Monthly summary – April 2016

Welcome to our monthly summary for April 2016.

This 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 people with a criminal record

Have you just stumbled across this? You can receive these updates direct to your inbox every month for free by signing up to our mailing list (make sure you choose to receive ‘news for people with convictions’)

Updates to our information site

Here’s a summary of the updates that we’ve made recently to the Information Hub. There are links within each update to where you can find more information about the update on our Hub. There are also links next to many of the updates, which link to threads on our online forum where you can discuss these with other members of the forum.

Work and volunteering

• Receiving a criminal record whilst you’re in employment – We regularly receive enquiries from people who, following receipt of a caution or conviction, want to know how they should go about disclosing this to their current employer. Our latest information sets out not only your legal position, but other factors which you may want to take into consideration.
• Becoming a Police and Crime Commissioner –  With the next Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), elections taking place on 5th May 2016, we’ve produced some new information which looks at how a criminal record may prevent you from standing as a candidate in the future.
• Be aware of what type of criminal record check is being done for the job you’re applying for – Once your conviction becomes spent, there is no need to disclose it to employers and it won’t appear on a basic criminal record check. However, if you are applying for a job which requires a standard or enhanced check, your spent conviction will be disclosed unless it’s eligible for filtering. Our latest advice post sets out the importance of understanding what’s on your criminal record and knowing what level of check an employer will be doing.

Insurance

• List of insurance brokers – We’ve added three more companies to our list of brokers who are able to offer insurance to people with convictions.
• List of motor insurers – We’ve recently been advised that, on their online quotation system, Elephant have started asking about non-motoring convictions. We’ve updated our list of motor insurers and removed Elephant from it. 

theRecord posts

Below are links to recent posts to our online magazine, theRecord. These are often linked to from the practical information that we have, to help give some personal experiences.

News – US Judge expunges criminal record – ‘This article was originally published in The New York Times and we thought it would be of interest to people with convictions in considering how the US deal with old convictions………..’.

Successes – Life’s about reinventing yourself, not finding yourself – ‘I’ve been reading stories on theRecord for a while now and following my own experiences recently, I’ve felt compelled to write something in the hope that even if I can encourage just one person, then it’s been worthwhile……..’

Struggles and Stigma – Is a caution really ‘a slap on the wrist?’ – Not if you need a Police Certificate – ‘I have on rare occasions, recreationally used small quantities of ‘soft’ drugs, though less so as I’ve got older. I’m a professional, hard-working, and otherwise an entirely law-abiding citizen with not so much as a parking ticket. However, in 2011, I became a criminal and will be deemed as such until my 100th birthday….,’

Other news and developments

Below are links to other news and developments that might be of interest to people with a criminal record. For more news, check out the news and media section of our main website.

Helpline evaluation

A couple of years ago, we embarked on undertaking an independent evaluation of our helpline with the support of Professor Sue Wilkinson from the University of York, an expert in conversational analysis. The results of her analysis and evaluation have now been published in her report Unlocking the helpline.

Examples of people we’ve helped

We’ve published some case studies showing how people with convictions are able to overcome some of the barriers that have been put in their way due to their criminal record. Read the case studies here.

Spring 2016 Activities Newsletter

Download the Spring Newsletter which provides an update of the news at Unlock over the last three months.

New research into the impact of childhood criminal records and launch of campaign

This month, the Standing Committee for Youth Justice published their report which reviews the criminal record system in over a dozen countries and compares this to the system in England and Wales which is considered punitive and holds back children with a criminal record from reaching their full potential. Read the full report and Christopher Stacey’s comments here.