In the article he states:

Despite repeated assurances from Department of Work and Pensions that the Work Programme would eventually result in the third sector’s increased involvement as sub contractors, to date there has been little indication that any significant resource transfer is happening between private and third sector entities.  While some progress is being made in establishing specialist activity agreements it has to be noted that any sub contracting reduces the profit margins of the Prime contractors which in Scotland are Ingeus and Working Links.  The loss of highly successful programmes such as Progress2Work/Link-Up have left thousands of people with multiple barriers to employment such as criminal records, substance misuse and mental health issues with little in the way of specialised services.  Figures issued to date indicate that only a small number of these will actually find their way into and stay with the work programme, but funding bodies up and down the land claim that since employability is now being dealt with by the Work Programme they no longer need to find finance for such activity.  The levels of service cuts across the sector in this field are staggering and have led SCVO to comment recently that the whole initiative is contributing to the effective dismantling of the third sector’s role in offender employability.

Read the full article here.

Includem Poster

Evidence for a Better Life, Includem’s Activity and Impact Report 2010-11 has been published. It reports on significant achievements including the launch of A Better Life modules for Includem practitioners containing the practical knowledge, tools and theoretical context for Includem’s persistent, flexible 24/7 model; a successful Glasgow Gangs pilot in partnership with Strathclyde Police and the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence to work with the most hardest to reach of the young people who police identified as causing most concern in their communities; a very positive evaluation of their Fife service to prevent admission to care, or to return young people from care; and the achievements of Lottery funded Transitional Support bridging the gap between intensive support and adult life. The report design was inspired by Includem’s winning poster from the international Health Assets Conference illustrating Includem’s asset-based approach to helping the most vulnerable and challenging young people achieve better lives.

Letter to the Justice Secretary.

In it Prof Spencer says:

Visiting Committees are constituted to ensure proper treatment of prisoners – and that role is still required, as indeed are our commitments to the various international treaties, conventions and protocols which exist to ensure proper treatment of prisoners.

The report has a foreword by Dr Tapio Lappi-Seppälä, Director of the National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Finland. Finland is a country with the same size of population of Scotland and some of the same health and social problems. However, its rate of imprisonment is less than 40% of the Scottish rate and its prison population is declining.

In his foreword Dr Lappi-Seppälä comments that Finnish imprisonment rates have declined in the past 10 years whilst those in Scotland have risen and comments:

“The report gives a simple explanation for the increased number of prisoners in Scotland. At the same time as the proportion of offenders receiving custodial sentences is increasing, the length of sentences has become longer. This double change lifted the Scottish incarceration rate from the level of 100 (per 100,000 population) in the early 1990s to the level of around 160. The obvious way to reverse this trend is to reduce either the number of prison sentences, or the length of prison terms (or both) [. . .] There is no reason to assume that increased use of imprisonment explains declining crime in Scotland.”

Speaking today Professor Alec Spencer, the Convenor of the Consortium said:

“Despite commitments by successive governments to reduce the number of people in prison, the numbers continue to rise year on year More dramatically, over the last 10 years, the number of women in prison has doubled compared with a 31% rise for men over the same 10 year period. We welcome the current Commission on Women Offenders chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini and look forward to its report in February 2012. There have been some real improvements in the system but the rate of incarceration remains a continuing issue.”

The report includes an action plan on reducing the number of women in the Scottish criminal justice system.

PRESS RELEASE

Biggest-ever child rights discussion day to look at prisoners’ children

Children whose parents are in prison will come under the UN spotlight for the first time ever on Friday.  Families Outside, a Scottish charity that works solely on behalf of families affected by imprisonment will be one of four Scottish delegates attending.

At its 2011 Day of General Discussion (DGD), the Committee on the Rights of the Child will explore the rights of ‘children of incarcerated parents’. These children have committed no crime but are deeply affected by their parents’ involvement in the criminal justice system. Almost uniquely, children themselves will speak at the main session of the DGD, which with up to 250 participants is expected to be the biggest ever.

“Children of prisoners are often referred to as the invisible victims of the penal system”, said Oliver Robertson, co-convenor of the NGO Group for the CRC’s Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents. “We hope that this event will bring them to centre stage.”

