NE Criminal Justice Forum
7th March, Sunderland, 10am – 3pm

Come along to hear the latest local and national developments in criminal justice, and use your experiences to inform Clinks’ national policy work. The forums allow you to step back from your crucial day-to-day front-line work to see the bigger picture and context in which you are working.

The forum will provide an update from the Clink's policy team around:

• The Ministry of Justice's review of probation services

•  Clinks’ State of the sector report 2018

•  The Farmer Review into supporting family ties for women in contact with the criminal justice system

•  The Rough Sleepers Strategy proposals around improving accommodation on release from prison

•  The NHS’ recently published long term plan and commitments relating to the criminal justice system.

There will also be an opportunity to hear the challenges and opportunities facing voluntary sector organisation's from across the North East.

National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) 2019 annual survey now open

Take part for your chance to win £50 high street vouchers

The NCJAA would like to hear from its members so they can provide the best network they can for artists, arts organisations and criminal justice practitioners delivering innovative work across the country.

The annual survey is your chance to tell them about the important work you do - and to let them know how you would like to be supported Your responses will shape the way they work in the future and be used in end of year reports.

As a thank you for taking part, they are offering the chance for you to win £50 high street vouchers.

The deadline for completing the survey is Friday 15th March.

I can’t believe it is almost the end of February all ready. Not sure where the time has gone since Christmas. I have been out and about a lot this month visiting members and hearing about some of the challenges they have been facing developing projects in prisons. I also attended the York Probation consultation event to hear the sector’s views on proposed changes. I have also found myself in Leeds and London to attend Clinks and MEAM staff meetings and training. I am excited to have some great speakers for the next criminal justice forum on 7th March, and do hope you will join us to hear what is happening at a national and local level.  

I hope you enjoy this bumper edition of news and information from the criminal justice system in the North East, if you would like to contribute to next Month’s edition please email me Natalie.maidment@clinks.org

Specialist Domestic Abuse Court Advisors – Northumbria Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

The Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner (OPCC) for Northumbria are looking for experienced Domestic Abuse practitioners/Independent Domestic Violence Advisors to provide a high quality, client-led support service for domestic abuse complainants whose cases are being heard in Specialist Domestic Abuse Court (SDAC) and remand court hearings in the northern magistrates courts, primarily Bedlington.

Employed by Northumbria Police the successful candidates will work closely with the OPCC, Victims First Northumbria and local specialist services to make contact with individual domestic abuse complainants and to provide information to the court on their current circumstances and related support needs.

Middlesbrough Council Supporting People Consultation
Closing date 24th February

Middlesborough Council have launched a consultation on the approach to commissioning services for people with needs around homelessness, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. They are looking for your views on the proposed savings to these services, along with your views on how they should shape services in the future.

HMP Durham Inspectorate Report

HMP Durham, a heavily overcrowded prison, was found by inspectors to have significant problems with drugs and violence and worryingly high levels of self-harm and self-inflicted and drug-related deaths.

Durham became a reception prison in 2017. Around 70% of the 900 men in the jail were either on remand or subject to recall and over 70% had been in Durham for less than three months. On average, 118 new prisoners arrived each week. Significant numbers of prisoners said they arrived at the jail feeling depressed or suicidal. Self-harm was very high.

Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said: “Our overriding concern was around the lack of safety. Since the last inspection in October 2016, there had been seven self-inflicted deaths, and it was disappointing to see that the response to recommendations from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (which investigates deaths) had not been addressed with sufficient vigour or urgency."

Funding for Prisons Project

Nepacs have received funding from HM Prison and Probation Service to develop a new project at two north east prisons to support young men and women who have experienced being in care.

Children in care and care leavers account for less than 1% of the general population (DfE 2013), yet are vastly over-represented in the Criminal Justice System with over 25% of the adult prison population having previously been in care (Berman, G. and Dar, A. 2013).

 The Nepacs’ project aims to develop support for young women at HMP&YOI Low Newton (in Durham) and young men at HMP Deerbolt (in Barnard Castle) who have had experience of being in care and may have lost social support networks in the community.

The Changing Role of Chaplaincy in the Changing Criminal Justice System
5th March 12.30 – 2.30pm, Collingwood College.

A seminar led by Rev Kate Brooke, Managing Chaplain HMP Holme House. The seminar aims to raise awareness of the changing role of the Chaplaincy within prisons and to consider what its role should be and how it might be made more effective. 

The seminar will be of interest to:

• chaplains working the criminal justice system and similar institutions

• staff in prison, other custodial settings, hospitals and in the community

• researchers keen to liaise with communities of practice interested in this underexplored field

• commissioners wishing to engage more with research and development in this area

Adfam Regional Forum
6th March, South Shields, 11am – 3pm

The next North East Adfam Regional forum will be in South Shields on Wednesday 6th March 11am – 3pm. It will be held at South Tyneside Adult Carers Service, CGL - Salvation Army Building, Wawn Street, South Shields, NE33 4EB.

