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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Category: Employment discrimination

Unlock welcomes new official open recruitment employer guide

Published by the Department for Work and Pensions in partnership with Business in the Community, the guide, Strengthening your workforce with talent from disadvantaged groups, comes after high demand from the business world for more help and support for employers to become inclusive.

Part of the See Potential campaign, it’s already been welcomed by the FSB Chairman Mike Cherry in the Telegraph’s Business pages last week and by the CBI’s President Paul Drechsler, CBE, in the Great Business Debate online. Many business organisations, such as the Institute of Directors, British Chambers of Commerce and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation are also behind the new toolkit.

See Potential infographic

With a particular section on people with criminal records, it includes 7 top tips for employers that have been drawn from our principles of fair chance recruitment and lists six useful organisations, including Unlock.

Responding to the launch of the guide, Christopher Stacey, Co-director of Unlock, said:

“We welcome the launch of this official open recruitment guide. It’s important that companies get a consistent message about how to be more open in their recruitment, and this guide pulls together many elements of good practice that we have embedded into our principles of fair chance recruitment. It’s a much-needed resource for companies looking at how to strengthen their workforce by making sure they’re not missing out on talent pool that exists amongst people with criminal records. From here we encourage the government to not only ramp up its work in supporting employers to be more open by providing practical hands-on support, but also by directly challenging those companies that we know have unfair and discriminatory policies and procedures.”

 

More information

  1. The official guide can be downloaded from the See Potential website.
  2. Unlock has a dedicated website for employers, Recruit!, which supports employers to recruit people with convictions and deal with criminal records fairly.
  3. We have posted about the guide on our website for employers.
  4. The website includes ten principles of fair chance recruitment and practical guidance for companies.
  5. It’s part of Unlock’s fair access to employment project.

 

Unlock responds to Law Commission review of DBS filtering system – “is a damning indictment….a wider review is needed now more than ever”

In a detailed report published today, the Law Commission has recommended a wider review of the criminal record disclosure system.

In the most comprehensive operational assessment of the DBS filtering process to date, their conclusion is that:

“Given the vast array and magnitude of the problems identified by our provisional assessment of the disclosure system as a whole, there is a compelling case to be made in favour of a wider review. Our conclusion is that the present system raises significant concerns in relation to ECHR non-compliance and, what may be considered to be, the overly harsh outcomes stemming from a failure to incorporate either proportionality or relevance into disclosure decisions. An impenetrable legislative framework and questions of legal certainty further compound the situation. This is an area of law in dire need of thorough and expert analysis. A mere technical fix is not sufficient to tackle such interwoven and large scale problems.”

Their review had a specific focus on the current ‘list of offences that cannot be filtered’. On that, the report states:

“…the choice of offences in the list appears to lack coherence and a clear basis”

Because of the limited scope of the project, the report states that:

“We do not make recommendations about whether any particular offences should be added or removed from the list”

In examining the operational list, the Law Commission identified the following specific practical and operational problems:

  1. possible inaccuracy of the operational list;
  2. likely inefficiency in the system of offence codes;
  3. risk of unnecessary or inadequate disclosure;
  4. risk of the need for constant updating of the list not being met; and
  5. a lack of guidance for those answering exempted questions.

The report goes on to state that:

“Any recommendations that we made regarding the non-filterable list would clarify the contents of that list and make it more accessible for users of DBS, but more deep-seated confusion regarding the operation of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the exempted questions would remain. In Chapter 5 we discuss possible topics for a wider project addressing both the criminal records disclosure system and the rehabilitation of offenders scheme.”

Responding to the report, Christopher Stacey, Co-director of Unlock, said:

“Today’s report is a damning indictment of the current DBS filtering system and reinforces the concerns we’ve raised since it was first introduced in 2013. We are pleased that the Law Commission has listened to the criticisms that we and others put forward on the broader operation of the current system. Their recommendation for a wider review is needed now more than ever. The current system doesn’t go far enough: it is blunt, restrictive and disproportionate.

