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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Type: Advice Update

Monthly summary – June 2016

Welcome to our monthly summary for June 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 theInformationHub. There are links within each update to where you can find more information about the update. 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 people with convictions. 

Work and volunteering

  • Getting a reference from a previous employer – We’ve published some new information which sets out the legal obligations a previous employer has when providing a reference and what, if anything, they are able to disclose about an individual’s criminal record to their new employer.
  • What’s the best way of approaching a panel interview if you have a criminal record – Following recent enquiries to our helpline, this advice post looks at things to consider if you’re asked to disclose your criminal record at a panel interview.

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.

Success – Going straight and loving it – ‘I spent about 20 years of my life abusing drugs and grafting to pay for them (you name it, shoplifting, card fraud, car crime etc). I didn’t consider doing anything else, it was just a way of life for me………’

Success – Functioning on a daily basis with a sexual offences order – ‘I hear so many stories about the difficulties that people encounter trying to live with Sexual Offences Prevention Orders and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders. If you’ve just been given a SOPO/SHPO and are struggling to see how you’re ever going to be able to live a normal life again, then here are some of my own experiences and opinions’.

Success – From brothel to boardroom – ‘I would generally describe myself as a clever woman. I’ve had a good education. I’ve had some really good, well paid jobs. I’ve travelled the world. My social skills are fine and I’ve got a wide circle of friends. However, I’m not the smart a**e you might think I am. I have an Achilles heel – men ……’

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.

We must encourage and support employers to recruit people from prison

Although Unlock welcomes the government’s announcement last month to reform prisons and improve prisoner education, we believe that much more still needs to be done to encourage and support employers to recruit people with a criminal record. Read Christopher Stacey’s views on the importance of changing employer attitudes.

Insurers are not following good practice when dealing with criminal records

Last month the Financial Conduct Authority published a paper on access to financial services. Download the paper which includes contributions made by Unlock.

From inmates to entrepreneurs

Following a survey undertaken by Unlock and the Centre for Entrepreneurs, 158 people with convictions in the community responded. Read CfE’s full research here.

Comment by Unlock on an article in The Independent – “We should encourage more employers to do the same”

As a result of an article published in The Independent, Unlock defended a Tower Hamlets school employing a convicted killer and called on more employers to hire ex-criminals who have become positive members of society. Download the original article and read Christopher Stacey’s comments here.

Ever been to prison? What support did you get applying for benefits, finding work and returning to normal life?

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee asked Unlock to assist them to collect evidence for an inquiry into the support given to individuals prior to leaving prison. Details of how to contribute to the survey can be found here.

Getting a reference from a previous employer

Once you’ve been offered a job and satisfied yourself that nothing is going to be disclosed on your basic criminal record check, the next hurdle you may need to overcome is getting a reference from your previous employer.

If you’ve not worked for a while (perhaps because you’ve been serving a prison sentence) or if you were sacked by your previous employer (maybe as a result of your criminal record) then you may be worried about asking for a reference.

We’ve published some new information which sets out what legal obligations a previous employer has when providing a reference, what an employer is most likely to mention and whether an employer is entitled to disclose any unspent or spent convictions which they may be aware of.

Have a look at our getting a reference from a previous employer page and tell us about your own personal experiences

We hope you find this helpful. Let us know what you think by completing our feedback form.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – Find more information on looking for and keeping employment.

Ever been to prison? What support did you get applying for benefits, finding work and returning to normal life?

Have your say – fill out our short survey!

People with convictions face many barriers to work on leaving prison, but the inability to find paid work can have all kinds of knock on effects including becoming homeless.

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee is currently running an inquiry into support for ex-offenders and has asked for the thoughts and experiences of people with convictions and those organisations working with them. Unlock has already submitted it’s response to the inquiry but we’re pleased to see that the Committee would like to hear directly from people with experience.

Use this opportunity to directly inform the work of Parliament and potentially improve the support that people receive.

Click here to complete the survey

The closing date for the survey is 15th July 2016

If you’ve got any questions about the survey, please email advice@unlock.org.uk or casework@unlock.org.uk

Thank you for your support

What’s the best way to approach a panel interview if you have a criminal record?

Panel interviews seem to be increasingly common for some employers looking for more rigorous ways to screen job seekers and spot the best talent.

As the name suggests, a panel job interview is where you’re interviewed by a group of interviewers – a ‘panel’. The panel may consist of a mix of senior or line managers, a representative from HR and, in some cases, a potential colleague.