The forum is attended by managers and practitioners from family support services across the region, as well as those who work in the local prisons and family members themselves. It is a thriving forum which discusses and enjoys presentations on a wide range of topics.

Lunch won’t be provided but there are some cafes and shops nearby. 

“Be an LGBT Ally” Workshop
28 March 2019, 1 – 3pm, Riverside Community Health Project

Feeling welcome, feeling included, feeling valued – these are important qualities people need for their mental wellbeing, their sense of belonging, purpose, confidence and to reach their potential.

In this interactive workshop, we will consider some of the particular challenges LGBT people face in society and consider strategies for creating an inclusive workplace culture for colleagues and clients.

The workshop will include the following:

• Creating an inclusive workplace for clients and colleagues

• How might you be a good ally to an LGBT person?

• Hate crime and hate incidents

• Embedding good practice

 Cost £5/pp to be refunded on attendance.

Hidden Sentence Training

To help raise awareness of the needs of prisoners’ families and how agencies can better support them Nepacs deliver ‘Hidden Sentence’ training to professionals from health, local authorities, education, criminal justice and the voluntary sector.

So far over 1,700 professionals across the north east have received the training including teachers, social workers, police, prison and probation workers, mental health workers, midwives, health visitors, district nurses, GPs, school nurses, offender health, voluntary sector staff etc. Within local authorities this is particularly relevant to health, social care, public health, housing, substance misuse, youth offending teams, safeguarding, children’s services and education teams.

Nepacs are currently advertising Hidden Sentence training courses across the north east for 2019.

The Dates are:

• 19 March 2019 - Sunderland

• 30 April 2019 - Stockton

• 21 May 2019 - Gateshead

Leaders with Lived Experience Pilot Programme 
Deadline 25th February 2019

This is a pilot programme providing National Lottery grants of between £20,000 and £50,000 to support lived experience leadership. A lived experience leader is someone who uses their first-hand experience of a social issue to create positive change for, and with, communities and people they share those experiences with. At this stage, they expect to award between 15-20 grants.

Bright Ideas Fund
Deadline 9th April 2019

The Bright Ideas Fund is funded by Power to Change, the independent trust supporting community businesses in England, and delivered by Locality, the national network for community organisations, in partnership with Co-operatives UK, the Plunkett Foundation and Groundwork UK. The Fund supports new community business ideas through the start-up and planning stages with tailored business support, to the implementation stage with grants.

Organisations supported will be less than five years old locally rooted, accountable to – and trading for the benefit of - the local community and delivering broad community impact.

A webinar about the Fund will be held at 11am – 12pm on Wednesday 13 March 2019.

Warburtons Families Matter Community Grants Programme
Deadline 15th May 2019

The aim of these small grants is to support projects, activities and organisations that will be of real direct benefit to families and have a direct and tangible social impact on people’s lives.

Organisations should be targeting key social issues and be able to provide evidence of the impact of their work. Funding is available for projects that focus on supporting families that need the most help and are in line with the following social themes:

• Challenges – health, financial stability, worklessness.

• Opportunities: health education, aspiration, employability and skills.

Community grants can be used for something specific that will benefit the cause the organisation supports, such as buying equipment or supporting a community day.

Anchor Foundation
Deadline 31st July 2019 

The Anchor Foundation provides grants to Christian Charities that encourage social inclusion through ministries of healing and the arts.

They will consider applications for projects abroad or in the UK, for either capital or revenue funding, but only in exceptional circumstances will grants be given for building work.

Allen Lane Foundation - Social Cohesion Programme
No deadline  

This is a new funding programme, which will focus on funding projects that aim to proactively break down barriers and tensions between different groups of people, and build a more cohesive and inclusive community for all. The aims are as follows:

• Proactively work towards building better community cohesion and trust, and encouraging respect and understanding in the local area.

• Proactively promote the inclusion of marginalised groups and individuals in the life of the local community.

• Fund work which breaks down barriers and tensions in the local community thereby reducing feelings of division and “them and us”.

The Foundation is seeking applications from community-led grassroots groups and organisations that have a focus of work being at a very local/community level; this could be a housing estate or distinct community.

Applications will be particularly encouraged from areas of high deprivation - but not exclusively - and the Foundation is keen to support communities in coming up with their own solutions to local issues of division. New initiatives and those that may have been tried before or are on-going are considered as long as the work has lasting benefits for those people the projects are aimed at.

In 2018, of the 153 grants awarded 112 were single grants with the remainder being for two or three years. The majority ranged from £750 to £15,000.

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