User Voice and HM Inspectorate of Probation begin work on new Service User Engagement Pilot

User Voice and HM Inspectorate of Probation have begun work on an exciting new Service User Engagement Pilot.

User Voice will pilot a service user engagement project as part of the Full Joint Inspection (FJI) Programme, which is a joint inspection programme led by HM Inspectorate of Probation and involving a number of partner inspectorates, to reflect the breadth of partners involved in youth offending work.

This pilot is taking place in a Youth Offending Team in June and July 2013 and involves ensuring the views of young people who have offended and their parents and carers are included as part of the Full Joint Inspection Programme.  The pilot will end with a co-production event involving elected youth reps from the inspected Youth Offending Team (YOT) engaging with YOT staff to discuss findings from the pilot.

“HMI Probation have rightly included an element in the Full Joint Inspection of Youth Offending Teams on the involvement of service users in the development and delivery of services. User Voice has consistently demonstrated that one of the best ways to gain these views is by ex-service users themselves facilitating this work. This really is a huge step forward, recognising that participation by young people and their families is absolutely vital in obtaining successful outcomes.”
Bob Ashford, Advisor, User Voice

HM Inspectorate of Probation is the inspecting body of Youth Offending Teams in England and Wales. It is an independent Inspectorate, funded by the Ministry of Justice, and reporting directly to the Secretary of State on the effectiveness of work with adults and children and young people who have offended aimed at reducing re-offending and protecting the public.

For further details contact Anne-Marie Douglas: amdouglas@uservoice.org.

Bob Ashford and Youth Rep Jude Jubey speak at the Criminal Justice Convention 2013

On the 2^nd July 2013 User Voice staff and volunteers attended and spoke at the Criminal Justice Convention 2013 on reducing offending and reoffending.

Bob Ashford, founder of Wipetheslateclean and User Voice Advisor, chaired two sessions and spoke at another two during the event.

Jude Jubey, a member of one of our Youth Advisory Groups, joined Bob in a session where they used their own experiences to reflect on the issues associated with criminal convictions, employment and volunteering and the long-term impact of criminal records on people’s lives.

They both also participated in a panel discussion with other youth justice professionals; the discussion, titled ‘Catch Them Young’, included John Drew, Professor in Comparative Youth Justice, Cédric Foussard, Director of International Affairs and International Juvenile Justice Observatory, and Kate Morris, Deputy Chief Executive for Effective Practice, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.

The event was a fantastic opportunity to create more awareness of what User Voice do among many influential people from the YJB, police, probation and other organisations that attended.

Jude Jubey was praised for his inspiring speech about the issues he has encountered with employment and volunteering from his criminal conviction.

WATCH Mark Johnson give evidence to the Select Committee on Prisoner Voting

This morning User Voice founder Mark Johnson gave evidence to the Joint Select Committee on Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill.

The role of the Committee is to consider and report on the issue of prisoner voting, in light of the UK's current blanket ban on prisoner voting being in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. You can watch a video of the entire 90 minute meeting below:

Also giving evidence to the Committee were Juliet Lyon, Director of The Prison Reform Trust and Rachel Halford, Acting Director of Women in Prison.

One of the things discussed by Mark during the Committee meeting was User Voice's work in setting up Prison Councils in several prisons across the country, which you can read more about here.

In 2011 we published a report on the setting up of a Prison Council at HMP Isle of Wight called 'The Power Inside - The Role of Prison Councils', which you can read here.

You can also read a summary of the 'Power Inside' report here. This describes how Council members at HMP Isle of Wight were given training by market research company So What?, to enable them to undertake a survey of prisoners on their attitudes to voting.

Around 560 prisoners completed the survey, which revealed that just 35% of those eligible voted in the 2005 general election. However, 66% of respondents said that they intended to vote in the next national elections (if able to do so).

Significantly, when split into those that engaged in the Prison Council process and those that didn't, the former group was roughly 50% more likely to want to vote in the next national elections.

Service User Reps meet Prisons Minister at MoJ

13 service users involved in User Voice projects across the country visited the Ministry of Justice yesterday in order to speak with the Prisons, Probation and Youth Justice Minister Jeremy Wright.

This was a unique opportunity for the Government to find out from current service users what they think of the proposed changes that are about to take place within the criminal justice system.

The 13 Reps spoke from their own personal experience, but also articulated the opinions of the service users they represent as members of User Voice Community Councils in London, Kent, Cumbria and Northumbria.

The group also included one member of one of the User Voice Prison Councils, who was granted Release on Temporary Licence for the day specifically to attend this meeting. 

In total, they represented some 27,500 service users across the UK.

I wouldn't have thought I would be stood outside the Ministry of Justice let alone inside it, talking to the Minister.

Council member

NEW RESPONSE: Transforming Youth Custody

In order to gain a service user response to the proposed changes to custodial youth education, User Voice held a series of focus group sessions with young individuals who have experience of youth custody.

The young people were drawn from several of User Voice’s current youth projects.

The focus group questions were designed to engage the service users and encourage them to analyse what impact the proposals would have and the pros/cons of this.

Several themes were identified which are presented here in the form of a series of recommendations.

Click here to read the response: 'Hidden Voices: What Young People Think About Transforming Youth Custody'.

NEW NOMINATIONS for National Diversity Awards

User Voice has been nominated for a Multi- Strand Community Organisation Award at the 2013 National Diversity Awards.

Paula Harriott of User Voice has been nominated for the Lifetime Achiever Award.

The Diversity Awards celebrates the achievements of individuals and groups devoted to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion in today’s society.

You can nominate both User Voice and Paula Harriott on the Diversity Awards website:

If you would like to NOMINATE USER VOICE please do so here.

If you would like to NOMINATE PAULA HARRIOTT please do so here.

Each nomination counts as a vote; reasons given for choosing an organisation will also be considered by the judges. 

Nominations close July 19th 2013.

"Diversity is the one true thing we have in common; Let’s celebrate it together"

NEW RECOGNITION from Open College Network London

User Voice is now an Open College Network (OCN) London recognised centre.

This means that User Voice will be delivering OCN London qualifications, initially in relation to peer mentoring and peer training.

Service users will train other service users and professionals for OCN qualifications.