Nacro news

To mark the end of a challenging school year, Nacro learners in Newcastle decided to organise a football game, with all welcome to play. James, a construction student, was appointed as the group leader and he allocated tasks to his peers. After three weeks of preparation the learners had sourced a sponsor from Cramlington Town…

At our reducing reoffending event at the end of May, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice – Robert Buckland – announced an increase in the discharge grant for the first time since 1995, from £46 to £76. Rebranded as the “one-off subsistence payment”, this is money given on release to prison leavers…

Nacro Education is pleased to report some outstanding achievements by its students this GCSE results day. This year, following the cancellation of exams, grades were awarded through a process of teacher assessed grades (TAGs), against a national standard and approved and awarded by the exam boards. Young people had to work very hard this year…

Breakdown and Nacro response from Sam Julius Earlier this week, the Government launched its new “Beating Crime Plan”, supported by a range of initiatives seeking to “tackle the underlying causes of crime.” Within the Government’s announcement, they state that they rely on Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to drive delivery of this plan. The announcement…

We all know how important having a safe and secure home is. But for too many people leaving prison this has seemed an impossible dream for too long. Around a thousand people are released from prison homeless every month, held back from accessing support, getting a job, or moving on in their lives and away…

SWITCH have been busy implementing a COVID-19 restrictions exit strategy. There has been a focus on getting the people we support socialising, doing activities and leaving the house. For some background, the SWITCH (Supporting Women in the Community and Home) project provides support to vulnerable women aged 16 and older who face a range of…

On 19th July, Nacro Walsall hosted their annual Awards Ceremony with awards presented by Councillor Harbans Sarohi, the Deputy Mayor of Walsall, and Lisa Capper MBE, Nacro’s Director of Education & Skills. This year has been one of the most challenging in recent memory with the pandemic preventing classroom teaching for large parts of the…

Last week our chief executive, Campbell Robb, visited one of our Education & Skills Centres to meet some of the learners and hear about the incredible work they have achieved throughout a very challenging year. Some learners opened up about their life stories and experiences, whilst the students also heard from Campbell in a question-and-answer…

The Government risks failing a generation of young people as almost one in five don’t achieve the equivalent of five good GCSEs by 19, an eight-year low, a new campaign highlights. Nacro, one of the country’s largest independent further education providers, launches the ‘Learn Without Limits’ campaign today, calling on the Government to remove barriers…

Surrounded by tall, imposing, buildings, the city’s hustle and bustle can be clearly heard in the carpark. Hooting cars and bellowing buses are competing with the clanging sounds of nearby building sites. Amongst all this din, the sounds of the city are being absorbed and drowned out by 3 brightly coloured, wooden, square boxes that…

For this years’ Volunteers’ Week we want to recognise David’s volunteer work for Nacro as well as hear his story. David joined one of our focus groups in our justice and health directorate as well as working to promote the voices of people within the criminal justice system. David has also sat on our national…

Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has awarded £245,000 to Nacro in partnership with the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice (IPSCJ) and the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) at the University of Northampton to conduct research on ex-Service personnel in the criminal justice system in England, Wales and Scotland. This 18-month project,…

We recently conducted a survey of people working in resettlement, asking them their opinions of their line of work and how things can be done better to reduce reoffending. The respondents works for a variety of organisations, including voluntary organisations, local authorities, police, youth offending teams, the National Probation Service, and HMPPS. The most prominent…

The investment of an initial £195 million has been awarded to 26 organisations across England and Wales to provide vital support services that help reduce reoffending, such as employment and housing advice. Nacro have been contracted to deliver accommodation in East Midlands, West Midlands and Wales, and support services (mental health, family and relationships) in…

Campbell Robb, Chief Executive of Nacro, a social justice charity which supports people coming out of prison and has campaigned for an increase in the discharge grant, said: “Today at a Nacro event, the Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, confirmed that the amount of money given to people leaving prison is to be…

James (on the left) had a turbulent childhood. He started skipping school, taking drugs and getting into trouble with the police. He was taken into care and his future felt uncertain. After this, with the help of his foster carer, James was referred to our education and skills centre in Newcastle and had to make some huge adjustments to…