One idea behind a panel interview is to put an interviewee under more pressure compared with a typical one-to-one interview. The panel will ask you a series of questions and will consider how you cope under such demanding conditions.

What would you do if one of the questions was about your criminal convictions?

Although it may not be good practice to spring a question about convictions on you in a panel interview, we know it happens. Details of your criminal record should officially only be known to relevant personnel, i.e. an HR Manager, Line Manager etc. Therefore, if the panel consists of a potential colleague, considering what and when to disclose may prove to be a bit of a minefield. How you deal with the question will often depend on whether or not you’ve already disclosed details earlier on in the process.

If you’ve not been asked about your record prior to interview

The advice we normally give would be not to disclose until asked. However, if you disclose at a panel interview, are successful and then subsequently find out that one of the panel members will be a work colleague, this could create a potentially awkward situation for you.

This can be a bit of a minefield. You may decide not to disclose your conviction during this type of interview because you are not sure whether all members of the panel should have access to that information. However, if you are successful and then disclose, you need to be aware that an employer may feel as though you have misled them and they could revoke the job offer.

If you can find out who is on the panel, this will help you to decide whether to disclose or not.

If you’ve disclosed prior to the interview, i.e. on an application form

In this situation, it’s likely that the panel will have been given copies of your completed application form and will therefore be aware of what you’ve disclosed. It will be in your best interest therefore to use this opportunity to explain the circumstances surrounding your conviction so that all members have a better understanding of the situation and can make a more informed decision about any risk you are likely to pose.

How can you improve your chances of success?

  • Be prepared – Make sure you’ve researched the company and the job role you are applying for. If possible, try to find out who will be sitting on the interview panel and what their role in the company is. You will then be able to answer and ask questions that are relevant to them as well as the job role.
  • Rehearse your answers with friends and family especially answers to potentially difficult questions, for example gaps in your CV.
  • Engage with the whole panel. When you’re asked a specific question, maintain eye contact with the person asking it, but when you answer, address the whole panel.
  • Each member of the panel will come to the interview with their own agenda. Establish early on who the doubters might be and try to win them over first.

Panel interviews are nothing to dread. If you prepare, are armed with a positive attitude and some success stories, then you should have nothing to worry about. If just one member of the panel is particularly passionate about recruiting somebody with a criminal record, they could easily be in a better position than you to convince the others that you’re the best person for the job.

For more information

For practical self-help information – More information on disclosing to employers and, in particular, information on when and how to disclose.

You can now contact us through WhatsApp

WhatsApp, the digital messaging service, is now used by a billion people every month and we’re pleased to announce that we’ve added it as another way of contacting our confidential peer helpline.

We are always trying to remove any barrier that might be in the way of people contacting us. For a while now, we’ve seen WhatsApp grow as a free* and easy way for people to be in touch with each other.

So, we’ve set ourselves up on WhatsApp and we hope that it will make it easier for some people to send enquiries to us. It should certainly help those that normally pay to send text messages from their mobile.

You can use WhatsApp on your mobile to message us or call us. Our contact telephone number on WhatsApp is the same as the one you can use to text us – it’s 07824 113848.

For more information

  1. * Is WhatsApp really free? At the time of writing this, WhatsApp is free to use. Data charges may apply, although for those with use of WiFi or data bundles, use of WhatsApp will normally be covered by these and so be free to use.
  2. Find out more about how WhatsApp works.
  3. Find out more about the ways you can contact our helpline.
  4. As our helpline is run on limited charitable resources it can get extremely busy. You may be able to find the answer to your question on our self-help information hub, which has quick links to the key areas that we receive a lot of requests about.

Help us to scrap ‘disqualification by association’: The government are consulting on changes to the childcare disqualification arrangements

Ever since ‘disqualification by association’ (DbA) hit the headlines about 18 months ago, we have been working to try and scrap the regulations that have had a significant and unnecessary impact on the partners of those with a criminal record.

Earlier this month, the Department for Education (DfE) published a consultation with proposals for change. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 1st July 2016.

In the consultation, the DfE have put forward three options. We’re supporting option 1, which is to remove disqualification by association in schools and non-domestic registered settings.

We’re putting together a formal response to the consultation. We’re keen to build into this response as much evidence as we can to help support our recommendations.

We’ve put together a number of questions that we’re looking for answers to. We need your help!

