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For people with criminal records

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“Acceptance was the answer to my problems” – Getting into university with an unspent conviction

Source: Adobe Stock

Despite education being widely recognised as a key factor in successful rehabilitation, having to disclose a conviction will often mean that people with convictions are discouraged from applying. But, refusal from one university didn’t stop Henry from following his dream to study for a Masters.

I’m so pleased to be writing this and able to say that I’ve just been accepted at university to study for a Masters despite having an unspent conviction.

Although I was applying to study on a distance learning basis, the university asked that I disclose any convictions for any relevant offences. These were defined as:

Those convictions for offences against the person, whether of a violent or sexual nature, and convictions involving unlawfully supplying controlled drugs or substances where the conviction concerns commercial drug dealing or trafficking.”

Unfortunately, my offence was considered relevant. I’d previously been turned down for a similar course at a bricks-and-mortar university which would have involved spending one day each week on the university campus. The rejection letter I’d received had pulled no punches either which gave me a really bad feeling when applying the second time.

I felt that no matter what I said, my application would be refused.

I spent a long time putting a disclosure letter and personal statement together. I stuck to the facts about my offence and conviction but made sure that I showcased everything I’d done since then. I provided evidence of all the courses that I’d completed and mentioned that I’d participated in various therapeutic communities. This appeared to be the key to my success.

I had been asked whether the university could contact my supervising officer. My probation officer’s heavy case-load meant that responding to queries from the university wasn’t high on her list of priorities and I had to work hard to get her to deal with it sooner rather than later. However, the report she wrote was extremely favourable and, taken into consideration with the other information supplied, I was offered a place on the course.

The nature of my conviction is very stigmatising and the prospect of having to reveal it was daunting. For the most part, the people I dealt with were respectful and did all they could do to support my application and I’m really grateful to them for that. The Masters is a great opportunity for me to move on with my life and I can’t wait to really get stuck into my studies.

By Henry  (name changed to protect identity)

A comment from Unlock

Although Henry was asked to disclose his conviction, remember that universities should only be asking for this information if the course you are studying will lead to an occupation which is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, for example nursing or teaching etc.

Although it can be difficult to challenge questions like this, it’s important that you only disclose what you legally need to.

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“Don’t believe everything you read” – Getting a visa from the US Embassy in Belfast is no guarantee

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Having done a huge amount of research, Will was reasonably optimistic that travelling to the US Embassy in Belfast would improve his chances of getting a visa.

 

Last year I visited the US Embassy in Belfast to apply for a US holiday visa. Because of the work I do, I couldn’t afford to take the risk of lying on the online ESTA form but I’d read that my chances of getting a visa would be better in Ireland rather than in London.

The reason I’m not eligible to travel via an ESTA is that a few years ago, I was cautioned for possession of Class A drugs. It’s the only blot on my criminal record but I know the US are very strict about drug offences.

I’d read as much as possible beforehand and my impression was that I was likely to have the visa refused there and then but that I would be recommended for a ‘waiver of inadmissibility’ which would take several months to process but which would ultimately be approved. For this reason I made no travel arrangements in advance but was hoping to book a holiday once the visa was granted.

Visiting the embassy was a horrible experience. You’re not allowed to take your phone into the waiting room with you, and you have to sit in the room for (in my case) hours before being seen. There was no clock on the wall and no obvious order regulating who was seen first. I was seen last of everyone, even though I definitely didn’t arrive last – I was actually an hour early for my appointment.

When I was eventually seen, I had to go into a private room to speak to the immigration officer. Weirdly, he stands behind a glass screen (as though you’re cashing a cheque at the bank) and you stand in front of him as there are no seats. He has all your documents in front of him and asks you a few questions about your offence. It feels like he’s trying to catch you out and it was pretty nerve wracking.

As expected, he told me that he would not be granting me a visa. He gave me a short spiel about how old the US drug laws are etc and said there is a waiver available for my offence but – and this was the bombshell – he was not going to recommend me for it on this occasion, as the offence was too recent (it had happened just over 2 years before). He said that he couldn’t tell me exactly how long I should wait to reapply, but maybe 5 years from the date of the offence, and even then I may have to undertake some sort of medical examination.

As a result of my experiences, I thought it was important to write this article so that people are aware that you might be refused a visa if you apply to the embassy in Belfast. If I’d read this story before I applied, I wouldn’t have applied – I’d only seen positive accounts online which lulled me into a false sense of optimism. It wasn’t cheap to travel from England to Belfast for three days and there were also the costs of the police certificate together with the visa fees.

