NEW VACANCY: Performance and Monitoring Manager

Location: London
Salary: Up to £30,000 depending on experience

User Voice exists to reduce re-offending by presenting the voice of offenders and ex-offenders to decision makers in the criminal justice system.

We establish and support Prison, Community and Youth Councils; undertake projects which enable agencies to access and act upon the insights of offenders; and present the case for service user engagement to a wide range of key audiences. 

User Voice seeks to recruit a Performance and Monitoring Manager, leading the monitoring of all projects across the country in order to report to commissioners and to ensure continuous performance improvement, based in London.

This is a fantastic opportunity to work in an innovative and growing charity that is at the forefront of gaining insight from criminal justice service users. User Voice is at a critical stage of its development moving into a period of growth that requires new national performance management processes to be implemented to enable this to happen successfully.

The successful candidates will have a track record at a senior level of performance and project management to a high standard and a strong commitment to the values of User Voice.

We particularly welcome applications from ex-offenders and from all sections of the community regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age or disability.

Find the full job description, person specification and application details here.

Applicants should send a CV and a statement of their suitability outlining their experience against each point of the Person Specification to User Voice, 20 Newburn Street, London, SE11 5PJ or recruitment@uservoice.org.

Deadline for applications: Friday 23 May 2014.

Innovation Award from the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund

User Voice is now one of the 17 innovations awarded by the Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund, a partnership between Nesta and the Cabinet Office.

The Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund supports a wide range of organisations and projects, among which organisation such as User Voice who aim to support and improve public services.

The award will help us expand our Council model and further test our impact.

For more information on Nesta and great projects funded by the CSA-IF, click here.

Read about Through the Gate pilots supported by the Cabinet Office and Nesta here.

New Service User Council at Merseyside Probation Trust

On the 11th of April 2014, User Voice hosted a co-production workshop in Liverpool.
This event was the culmination of our consultation process and allowed service users and MPT staff members to discuss issues and present recommendations to improve the service at MPT. The workshop constitutes the basis for the first Service User Council session. 

Read more about the new Service User Council at Merseyside Probation Trust here.

EUROPEAN INDUCTION SUPPORT FOR ADULT LEARNING PROFESSIONALS

Check out User Voice’s most recent and new project that we are excited to be a part of!

User Voice are excited to be one of ten partners across Europe involved in a 24 month project.

In short, the project aims to improve the standard of prison education and the quality of teaching within prisons in the EU. A comprehensive plan has been designed to provide prison educators with specialised training in order to increase prisoners' chances of rehabilitation and reintegration. 

Diligent study shows that at both European and national level, there is no consistent approach to what a prison teacher is, what the key skills are and how to assist best adult learning professionals in becoming one. Therefore, this project takes the challenge to show that a mix of public institutions and private organisations can turn a potentially disadvantaged profession into a successful and rewarding qualification by providing tailored resources through common initiatives and collaboration. 

This project will last for 24 months and finish at the end of 2015. There are 9 other European partners that are involved in this project and we are all working together, having been assigned particular 'work packages' to make sure this project is a success. User Voice is the partner that is representing the UK and the UK criminal justice system.

For more information please take a look at the project website at: www.eisalp.eu

Please also follow the project on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

All these pages will host discussions and we regularly post interesting articles and reports about prison, prison education and the CJS so get commenting, too!

For our Facebook page click here

To view our Twitter page click here  

Access our LinkedIn page here

NEW VOLUNTEER ROLE: Event Intern

Job title: Events Intern (voluntary)

Salary: Travel and Food expenses reimbursed

Location: London, W9

Hours: 2/3 days a week for 3 months (flexible)

Context 

CanDo Coffee is a social enterprise selling London’s favourite, Monmouth Coffee, from Piaggio Scooters on premium pitches across the city while offering employment opportunities to disadvantaged and excluded people.

Mark Johnson, founder of CanDo Coffee, once lived on the streets of Westminster addicted to heroin, and is now an award winning social entrepreneur, Guardian columnist, Ashoka Fellow and bestselling author.