  1. Have you been personally affected by disqualification by association? If so, how? What was the outcome?
  2. Which of the options in the Government consultation do you support, and why?
  3. Do you think any of the options wouldn’t help? If so, why?
  4. Would you be willing to be an anonymous case study? If so, please go into more detail about your story

Send your answers, and any other information you think is relevant, to casework@unlock.org.uk. We have a strict policy of confidentiality and will not share any of your personal details – anything we use will be anonymised.

To give us time to build in your evidence, we need to receive your thoughts and evidence by Sunday 26th June at the latest, although the earlier the better.

Make sure you respond too!

The more responses that the government receive, the better. So, as well as sending us your comments, you can respond to the consultation directly. If you can, send us the details of what you submit.

Thank you for your support.

More information

  1. You can read the Government consultation.
  2. Find out more about our work on this issue on our policy page for disqualification by association.
  3. For practical information on how DbA works, read the guidance on our information site.
  4. Find out more about sending your details to us and what we do with it.
  5. Discuss this consultation on our online forum.

Monthly summary – May 2016

Welcome to our monthly summary for May 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.

Information on the internet, online and through search engines like Google

  • Having internet search results removed – As a result of the number of enquiries our helpline receives from people seeking assistance in making applications to Google and other search engines, we’ve produced a new search engine removal request template which can be used when making requests to Google to have search results removed.

Work and volunteering

  • Working abroad and the use of Police Certificates – This advice post looks at the way that Police Certificates are used when applying for work abroad and the importance of being clear about the entry/work visa requirements which are needed for the country you wish to move to.

Finance

  • Benefits – We’ve updated our information to include a section on national insurance contributions and contribution based benefits while you’re in prison.

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.

Successes – Moving on with fire in my belly – ‘Back in June last year, after almost nine years in prison, I finally made it to open conditions. Wow, at long last, I could start to imagine a life for myself away from prison. Soon after arriving at my new abode, I met with my offender supervisor who told me that In order to complete one final piece of offending behaviour work, I needed to attend a series of meetings with the local Fire Service. She didn’t expand on this and foolishly, I expected it to be a bit like one of those fire talks you get when you’re at school….’

Struggles and Stigma – Why can’t my childhood mistakes be left in the past? – ‘Like many teenagers, I suffered at the hands of the school bully and like many teenagers, the day came when I finally decided that enough was enough and retaliated. The result was a fight in the school playground when I was 15 years old ….’

Successes – University is possibly – but you’ll have to fight for it – ‘Access to education and training is essential for those with criminal convictions who want to move on with their lives. However, gaining an academic place on any course when you have unspent criminal convictions – especially ones of a sexual nature – makes it virtually impossible. I found this out the hard way when I applied to do a course and was twice refused a place. I did eventually manage to overturn their decision and here’s what I’ve learnt along the way…..’

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.

Criminal record disclosure training endorsed by the Probation Institute

Our criminal record disclosure training has now been endorsed by the Probation Institute meaning that we are now a Probation Institute Endorsed Learning Provider. Read Christopher Stacey’s comments on the news here.

Our approach to working with other organisations

We are seeing a rise in the number of enquiries from service-providers to our helpline which, was predominantly set up and funded to provide support for individuals themselves. We’ve recently published a document which clarifies what support we can offer organisations and how it can be accessed.

Unlock in prison!

In February 2016, we were invited to visit Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville prisons to present workshops on criminal records and disclosure. Read more about our experiences here.

Unlock speaks on Radio Stoke on the issue of old/minor convictions

Unlock’s Christopher Stacey spoke on Radio Stoke about the continuing problem of old/minor convictions showing up on criminal record checks. The programme is available here to download.

Unlock submits evidence to the review of Youth Justice

Unlock were asked to provide a written submission to the review of Youth Justice which is being led by Charlie Taylor. Download a copy of our submission here.

Were the effects of a caution explained to you?

We’re interested in seeing copies of cautions that people have accepted in the last two years. Different police forces give different guidance and we believe that many individuals have accepted cautions without fully understanding the long-term effects. Find out how your can help.

Were the effects of accepting a caution explained to you? Send us a copy of what you were given

Our helpline receives enquiries every day from individuals who have accepted cautions without feeling like they understand the effects of it.

The Home Office guidance on cautions states that ‘the significance of the admission of guilt in agreeing to accept a caution must be fully and clearly explained to the individual before they are cautioned.’

However, different police forces give different guidance and have different forms in place.