 

“These shortcomings were recognised by the High Court in January 2016, and we urge the government to withdraw their appeal and instead get to work in undertaking this wider review and finally establishing a proportionate disclosure system that is transparent, clear and fair. This will not only benefit those with old and minor cautions and convictions to move on positively with their lives, but it will also contribute towards building a fairer and more inclusive society”

 

Useful links

  1. You can find out more about the project the Law Commission carried out, including a copy of the report, on their website.
  2. There are details about our policy work on the DBS filtering system.

Government should consider a statutory “ban the box” for all employers and improve the support to people released from prison

The leading charity for people with convictions has welcomed a report published today by the Work and Pensions Committee which calls on government to drastically improve the support provided to people released from prison and do more to encourage employers to recruit people with convictions.

Christopher Stacey, Co-director of Unlock, said:

“Today’s report shows that current government policy is failing people with convictions. There is no one person in government with responsibility for helping prison leavers into work and no clear strategy for how different agencies should work together to get people with convictions into employment.

 

“We are delighted that the Work and Pensions Committee has listened to the evidence that we submitted and has made a number of recommendations which, if implemented by government, would vastly improve the chances of people with convictions to become positive members of society rather than burdens of the state. Only a quarter on people leaving prison have a job to go to, yet stable employment significantly reduces the likelihood of people re-offending in the future.”

 

“Employers need to be encouraged to change their recruitment practices, and piloting a reduction in National Insurance contributions for those who actively employ people with convictions is a welcome step forward. Unlock supports the Committee’s recommendation of taking the “ban the box” campaign further by considering putting it on a statutory footing for all employers. We know that this practical change in recruitment practice, alongside other ‘fair chance recruitment’ measures, increases the chances that employers will recruit people with convictions.”

 

“We are pleased that the Ministry of Justice is working on a new employment strategy. This needs to be done jointly with the Department for Work and Pensions and place significant focus on people with convictions in the community. Crucially, it must recognise that no level of training or education in prison will overcome the negative approaches taken by employers, so supporting and challenging employers in their recruitment practices needs to be a fundamental part of this strategy. More broadly, government needs to fundamentally reform the law around criminal records disclosure to prevent the unnecessary and disproportionate barriers that people face long after they’ve served their sentence.”

 

The Committee encouraged employers to change their recruitment process and made a number of recommendations to both government and companies, including:

  • Extending Ban the Box to all public bodies, with exclusions for the minority of roles where it would not be appropriate for security reasons
  • Piloting the reduction of National Insurance contributions for those employers who actively employ people with convictions
  • Consider making banning the box a statutory requirement for all employers and develop practical guidance to help employers recruit people with a criminal record
  • All prisons should be required to demonstrate strong links with employers, including local businesses
  • Government clearly state who has ultimate responsibility for helping prison leavers into work
  • All Jobcentres should have a specified person who specialises in helping ex-offenders into employment with expertise on matters such as disclosure of convictions
  • Recognising employers that actively employ people with convictions by factoring it into procurement and commissioning decisions

 

Notes

  1. The Work and Pensions Committee held an inquiry into support for ex-offenders. The report published today is available on their website here and a summary of the inquiry is available here.
  2. Unlock submitted written evidence to the Committee – available here.
  3. Unlock gave oral evidence to the Committee, which can be watched online here.
  4. Unlock also carried out a survey on people released from prison – available here.
  5. More details on Unlock’s policy work to improve support for people with convictions into employment is available here.
  6. More details on Unlock’s policy work to support and challenge employers in employing people with convictions is available here.

Are you disqualified from acting as a charity trustee or senior manager?

The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 means people with unspent convictions for specific offences, as well as those on the sex offenders register are automatically disqualified from acting as trustees or senior managers.

As a charity that exists to support the efforts of people with convictions in moving on positively with their lives, and as an organisation which itself seeks to recruit trustees and leaders who themselves have convictions, we are concerned about the impact of this. Ultimately, we think that the changes brought in by the 2016 Act are disproportionate and an ineffective way of protecting charities.