So heads up to others, if you’ve got drugs related offences, perhaps wait to apply until there’s been 5 years since the date of your offence. This probably doesn’t apply to you if your offence was not drug related or if your drug offence was for a less serious class of drug.

I’d still like to travel to the US for a holiday one day and I’d be interested to know if anyone that’s been rejected has then gone on to successfully reapply.

By Will  (name changed to protect identity)

Useful links

  • Comment – Let us know your thoughts on this post by commenting below.
  • Information – We have practical self-help information on travelling to the US.
  • Discuss this issue – There are some interesting discussions related to travelling to the US on or online forum.

Need some support in these testing times? Why not join Unlock’s online forum?

As a way of tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, the country has been challenged to undertake self-isolation and social distancing. Although we all appreciate why it’s so important to reduce the spread of the infection, for many this will be a particularly stressful and isolating time.

Humans are social animals and isolation and loneliness can exacerbate anxiety and depression and even impact our physical health. That’s why it’s so important to stay connected as best we can.

For many years, Unlock has run an online forum, specifically for people with a criminal record. We’ve always considered it to be a great way for people to connect over their shared experiences and, it’s an ideal place to ask a question and get a range of clear and varied responses.

But, it’s also a community where people can swap ideas, share stories, get moral support and create a sense of belonging.

So if you feel that you could benefit from being able to share your experiences and receive some online support then why not join theForum today.

Debbie Sadler, Advice Manager at Unlock

I thought “offenders” were different to me until my friend received a criminal record

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Annie found it hard to empathise with anybody that had a criminal record until her friend received a conviction and went to prison.

I’ve been running my own hairdressing business for approximately 25 years now and, I’m happy to say that it’s very successful. I’m based in a town which is close to a men’s open prison and over the years several men have been in touch with me asking whether I have any vacancies for paid work – the prison apparently offers a barbering course.

Whenever I received one of those letters, I’d always make it clear that I didn’t run a barbers shop and therefore wouldn’t be able to offer them a job. This was a fact but it was actually only half the story.

In fact, I didn’t want anybody working for me that had a criminal record. Why would I? I’d got my reputation to keep and I didn’t want my customers knowing that I employed ‘wrong-un’s’. What if these people were dangerous? – hairdressers shops have scissors, bleach etc, all sorts of things that could inflict serious injury if they fell into the wrong hands. I didn’t want one of my customers getting their throats cut just because they complained about a dodgy blow-dry.

I can’t tell you how embarrassed I am when I re-read that paragraph now, but at the time I was ignorant. I was convinced that somebody like me had never met “somebody like that” – how could I have done? Well the fact is that I had “met somebody like that”, I’d known them for 20 years. We were good friends and for a large amount of that time they were breaking the law.

I’d never have known had they not been caught, convicted and sent to prison for 5 years. I’m not going to go into the details of their offence, that’s their story not mine. All I’ll say is that it was related to drugs. I knew nothing about the arrest until I picked up the local newspaper and saw the headlines and a photograph of my friend leaving court. I was shocked beyond belief.

Stacey (that’s not her real name) wrote to me from prison trying to explain what had led to her conviction but I just threw the letters in the bin. She wasn’t the person I’d thought she was; the person I’d shared dinner and wine with and who I’d shared some of my deepest, darkest secrets with. I remember saying to myself:

Well we all go through hard times but we don’t all end up in prison.”

I never wrote to her, never visited her and wouldn’t speak about her to mutual acquaintances. I totally abandoned her – what a fantastic friend I proved to be! That’s not to say I didn’t miss her, I did and that’s partly why I felt so angry with her.

But then 2.5 years after her conviction she turned up in my shop. She’d made an appointment, booking in with a different name – she told me it was the only way she knew she’d get my full attention for 1 hour. She looked the same but different; thinner but older and lacking all self-confidence. We didn’t talk about the conviction at that appointment, but she spent a lot of it apologising and asking if we could meet (just once) so that she could try to explain what had happened. I agreed.

I can’t say we became best mates again after that one meeting but it was just the first of many. I started to understand a bit more about her life and the front she’d always put on to protect not only herself but those around her. And, as time went on, I began to see that with or without a criminal record, she was exactly the same person, my mate.

Stacey wasn’t dangerous, she wasn’t the sort of person that would throw bleach over somebody or slit their throat with a pair of scissors – she was probably just the same as a lot of people with a criminal record. I met up with a couple of the girls that she’d been to prison with and I had to face up to the fact that they were all much nicer people than I was. They didn’t judge me when I explained my previous attitude towards people with a criminal record, they didn’t tell me what a rotten friend I’d been.