The Prevention Alliance is made up of six not-for-profit organisations, including Nacro, who work together to improve health and wellbeing in Stockport. For Deaf Awareness Week, TPA team member Jo (a British Sign Language trained key worker) has written a blog about the service’s Deaf Drop-In during the pandemic. In the days before we even…

On Thursday 20th May, 2:00pm – 2:30pm, we will be hosting our latest virtual event with the Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC MP. We are delighted to be welcoming back the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, for a session that will be hosted by our Chief Executive,…

In this blog, Charlotte Webb opens up about her experiences of alcoholism and being trapped in toxic cycle of binge drinking and withdrawal. After realising she needed help, she reached out to Recovery Near You who supported her to give up drinking and move on with her life. How it started Alcohol didn’t really interest…

Deanna Neilson is a guest speaker and external expert to our National Safeguarding Board and works with the London Borough of Hillingdon as Head of Regulated Services. She was previously the Head of Safeguarding at Action for Children for 4+ years. Deanne has provided a blog for Nacro’s Safeguarding Week, focussing on the mental health of young people.   It is Nacro’s Safeguarding Week and I want to…

The critical spotlight of safeguarding is again illuminating the stirring issue of how we can protect children in sport more effectively. Following several scandals, Andrea Coates, the head of UK Athletics, signed a petition with 200 athletes last month requesting a ‘zero-policy’ for coaches found guilty of sexual misconduct and demanded nothing short of a…

Service Manager Andrea Norton describes the challenges and obstacles of safeguarding during COVID-19. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to work hard to maintain business continuity and have remained committed to the safeguarding of all our service users across the region. Coronavirus restrictions have made us adapt our day-to-day work – virtual meetings, doorstep…

Nacro is delighted to have been selected to lead the delivery of the education and skills provision for children and young people at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC), a 76-bed STC in Northamptonshire. Rated Good by Ofsted, Nacro will build on many years’ experience in the further education and skills sector across the country, working…

Introduction We support a number of the measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, including: The commitment to criminal record disclosure reform The piloting of problem-solving courts Increasing the threshold for custodial remand of children However, we are very concerned that a number of the measures in the Bill represent an inflation of…

Nacro will be working in partnership with Resonance Ltd – a social impact investment company working with social enterprises and charities – to house people in London who are currently sleeping rough or residing in hostels. The Everyone In Partnership will provide 50 homes for those sleeping rough on London’s streets, with an estimate of…

Today (19th February 2021) Helen Dyson took part in a radio interview on WCRFM Wolverhampton Radio to discuss our Recovery Near You Service. We asked some of our service users to answer our questionnaire and these are the results: 96% said they would come back to RNY for a repeat test Vs 45% said they…

On Thursday 4th March, 3:30pm – 5:00pm, we will be hosting a virtual panel event, with the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor, Rt Hon David Lammy MP and London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, and Nacro’s Resettlement Broker Lavinia Aleri. This event serves as a follow-up to…

Nacro’s Chief Executive, Campbell Robb, has written for The Times Red Box, emphasising the worsening crisis of COVID-19 in our prisons and reiterating our calls to government to keep people in the criminal justice system safe. “There are now a number of prisons where serious outbreaks of COVID-19 are causing real concern. These come amid…

Simon’s journey with Nacro began almost 13 years ago as an apprentice at our Boston Education & Skills Centre. Since then, he’s witnessed the development of our education provision and worked his way up to assistant principal of Nacro Education. This National Apprenticeship Week, he tells his story and reveals how apprenticeships can open doors…

Are you working with someone who has had difficulty finding a job, university place, tenancy or insurance because of their criminal record? We want to be able to tell the real stories of the people we work with to ensure that we influence the Government about the issues that make a difference. In September 2020,…

Nacro has submitted evidence to the Education Committee’s inquiry on prison education: ‘Education: Are prisoners being left behind?’. It examines how current arrangements support learners in custody and how well prison education delivers the skills needed by employers. The inquiry is considering education for adults, young people and children in custody. In our evidence we…

The latest official monthly statistics1 show a sharp increase of 65% in Covid-19 infections in prisons across the country, and a 51% rise in deaths related to the disease. Leading social justice charity Nacro is calling on the government to ensure that all staff working in prisons are treated as a priority for vaccination. In…

We know through our work in prisons and our campaigning that being released from prison during the holidays or on Fridays can make the already complicated release process more difficult. With many key services closed, those released during these times may struggle to sort out housing, funds and health support. It can feel like a race against the clock….