CanDo is inspired by his success story and CanDo attitude. 

This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to gain experience, skills and knowledge while contributing to an innovative start-up with social aims.

Key Responsibilities 

• Identifying and booking events (including festivals, conferences, parades and sporting events)
• Administering and booking private booking requests
• Maintaining events database
• Promoting CanDo Coffee to potential events customers
• Assisting staff and CEO with tasks as and when they arise

Person Specification 

• Reliable and self-organised
• Ability to follow instructions and work independently
• Motivated and enthusiastic with a CanDo attitude
• Highly organised with ability to multi-task
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of Word and Excel

What this role can offer 

• The opportunity to be involved with a start up at an exciting stage in its development
• The space to develop skills in a practical working environment
• A valuable experience contributing to real social change
• Reimbursement of reasonable travel and lunch expenses

To apply please send a CV and Cover Letter to Beth Kennedy at beth@candocoffee.com

NEW VOLUNTEER ROLE: Data Assistant Intern

Job title: Data Assistant Intern (voluntary)
Salary: Travel and Food expenses reimbursed
Location: London, W9
Hours: 2/3 days a week for 3 months (flexible)

Context 

CanDo Coffee is a social enterprise selling London’s favourite, Monmouth Coffee, from Piaggio Scooters on premium pitches across the city while offering employment opportunities to disadvantaged and excluded people.

Mark Johnson, founder of CanDo Coffee, once lived on the streets of Westminster addicted to heroin, and is now an award winning social entrepreneur, Guardian columnist, Ashoka Fellow and bestselling author.

CanDo is inspired by his success story and CanDo attitude.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to gain experience, skills and knowledge while contributing to an innovative start-up with social aims.

Key Responsibilities 

• Assisting with the maintenance of various databases including financial, HR and outcomes monitoring.
• Compiling reports/Analysing data.
• Supporting staff and CEO with other tasks that may arise.

Person Specification 

• Excellent knowledge of Excel
• Reliable and self-organised
• Ability to follow instructions and work independently
• Motivated and enthusiastic with a CanDo attitude
• Highly organised with ability to multi-task
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

What this role can offer 

• The opportunity to be involved with a start up at an exciting stage in its development
• The space to develop skills in a practical working environment
• A valuable experience contributing to real social change
• Reimbursement of reasonable travel and lunch expenses

To apply please send a CV and Cover Letter to Beth Kennedy at beth@candocoffee.com

User Voice 5th Birthday!

Since being founded in February 2009 and running our first Prison Council pilots in HMP Isle of Wight, User Voice has grown significantly, gaining recognition as a leading ex-offender led charity promoting the voice of people in the criminal justice system.

In this time we have…

• Grown to employing over 30 staff, nearly 85% of whom are ex-offenders
• Worked with over 5,000  people in and around the criminal justice system
• Grown to represent the voices of around 15% of people in prisons and currently on probation
• Secured 100% major contract retention

All of this has been during a period of economic downturn, unprecedented public sector cuts and significant ongoing criminal justice reforms, especially to the probation service.

This is because decision makers and service providers are increasingly seeing the benefit of listening to service users, offenders and ex-offenders, in order to make services better and reduce spending.

In fact we think it's the only real innovation left.

That’s why we are working in probation areas across the country (London, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Cumbria, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Merseyside), in prisons that cater for both young and adult prisoners and people on short and long term sentences (Maidstone, Aylesbury, Rye Hill, Wolds, Birmingham and Buckley Hall) and youth offending teams (Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Leeds, Bradford, Stoke and Somerset) establishing our Council model.

And in this time we worked with some of the most important decision makers in the Ministry of Justice, Youth Justice Board, Office of the Children’s Commissioner, College of Social Work and Department of Health, to name a few.

We couldn’t have done this without the support of many people and organisations. They are too long to list here but you know who you are.

More important are the people with convictions, giving up their time, to make a positive impact on rehabilitation services, supporting others like them in their process of change and ultimately becoming more active citizens.

That’s what we are all about and we hope you will continue to support us to give more people the opportunity to come back into society as positive role models for others.