All I knew about people with a criminal record is what I’d leant from the TV but that was drama not real life. But, that’s no excuse for the way I treated Stacey or the guys from prison that had contacted me in the past and I knew that I wanted to try and make amends.

After we’d been meeting for a while, Stacey started to tell me more and more about her experiences in prison especially the number of women who enrolled onto hairdressing courses in the hope that it would be something they can continue with upon release. Realistically of course, they’re probably going to struggle to find employment and with very little savings will find it hard to buy the necessary equipment to start up their own business. Stacey had never been interested in being a hairdresser but I could see that it meant a lot to her to help women get back into work and I started to think that by helping some of these women I may be able to put right some of the wrongs.

I have to go back to what I said right at the start of this article, I’m a hairdresser, not a barber and I didn’t think I had the necessary skills to support a man doing a barbering course so for now, I’m concentrating on helping women.

Making contact with the prisons has been extremely difficult and incredibly time consuming and if it wasn’t for Stacey telling me to “hang on in there”, I might have given up. However, after almost 6 months I’ve just had a meeting with the Business Development Manager at one of the prisons and I’m hopeful that I’ll soon have a couple of women from the prison come to work for me whilst they’re still in prison. This will give them the opportunity to put what they’ve learnt on the course into practice and get a better idea as to whether hairdressing really is the job for them. I’ve committed to having two girls from the prison each on a six month placement. Obviously I can’t offer every one of them a job at the end of it but I’ve been speaking at several local employer networking events trying to encourage other salons to do something similar.

I know that I’m not going to change the world on my own and I also know that the reason for doing this is in some way to assuage the guilt I feel over letting Stacey down. But, as she said to me recently:

People in prison only need one person to believe in them. They don’t care how you got to where you’re at, just that you’re doing what you’re doing for the right reasons.”

By Annie  (name changed to protect identity)

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Should my past forever define who I am?

Sadly, AJ’s story is not an unusual one. As a young man, he made some bad choices which saw him sent to prison. Yet despite spending the last 9 years trying to make amends, it seems as though he’ll never be allowed to leave the past behind.

Back in 2011 as a 21 year old man I got into an illegal and immoral “relationship'” (I use the quotes because I now see that relationship isn’t the right word for this) with a child aged 13. You might ask why? You might ask how? – none of that matters because the fact is I was guilty.

At around the same time, a friend and myself got into an altercation and, in self-defence, I punched him. Was that the right thing to do? Absolutely not.

I admitted my guilt in both cases and received a sentence of 4 years and 3 months, a SOPO and I was put on the Sex Offenders Register for life. Although I can apply to come off the register after 15 years, my conviction can never become spent because I was sentenced to 12 weeks over the threshold for what the government deem suitable for rehabilitation.

It’s that word that confuses me; ‘rehabilitation’, surely that gives the impression that everyone at some point will get the chance to not have a past mistake or mistakes haunt them until the day they die?

Since my release from prison, I’ve held down a job and have been in a long term relationship. My partner, friends, family and employers are all aware of my conviction and have all said the same

Your past doesn’t define you now or in the future”.

So, why doesn’t our government think the same?

In the last 2.5 years I’ve studied to become a personal trainer and really want to start my own business, surely this is showing a real willingness to change and make a better future for myself and my family. However, even though I’ve spent thousands of pounds on my education I’m struggling to move my business on because I’m finding it virtually impossible to get insurance. I often hear people citing that everyone is entitled to a second chance but will that ever become a reality.

Whatever you’ve been convicted of, you’ll have hurdles to climb following your release from prison but shouldn’t your punishment stop at that point?

I get that the general public struggle to be sympathetic for anybody with a sexual offence and, as hard as I find dealing with the constant punishment, I can understand it to a certain extent. But, what about my family – they’ve done nothing wrong but yet they’re affected by my criminal record. They pay more for home insurance just because they’ve offered me a place to live, they’ve been abandoned by some of their friends because they’re son has been sent to prison and, if they ever need an enhanced DBS check for work, they’ll worry about whether the police are going to drag up my past – is this right?

If you ever question the fairness of this you’ll be told:

That’s just the way it is”

It seems society isn’t content with sending me to prison and that me and my family should continue to be punished for life.

