.org.uk.

Notes

Unlock is an independent advocacy charity for people with convictions. As an organisation that doesn’t take government funding to deliver services, it was clear to us that our role in probation services would be one that supports those organisations that deliver services on the ground. This builds on our track record of providing accurate and reliable advice and support to people with convictions, while working at a policy level to push for a fairer and more inclusive society.
There’s more information about our training on our website
You can find out more general information about our support for providers of probation at unlock.devchd.com/probation
Alongside this exciting development, we continue to run our ever-popular one-day ‘Advising with Conviction’ training – dates for 2016 will be announced in the coming months.

Volunteer Vacancy – Helpline Advisor

We’ve got a volunteer vacancy on our Helpline.

More details can be found here.

Help us improve our online forum

Now that it’s 7 years old, we are working on giving our forum a bit of an update and we want to hear from people with convictions about what an updated forum would look like, and how it would work.

Complete the survey here

Find out more about this work by reading a longer update we’ve posted on our information site.

Help us to challenge employment discrimination

Work is progressing well to lay the foundations for our project to challenge employment discrimination. We’re now at the stage where we want to start opening out the conversation, to help to shape the project.

This update is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing conversation – with employers, with people with convictions, and with others who have an interest in ensuring that employers have fair and inclusive policies and procedures that support the recruitment of people with convictions.

There’s a number of things we’re working on, and we’re keen to get your input.

Help us develop good practice and resources for employers
Send us evidence of bad practice
How would you like to be treated when applying for work?

Help us develop good practice and resources for employers

One of the key focuses of the project is to support employers in developing good policies and practices. One way we’re going about this by developing a resource centre specifically for employers.

So, we’re going back to basics. We want to make sure that we support employers who choose to consider criminal records by helping them to do so in a way that is fair, inclusive and lawful. However, we also want to challenge the inappropriate use of criminal records and to question the assumption amongst some employers that criminal records checks should always form part of their recruitment process in all circumstances.

To help us do this, we want to know what you think ‘good practice’ looks like.

We’re keen to get the thoughts of a range of people. We’re particularly keen to hear from employers about what you would find useful in helping you in this process. We’re keen to highlight the different ways that employers have tried to make themselves more open and inclusive towards people with convictions. We’re also looking for suggestions of existing resources that you’ve found useful.

We’ve put together a short set of questions, and we’d be grateful if you could spare a few minutes to share your thoughts (you can stay anonymous if you wish).

Complete the online survey here.

Alternatively, you can read the questions here and email your answers and other thoughts on this topic to employer@unlock.org.uk.

Send us evidence of bad practice

Alongside our work to support employers to develop good practice, we’re also on the look-out for evidence of bad practice by employers with regards to the policies and processes that they have in place for job applicants with criminal records.

This could include employers that:

Have a blanket policy of not recruiting anybody with unspent convictions
Carry out DBS checks for roles not eligible for them
Request applicants to provide a copy of their ‘police record’ (also known as ‘enforced subject access’)
Don’t give applicants an opportunity to explain their criminal record

Find out more details here about how to send us examples and evidence of bad practice.

How would you like to be treated when applying for work?

Alongside our survey of employers, we’re also keen to hear from people with convictions about how they’d like to be treated when applying for work.

In particular, we’d like to know what you think is a ‘fair’ way of dealing with criminal records as part of the recruitment process.

To do this we’ve put together a short survey for people with convictions.

You can complete the survey online survey here (you can stay anonymous if you wish).

Alternatively, you can read the questions here and email your answers to employer@unlock.org.uk.

Interesting in keeping updated about this work?

You can subscribe to receive these types of updates by email by signing up to our email updates and choosing to receive ‘News on our work challenging employment discrimination’.

Finally, ‘enforced subject access’ becomes a criminal offence

From tomorrow, 10th March 2015, a practice known as ‘enforced subject access’ becomes a criminal offence, as section 56 of the Data Protection Act comes into force.

As we originally reported in an update to our Information Hub in June 2014, this is an important step in making sure that employers and organisations don’t take part in the unsavoury practice of requiring individuals to provide a copy of their police records through their rights of subject access.

Today, to help people understand what this means in practice, we’re:

Publishing brief guidance for individuals on our self-help Information Hub
Providing a news update for employers, as well as brief guidance for employers and organisations
Highlighting the technical guidance that the Information Commissioners Office has published.

Christopher Stacey, Co-Director of Unlock, said; “Subject access is an important right of individuals to be able to obtain copies of their own criminal record. However, ever since the Data Protection Act came into force, there has been clear evidence of unsavoury practices where employers and others have abused this right by requiring individuals to use this route as a way of checking an individuals’ criminal record, which is a clear abuse, and bypasses the official disclosure regimes which have safeguards built into them.”

“The criminal offence that comes into force will finally give the Information Commissioners Office the tools that they need to deal with the problem. We’ll be monitoring the practices of employers and organisations, and where appropriate, we’ll be challenging those organisations. We also look forward to working closely with the ICO, so that this type of practice can be stamped out. We’re encouraging anybody who knows of practices like this to get in touch with our helpline”.

Employers – New criminal offence; make sure you check your recruitment processes!

Tomorrow, the 10th March 2015, a new criminal offence of ‘enforced subject access’ comes into force, which employers and organisations need to be aware of.