We’re interested in seeing copies of cautions that people have accepted in the last two years. This will give us a good idea of the type of written information people were given before they signed to accept the caution.

So, if you’ve received a caution from the police in the last two years and have a copy of what you were given at the time, please send us a copy. We don’t need your personal details, so feel free to blank these out. Send the details to casework@unlock.org.uk.

You can attach a copy of your caution (and any other information you were given) as an image or a PDF to the email, or you can send us a copy in the post (please don’t send originals).

There’s no particular deadline to this, but if you could send us copies by Friday 17th June, we’ll review the ones we’ve received at that point.

Thanks for your support.

For more information

For practical self-help information – See our information on simple cautions

What we do with your evidence – Find out more about what we do with your experiences and evidence

Are you looking to have ‘Google’ search results removed?

We have added a new information page, information on the internet, online and through search engines like Google, which brings together our information, advice and other useful resources relating to information that may be available about you on the internet through search engines such as Google.

Following the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling in May 2014, which enables individuals to request the removal of information from Google search results, our helpline has received many enquiries from people seeking assistance in making applications to Google. We’ve produced a new search engine removal request which you can use as a guide when making your case, and then copy/paste into the online forms that the different search engines have.

New information page – Information on the internet, online and through search engines such as Google

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – For more information go to information on the internet, online and through search engines like Google 
  2. To read personal stories – You can read stories about internet issues posted on theRecord, our online magazine, under the category of the ‘Google effect‘.
  3. Our policy work – Read about the policy work we’re doing on the ‘Google effect’ and spent convictions.
  4. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

Working abroad and the use of Police Certificates

Many people who have a criminal record consider moving abroad as a way to ‘escape’ their past and improve their chances of employment.

People looking to emigrate to countries such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Caymen Islands, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA have always needed to apply to the National Police Chiefs’ Council Criminal Records Office (ACRO) to get a copy of their Police Certificate as part of their visa process.

Police Certificates contain details of all convictions, reprimands, warnings and cautions which have been recorded on the Police National Computer (PNC) although it doesn’t disclose anything that is eligible to be ‘stepped down’. Read more about the step down model here.

If your criminal record has been ‘stepped down’ then your Police Certificate will come back with ‘No Live Trace’ recorded. Anyone who sees this, and understands the phase, can assume that you have a criminal record from the past, even if they can’t see the details.

If this applies to you, then we advise that you contact ACRO to obtain details of the conviction information which was not disclosed on the certificate. The country concerned will probably want you to disclose everything, and they’ll know from your Police Certificate that there’s something on your record. By getting these further details from ACRO, you’ll be clear about what’s been recorded on the PNC and you’ll be able to contact the relevant Embassy and disclose the information.

A recent case

We have recently heard from somebody who has been working successfully in the Middle East for many years without needing to disclose a very old conviction. A couple of months ago, they were offered a well-paid job in Saudi Arabia for a company they’ve worked with in the past. However, as a result of a new work residence visa process, they were asked to provide their employer with a copy of their Police Certificate.

Their conviction was spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and is eligible for filtering from DBS Certificates. As a result, they wouldn’t have to disclose it to employers in the UK that require basic, standard or enhanced checks. However, because of the statement ‘No Live Trace’ their new employers may be aware that there is something ‘lurking in the background’.

They told us:

After a lot of soul searching and stress, I’ve decided that rather than risk damaging my previous good character and reputation, I would turn down this great job due to “personal reasons”. I count my blessings that this is a fairly new requirement and I’ve been able to work in the Middle East for many years. However, I do wonder whether his really is an acceptable rehabilitation.

Although ACRO state on their website that a Police Certificate should not be used for employment purposes, in the case of a work visa, it does become directly related.

The lesson here is that if you are thinking of living or working abroad, be clear what the entry/work visa requirements are for the country you’ll be moving to. If it’s somewhere that requires a Police Certificate, then it may be in your best interest to be upfront and honest about your criminal record to your potential employer as it’s possible that they’ll become aware of it even if they haven’t asked you during the application process. This could potentially save you money as well as a lot of unnecessary worry.

For more information

  1. For practical self-help information – More information on Police Certificates 
  2. To read personal stories – You can read stories about working abroad and Police Certificates posted on theRecord, our online magazine, under the category/tag of travelling to the USA 
  3. To discuss this issue with others – Read and share your experiences on our online forum
  4. Questions – If you have any questions about this, you can contact our helpline.

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