By AJ  (name changed to protect identity)

A comment from Unlock

Since we started as a charity 2000, Unlock has been a passionate advocate for change; challenging bad practice and influencing the attitudes of policy makers and the public to help people like AJ who continue to be punished for something they did many years ago.

Useful links

  • Comment – Let us know your thoughts on this post by commenting below.
  • Information – We have practical self-help information on sexual offences.
  • Discuss this issue – There are some interesting discussions related to sexual offences on our online forum.

I’ve been fortunate that my stupidity hasn’t been held against me

On paper Keith’s conviction for arson sounds terrible but, the key to his success has been his ability to disclose it openly and honestly to any college/university or employer that asks.

 

I left home at the age of 16 and for the next two years stayed with one of my best mates and his family.

By the time I was 18 I was holding down a job and had managed to rent my own home. I had some good mates and every now and again, I did what every 18 years old does, I met up with friends, had a few too many drinks and got drunk. However, for me, the consequences were far more serious.

On the day in question, I’d been to the pub and then invited several friends back to mine for a barbeque. Just as we were about to light it, the rain started and, probably due to the influence of drink, I decided it would be a good idea to move the barbeque close to the back door. Unfortunately this led to the kitchen door catching alight.

One of my friends called the fire service but we’d actually managed to put the fire out before they arrived. However, my landlord reported the incident to the police and I was convicted of arson and received a community order. In my opinion, ‘arson’ sounds a whole lot worse than what happened that day – 30 years ago.

Five years after I was convicted, I applied to run a summer play scheme for children from the ages of 5 – 11 years of age; I’m pleased to say that my application was successful.

For the past 10 years I’ve been doing voluntary community work on a local housing estate and at the same time I also studied with the Open University and gained a degree in mathematics and astronomy.

Last summer I applied to do teacher training. I already had a DBS certificate for my voluntary role and I’d signed up for the DBS Update Service so it was relatively easy for the teacher training college to see my DBS certificate. I nervously handed over the hard copy of the certificate and disclosed my conviction only to be told that I needed to meet with the Safeguarding Officer.

I was really anxious about the meeting but again, I disclosed the conviction and explained the circumstances surrounding it. The Safeguarding Officer told me

When someone applies for the course with a conviction, we look at two things. One is the offence, the circumstances and would it make the person a danger to children and adults. The other is would the offence stop that person from gaining employment as a teacher. In both of these, the answer is no – so welcome onboard.”

I’m now three months away from qualifying as a teacher and my life has completely changed. I’m the happiest I’ve been for a long time and I’m looking forward to the next stage.

I don’t cherish the feeling that I’ll always have to declare my conviction and I know that I may not get some teaching positions because of it. My crime was not malicious or nasty, it was a naïve 18 year old being stupid and foolish. It’s part of my past which I’m not proud of but accept that it happened and have now shown society what I’m capable of, and where I want to go.

By Keith  (name changed to protect identity)

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My life has been enriched since challenging my SOPO

Source: Adobe Stock

A series of terrible incidents relating to his criminal record led Gerry to apply to have his SOPO revoked with a very positive outcome.

Back in 2009 I was convicted of a downloading offence which resulted in a community sentence and an indefinite SOPO.

In the years following my conviction I started to rebuild my life and was doing very well working in finance as well as doing some freelance writing on the side until one of my colleagues found out about my conviction. For some reason, she’d decided to google me and saw the details of my offence in the local paper. She told me that if I didn’t quit my job, she would tell everybody about my conviction and, fearing the reaction from other work mates, I came clean to my boss. Although he was shocked, he was very fair and I could have possibly kept my job but I felt I had no option but to leave.

Without a main income I started to rely on my freelance work but the work wasn’t always regular and building up my business was slow going. I couldn’t keep up with my rent and was eventually evicted by my landlord but I was lucky to be able to move in with my family.

My copy-writing business was starting to take off when the Twitter stalking began. Over the course of a couple of months various new, and immediately suspended Twitter accounts sent me links to the local newspaper story about my conviction and one included the cheery message:

Always watching, always in pain”

This individual also worked out where I was working and bombarded the contact form on the website with messages including the newspaper link in an attempt to get the boss of the company (who just happened to be me!!) to fire the person named in the story (also me). Sadly the anoymous accounts also tagged a couple of clients who I haven’t heard from since.

It was at this point that I started to search the internet looking for advice and came across Unlock. I was pleased to see that there was some light at the end of the tunnel but it would involve things like changing my name and the name of my business and I also found out that I probably shouldn’t have been given an indefinite SOPO.