This news has implications on the recruitment processes of employers and organisations. In particular, it has an impact on those that ask individuals to obtain a copy of their police record, for example as part of the recruitment process.

To help to understand the practical implications of this news, and what employers should do, we’ve produced a simple guidance leaflet which explains this in more detail.

We have also produced guidance for individuals with convictions. A link to this, and more background information, can be found in our main news piece.

If you have any questions about this as an employer, you can contact us for advice.

Press Release: New guidance for primary schools welcomed, but regulations still need to be scrapped

Following the introduction yesterday of statutory guidance by the Department of Education yesterday on disqualifications under the Childcare Act 2006, Christopher Stacey, Co-Director at Unlock, said:

“We very much welcome the new guidance. The Government has responded to a number of the issues that we, and others, had raised following their initial advice in October 2014.”

“In particular, we’re pleased that the statutory guidance makes it clear that schools should not be requiring employees covered by the regulations to disclose any spent convictions or cautions of those that live or work in the same household as them. Since the original advice, we have been inundated with people affected by confusion around this. It’s a genuine tragedy that hundreds of people have been unnecessarily suspended from their jobs because they’d been forced to disclose information that they didn’t need to. In one case, an experienced teacher was suspended from her job simply because she disclosed a theft conviction of her husband from nearly 30 years ago.”

“However, the statutory guidance is only one small step forward. How schools now apply this guidance will be important, to ensure that they treat people fairly and make it clear what they do and don’t need to disclose.”

“More importantly, serious questions still remain about the necessity of these regulations and what value they genuinely add to the protection of children. There is no reliable evidence showing that the system of ‘disqualification by association’ adds any value whatsoever, and we continue to campaign for the regulations to be scrapped from primary schools altogether.”

END

Notes to editors

https://unlock.org.uk/contact-us/media-enquiries/Press/media
Unlock is an independent award-winning charity, providing trusted information, advice and support 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.
For more information on our policy work on this, click here.
For practical self-help information on this, we’ve updated a brief guide here.
To discuss this issue on our online forum, click here to read and share your thoughts.

Unlock Co-director wins ‘Social Justice Campaigner’ Award

We’re delighted to report that our Co-director, Julie Harmsworth, has been announced as the winner of the ‘Social Justice Campaigner’ award at the SMK Campaigner Awards held in London last night.

The awards, run by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation and held at the House of Lords, are a celebration of people who demonstrate their commitment to and effectiveness in tackling the root causes of injustice and inequality, be it over the last year or over many years.

The Social Justice Campaigner Award was presented to Julie by Campbell Robb, CEO of Shelter, for her role in campaigning to make changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act that reduce the disclosure periods for people with convictions when they apply for things like jobs and insurance.

Commenting on the announcement, Julie said:

‘It’s such a great honour to be given this award. I share it wholly with colleagues at Unlock and all those who have supported our campaign to amend a law that effectively excluded people with convictions from becoming active, hard-working, law-abiding members of their communities.

‘After thirteen years of campaigning the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act was amended in 2014 and the effect was immediate. A reduction of the length of disclosure periods meant that 1.75 million people with would no longer face discrimination in getting a job or insuring their homes.

‘As one person wrote to us: “Thank you for all your persistence and perseverance for people like us who made a petty mistake when we were young and had to bear the consequences for such a long time. The changes means we can have a new beginning on a clean slate and have a fantastic future to look forward to and we won’t be held down. You have changed our lives for the better.”

‘Many of the issues that existed at the start of our campaign, still remain. We have much more work to do. Receiving the award will, I am certain, give us all an injection of renewed energy, and inspire us to continue to campaign and to stand up for what we, at Unlock, believe in.’

Linda Butcher, SMK’s chief executive said: ‘Sheila McKechnie was a campaigning force of nature – one of the most eloquent and effective campaigners of her generation. She stood up against inequality wherever she saw and heard it, campaigning to create lasting change throughout her life, notably in areas such as health and safety, housing and homelessness and consumer rights.

‘The SMK Campaigner Awards provide us with a unique opportunity to recognise and thank some of the inspiring, innovative and often courageous people who are speaking out to effect change. All of our winners this year are a credit to the causes and communities they serve and demonstrate the important role campaigners play within our democracy. Congratulations to Julie for all her hard work and her well-deserved award.’

The 2015 awards were presented by author and broadcaster Muriel Gray and attended by politicians Zac Goldsmith and Victor Abebowale.

Want to support our campaign and policy work? Find out how to support us here

END

Notes to editors

Unlock is an independent award-winning charity, providing trusted information, advice and support 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.
More information about the SMK awards is available at www.smk.org.uk/campaigner-awards/
Our website is unlock.devchd.com.
Want to support our campaign and policy work? Find out how to support us here.

Have you been blocked from working in probation/prison because of your criminal record?

You should be able to find out more about this below. Depending on your settings, you may have to click on this link.

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“Enforced subject access” will become a criminal offence on 10th March 2015

We’ve learnt from the Information Commissioners Office that section 56 of the Data Protection Act 1998 will be brought into force on the 10th March 2015.

This means that “enforced subject access” will finally become a criminal offence. As we explained back in June 2014 when this was first announced, this is an important development for people with convictions.

There is more information about this news on our self-help information site.