Exciting New Through The Gate Pilots Supported By The Cabinet Office And Nesta

We are really excited to announce that with the support of the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action and Nesta, User Voice will be piloting our Council model Through the Gate in 3 regions of England.

Our vision has always been to operate Councils through the gate, so that Council members can be recruited, trained and elected in prison and continue this role and further development on release, getting peer support through the gate.

This vision is even more applicable in light of the Coalition Government’s plans under Transforming Rehabilitation,  in which every prisoner will spend at least the last 3 months of their sentence in a prison in the area into which they will be released, receiving through the gate support.

Support from the Cabinet Office has now enabled us to pilot this approach for the first time and represents an exciting time to evaluate this joined up model.

Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action

In April 2013 the Cabinet Office launched the Centre for Social Action with the goal of encouraging people to make a difference through social action. 

As part of the Centre for Social Action, the Cabinet Office has awarded a grant to Nesta to manage the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund. 

Through the programme, Nesta will provide financial and non-financial support to help grow the impact and reach of innovations that mobilise people's energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services.

User Voice’s Council model

The Council model provides a structured and effective means by which prisoners and other criminal justice service users can voice collective problems and solutions and provides a reference point for the design, delivery and evaluation of new and existing policies, procedures and services. 

The model distils the myriad of issues into general themes, rather than personal issues, in a democratic process. 

The model is flexible enough to adapt according to an individual prison (Prison Councils) or community (Service User Councils) environment.

              

INVITATION TO TENDER: Impact Evaluation

User Voice represents the voices of around 15% of criminal justice service users in England and Wales, through its representative bodies (Councils) established in prisons and probation areas throughout England.

User Voice is unique because its work is led and delivered by ex-offenders. We exist to reduce offending by working with the most marginalised people in and around the criminal justice system to ensure that practitioners and policy-makers hear their voices.

As a result of support from the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action and Nesta, User Voice is piloting its' Council model ‘through the gate’, from custody to community. The model distils the myriad of issues into general themes, rather than personal issues, through a democratic process.

This therefore represents an exciting time to evaluate this joined up model, especially given the focus on through the gate services in Transforming Rehabilitation.

We want to appoint an external evaluator to assess the impact of this new approach in three pilot areas, the North East, the West Midlands and London. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced person or organisation to gain access to a unique user-led approach to engaging people in the criminal justice system in bringing about its' reform.

Up to £70,000 is available for a year-long evaluation. Click here for more information.

The deadline for responses is 3 March 2014.