I was blessed with a PPU officer who was happy to support my application to have my SOPO scrapped or, failing that, to have some sections of it removed in line with more recent Court of Appeal rulings. Not only that, but unlike other PPU officers I’d had before, she told me that I didn’t need a solicitor to represent me, that she’d known many people who’d done their own applications and that she thought I was more than capable of doing this myself.

I was expecting to have to wait a while for a court date but I actually got a hearing very quickly. The judge said he was minded to grant my application but had received no response from the police so wanted to wait for that before granting it.

Months went by.

Towards the end of last year, I had a visit from my PPU officer who apparently knew nothing about my court hearing or the fact that the police had failed to show up. She promised to chase it up and to her credit came back to me the same day to say that the force’s legal services team had not received any notification of the case. I contacted the court who agreed to send all the relevant paperwork again.

A further month went by and, having heard nothing, I made a further application to the court. I pointed out that if the situation were reversed and the police were seeking an order, the judge would have made a decision in my absence and I suggested that the same principle should apply.

Not long after I received a copy of the police reply to the court which stated that although they never supported applications to discharge SOPO’s, they had no objection to my application. They asked to be excused from further hearings but listed dates that my PPU officer would be available if the judge insisted on them being present.

I’m delighted to say that my SOPO was revoked which meant that my conviction was also spent and I came off the register.

SOPO’s can be over-reacting and over-long but as my experience shows they can be challenged without the need of expensive solicitors. The police may delay things but stick with it, talk to the court and hopefully you’ll have the same result as I did.

By Gerry  (name changed to protect identity)

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If employers aren’t willing to give people with convictions a second chance how can we ever prove that we’ve changed

Source: Adobe Stock

Josh readily accepts that having been convicted of a serious offence he deserved to be punished. However, having worked hard to deal with the issues that led to his offending, Josh is struggling to come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be punished for life.

In 2016, I was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for a violent and sexual offence. This means that as things stand, my conviction will never become spent.

I totally agree that when you commit a crime you should be punished and I admitted my guilt straight away. I spent almost 4 years in prison, lost my career in the Army, will remain on an extended licence until 2024 and have to sign the Sex Offenders Register for at least 15 years.

Whilst I was in prison I remained fully committed to my rehabilitation. I completed 19 different qualifications (including bricklaying, barbering, industrial cleaning and book-keeping) and three offender behaviour programmes until the parole board deemed me safe enough for release.

However, since my release I have found that regardless of my intentions to rehabilitate and my genuine desire to move on and make the best of my life, my efforts are falling flat on their face. Whenever you’re applying for a job or looking to buy insurance, you have to disclose any unspent convictions. This means that employers often don’t respond to you and insurers will either reject you or massively increase your premium. These are just a couple of obstacles that you’re likely to come up against, your application to university or going on holiday are also likely to be affected.

It very much feels that whilst probation and the prison service promote rehabilitation the actual boots on the ground experience of reintegration is practically impossible. It feels like there is no formal route to rehabilitation after you have received a sentence of over 4 years. Where’s the incentive to rehabilitate?

I understand that members of the public don’t want dangerous people working with children and vulnerable people and it’s right that these groups are protected. However, jobs that involve working with these groups will always involve an enhanced DBS check and a check of the barred list which sets out quite clearly those people who are deemed to be too high risk to do this type of work.

But what purpose is served by refusing to give somebody with a conviction a second chance – it’s like pulling up the ladder when you’re safe and not worrying about the people who are trying to get out of the way of danger. Everybody needs something to aspire to; why would you take that away from them.

I was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison but does that mean that I should live a life time of anxiety with increased insurance premiums and limited job opportunities until the day I die.

My offender manager would agree that I’ve taken every opportunity available to me to rehabilitate but there are brick walls everywhere. At the age of 27 I feel as though my life has already been concluded.

By Josh  (name changed to protect identity)

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A journey from entering the Koestler Awards to studying at the Royal Drawing School

Source: Koestler

This post originally appeared on the Koestler Arts website and is reproduced with permission and thanks.

I found my creative side about 12 years ago whilst I was serving a six-year sentence in a young offender institution. I was locked up for 23 hours a day, in a single cell, in HMYOI Brinsford and had minimal contact with anyone outside of the prison walls. But, I did have a pencil, and after seeing other people’s artwork on the wing, I began to draw on any odd scraps of paper that I could acquire, and when they ran out, I drew into bars of prison issue soap.