You are likely to be affected if you:

  • have unspent convictions for dishonesty-related offences, deception-related offences, money laundering or terrorism-related offences

or

  • are on the sex offenders register.

We’re gathering evidence from people who are impacted by the disqualification rules.

What we need from you

If you have are automatically disqualified from acting as a trustee or senior manager because of your criminal record and have been (or will be) affected by the rules in some way, contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: CC disqualification’.

Please include:

  • Your name
  • Contact details (email and telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
  • Details of your criminal record
  • Information on how the disqualification rules have affected you – did you have to give up a position you were already in? Have you applied for a position but been turned down by the charity?
  • Have you applied to the Charity Commission for a waiver – and were you successful?
  • What you think should change
  • Whetther you would be willing to take part in publicising this issue (this is for our reference, we won’t share your details with others)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data.

Criminal records charity launches website to help employers recruit people with convictions

Unlock, the country’s leading charity for people with convictions, today launches a unique website to encourage and support companies to recruit people with criminal records.

Over 10.5 million people in the UK have a criminal record and many face stigma and discrimination when applying for work, despite having put the past behind them. Unlock’s work with employers over many years has highlighted the significant business benefits of employing people with convictions. Yet recruiters often struggle to understand complex criminal record disclosure legislation and don’t know what they can and can’t do, with policies and processes that often discourage applicants. Although nine out of ten employers have said that they’re open to the idea of recruiting people with convictions, in practice less than 20% say they have knowingly done so.

The new website aims to deal with this by:

  1. Supporting employers in recruiting people with convictions
  2. Helping companies to deal with criminal records fairly
  3. Sharing good practice (such as Ban the Box)
  4. Providing free guidance and tools
  5. Showing what other employers are doing

Read the full press release.

Appeal against High Court ruling on disproportionate criminal records disclosure scheme scheduled

Since the High Court ruling in January, which found that the current criminal record disclosure scheme for standard/enhanced checks was disproportionate, lots of people have been asking us what would happen next.

We’re now in a position to say that the Government has appealed against the High Court ruling (which to some extent we expected) – this means that the case will go up to the Court of Appeal. The case is being heard with three other cases that involve the ‘type of offence’ exclusion (which is another area we think needs to change).

The case has been listed to be heard in February 2017 with a judgement expected later in the year.

In the meantime, nothing changes. The current DBS filtering system remains in force. If the outcome of the appeal goes the right way from our perspective, the government would need to look at extending the filtering process.

More information

DBS publish independent review into their barring operations

Last week the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) published an independent review that has been conducted into their barring operations.

As part of our fair access to employment project, we acted as a stakeholder and fed in our thoughts to the review team.

Although the review has only just been published, the date on the review is November 2015, which seems to reflect when the review was completed. After that point, the DBS appear to have set about responding to the recommendations.

Of particular interest to us was that it was good to see the review recommend that the DBS consider situations where oral representations (instead of just written ones) could be made by those at risk of being barred. This is something that we featured as an update to our information site back in February of this year.

The review also recognised how the letters and factsheets sent out by the DBS are not as effective as they might be in:

  1. encouraging those at risk of barring to participate in the process and to make representations, or
  2. communicating the outcome in a fashion that is both easy to understand and accurate.

The review recommended a ‘mini-review’ and suggested working closely with those who have experience of would be barrees, such as Unlock. The DBS has since done some of this work and we’ve engaged with them to improve the information and communications with those subject to the barring process.

More information

  1. This post relates to our work to improve the way the DBS works as part of ourfair access to employment project.
  2. There’s practical guidance on barring on our information site.

Case studies of bad employer practice that we’ve challenged

We’ve posted a number of anonymous examples of bad practice by employers that we’ve challenged as part of our employment project.

These have been posted to our website for employers, which will be fully launched later this summer, and these case studies will help us to support other employers to not make the same mistakes.

We want to make sure that our website is as helpful as possible.

Letting us know if you easily found what you were looking for or not enables us to continue to improve our service for you and others.

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