An estimated 16,500 children each year in Scotland experience a parent’s imprisonment – more than experience a parent’s divorce.  Despite affecting 800,000 children across Europe and millions of children worldwide, this is the first time that this neglected issue has been discussed substantively anywhere in the UN system. Alongside two prisoners’ children, specialists from Brazil, Pakistan and South Africa will also speak to the DGD.

Dr Nancy Loucks, Chief Executive of Families Outside, said “We are pleased to be representing Scotland along with our colleagues and that this issue is finally being recognised.  We look forward to feeding in to the UN’s Discussion and informing Scottish policy in turn.”

“This is an issue where no one country or region is a clear world leader”, said Rachel Brett of the Quaker United Nations Office, which has worked on this issue since 2004. “ The DGD therefore gives us a unique opportunity to share ideas with people from around the globe who have worked with children of prisoners day in, day out.”

The DGD will look both at babies and children who live in prison with their parents and those children who remain outside. It is accompanied by an exhibition showing children’s experiences of parental incarceration through the words and drawings of children themselves.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Day of General Discussion 2011 is on the topic ‘children of incarcerated parents’. It takes place from 10.00 to 18.00 on Friday 30 September in Room XVII and XI of the Palais des Nations, Geneva.

1. Information about the DGD, including the agenda, background information and written submissions from around the world, is available online at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/discussion2011.htm.

1. For further information and/or interviews, please contact:

Dr Nancy Loucks, Chief Executive, Families Outside, nancy.loucks@familiesoutside.org.uk, Tel: +44 131 557 9800

Oliver Robertson, Programme Officer, Quaker United Nations Office and co-convenor of the NGO Group for the CRC’s Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents, orobertson@quno.ch, Tel: +41 22 748 48 01

Alessandra Aula, Associate Secretary-General of BICE and co-convenor of the NGO Group for the CRC’s Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents, alessandra.aula@bicr.org, Tel: +41 22 731 32 48 (specifically with regards to Africa)

Aïsha Rahamatali, Advocacy Officer, Defence for Children International, advocacy@dci-is.org, Tel: + 41 22 734 05 58 (specifically with regards to Asia).

1. The DGD will be webcast live via Ustream. To watch the plenary and working group discussion on ‘children living in and visiting prison’, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crcdgdwebcast between 10.00 and 18.00 CET on Friday 30 September. To watch the working group discussion on ‘children on the outside’, go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crcdgdwebcast2 between 10.50 and 17.20 CET on Friday 30 September.

1. The exhibition, ‘Collateral Convicts: If my parent goes to prison, what happens to me?’ will be on show at the Bar Serpent at the Palais des Nations until Friday 30^th September. Images from the exhibition available on request.

Action for Children Scotland, Barnardo’s Scotland, CHILDREN 1st, Aberlour and Quarriers all played a vital role in shaping the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) legislation which was introduced in the Scottish Parliament in February 2010, and received Royal Assent in January 2011. Now the five influential charities have been nominated for the Devolved Administrations Campaign of the Year in the annual Public Affairs News awards programme.

Speaking on behalf of the five charities, Paul Carberry, operational director of children’s services at Action for Children Scotland, said:

“By working together, the country’s leading children’s charities have been able to influence the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act; the most significant piece of legislation focusing on vulnerable children and young people in Scotland since the UK Parliament’s Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

“We were able to promote a listening culture for the children’s hearings system by listening ourselves. We consulted with volunteers, staff and, most importantly, the children and young people who use our services. This allowed us to significantly improve legislation in Scotland, which will now deliver better outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.”

Scotland operates a unique volunteer-led system, which has taken a welfare based approach to support thousands of vulnerable children who have offended and/or require care and protection, and helped them to turn their lives around. Through joint working the five national charities were able to ensure that the needs and interests of the largest possible number of vulnerable children were represented, and considered, throughout the legislative process.

The alliance of charities is one of three nominees in the ‘Devolved Administrations Campaign of the Year’ category. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in London this November.

More information on the conference will be available soon.