I was soon transferred to HMYOI Stoke Heath, and although I struggled to get into the art class, I did have access to more materials in my cell. I would spend my days working in the tailoring department and attended vocational training courses, but in the evening I would draw. I drew photographs for other inmates, mostly of their family members or pets, and charged them two shower gels for each one. I got pretty good. An art tutor from the education department had heard of me and my work, and when we met she gave me a 2009 Koestler Awards entry form. She explained what Koestler Arts was and encouraged me to apply. I did and six months later I received a letter saying my artwork would be exhibited in a Koestler exhibition in London.

At this point I had already been entrusted enough to be given day release, to work in the Staff Mess just outside the main gate. I spoke with Wing Officers, Senior Officers, the Education Department and the Deputy Governor to see if they would allow me ‘day release’ to attend college and finish an arts course that I had started before my prison sentence. I received the same response from each; ‘this isn’t going to happen’. So I went to the Resettlement Department and explained how far I had been rehabilitated, that I had this piece of work in an exhibition, explained my plans and asked for their support. They set up a meeting with me and the Governor, and somehow I managed to convince her to set up a ROTL scheme with a local college, something that hadn’t been done in that prison before. A month or so later I received an offer to interview with two art tutors at New College in Telford.

I was rejected from my first four university choices for having a criminal record. So, I decided to call up the fifth and final choice and plead with them to at least just meet me. I was offered an interview, and then a place, and I moved up north to study a BA in Fine Art at the University of Sunderland. Towards the end of my degree I received an offer to exhibit at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in a solo show as part of their New Talent programme.

I got back in touch with Koestler Arts, and over a period of time, they invited to take part in their trip to the Venice Biennale, gave me a mentor, invited me to curate a part of their 2014 exhibition Catching Dreams and gave me a job as an Arts and Exhibitions Assistant.

After a few years of working in this role I applied to study, and to my excitement and slight disbelief, was offered a place at the Royal Drawing School on their post-graduate programme. I worked part-time at Koestler, part-time on my arts practice and full-time on the Drawing Year. It was a very busy 14 months. At the end of the course I was awarded the Chairman’s Prize and one of my drawings was selected to join the Royal Archive at Windsor Castle.

I hadn’t made may pieces about prison after I left but for some reason, I felt it was the right time to explore some of those memories. During my time studying, I made 99 soap carvings about my memories of prison, and I decided to enter them into the 250th RA Summer show, curated by Grayson Perry. The piece was selected and went on display in the Summer of 2018. I had written a short story of each memory carving and after the success of the RA, decided to turn them into a handmade book.

Koestler gave me my first bit of encouragement in the arts, and this was all that was needed, for me to believe that I could build a second chance. I now have a voice.”

By Lee

A Comment from Unlock

If you’ve been inspired by Lee’s story then you may be interested to know that the Koestler Awards 2020 is now open for entries. Find out more here.

Useful links

  • Comment – Let us know your thoughts on this post by commenting below.
  • Information – We have practical self-help information on applying to university on our information hub site.

Help us plan our future work

As a small charity rooted in the experiences of people with a criminal record, it’s really important that our work is shaped by the needs of the people that we exist to help.

We are developing our plans for Unlock’s work in the next few years. We want to make sure that they reflect what people with criminal records want and need from us. Let us know your views through this short survey. Every single response will help shape Unlock’s plans for the future.

Complete the survey here.

This year, we come to the end of our current strategic plan. Strategy can sometimes feel detached from the day to day experiences of people dealing with the effects of a criminal record. That’s why we want to hear your thoughts about what we should focus on over the next few years. A lot has changed since the planning of our current strategy that started in 2015 and we want to use this opportunity to have a really good look at:

  1. what the problems people face are
  2. what we think we can do about them
  3. what our objectives are
  4. how we’re going to achieve them

The end result will be a plan that is both ambitious and realistic, where we’re clear on our purpose, our objectives and how we plan to achieve them.

We’ve put together a set of questions so we can find out what matters to you. The answers are completely confidential, although there’s an option at the end to sign up to learn more about the next steps of this work and get involved in other ways.

We’re using Google Forms to collect responses to this survey. No personal details are required, and all responses are completely confidential. We will store survey responses safely and securely on our systems. Find out more about how we look after your data in our privacy policy.

As a way of saying thank you, we’re offering a £25 Love2Shop voucher to one randomly selected person who provides an email address when completing the survey before Friday 28th February 2020.

Complete the survey here.

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Letting us know if you easily found what you were looking for or not enables us to continue to improve our service for you and others.

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