The Prime Minister has announced a national lockdown as of midnight on 5th January. As a DfE registered local provider of post-16 education and skills, we are committed to ensuring that there is a good offer of face-to-face learning where required and a remote offer including hard copy packs, online learning and regular communication with…

Nacro will be working in partnership with Resonance Ltd – a social impact investment company working with social enterprises and charities – to provide homes to women in London through our Bail Accommodation and Support Service (BASS). Nacro BASS helps people who are homeless but have been granted bail by the courts or are being…

Nacro has recently started to work with Bags of Taste, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to change the everyday diets of people who are either in, or who face food poverty. They promote the regular cooking of healthy, tasty, home-cooked food, away from dependence on highly-processed and takeaway foods, aiming to improve diets and finances. …

From 28th November, changes to the DBS Filtering Regime mean that even more people with old, minor cautions and convictions will no longer need to disclose them when applying for certain roles. These roles include working with children, vulnerable people, working in certain regulated professions such as healthcare, law and senior finance roles and applications…

The Justice Committee, today, has released its report ‘Children and Young People in Custody, Part 1: Entry into the youth justice system’, off the back of its inquiry into ‘Children and Young People in the Youth Justice System’, launched in July 2019. Responding to the ‘changing demands on the youth justice system’, the report highlights…

This year’s ILLY Team of the Year award has been given to Recovery Near You! ILLY are a national case management system that RNY has been using since 2013. The achievement was awarded at the virtual ILLY National User Group where there were presentations reflecting on how the year had gone, and staff from RNY…

On 10 November 2020, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for State for Apprenticeships and Skills, Gillian Keegan MP, carried out a virtual visit to our Education and Skills Centres in Boston and Newcastle, and took part in a virtual lesson. Keegan heard from two learners at our Newcastle Centre. One learner, who has returned to complete…

I have been a Trustee of Nacro since the autumn of 2015 and there has never been a time that I have not felt an immense amount of pride in the work that the Nacro teams achieve. This year, like for everyone else, has been the most strange, weird and frustrating for all of us…

Nacro has been awarded funding by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to deliver housing for homeless Londoners from Spring 2021. The funding figure is £5m, on top of the original £15m provided by Resonance’s social impact investment property fund. Working in partnership with Resonance, Nacro will deliver 50 homes across London. Campbell Robb, Chief…

Well, here we go…ADHD awareness month; yet the person with ADHD who has offered to share her experience slides in with the blog that she offered to do in order to raise awareness on ADHD…at the last minute!! There is an element of irony there for sure…   This is written from my own personal experience…

Earlier this year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we set out some calls to Government to ensure that people in the criminal justice system were kept safe and risk of harm was reduced. As the 2nd wave of the pandemic hits and the country goes into different stages of lockdown, we need to…

These blogs demonstrate how the team have adapted to the challenges of Coronavirus to support service users to continue to engage and to offer much needed support during difficult times. Within the Recovery Near You service, Wolverhampton 360 supports young people and their families with substance misuse issues. Below you can read the accounts of…

In preparation for World Homeless Day on Saturday 10th October, we have been sharing several specific areas disproportionately experienced by those homeless or at risk of homelessness and how we help. Women/domestic violence   Of female rough sleepers, approximately 33% have experienced domestic abuse. Leading up to #WorldHomelessDay, today we want to shine a light…

Read this blog about how the team from our Recovery Near You substance misuse service proactively sought to engage with rough sleepers during lockdown. Redwings During lockdown Redwings, a hotel in Wolverhampton, started providing emergency homelessness accommodation to rough sleepers. Recovery Near You staff visited Redwings regularly in order to support those staying there who…

Written by Nacro staff member Chris Proctor As I sit writing this on my laptop sipping my morning coffee under the artificial light of my desk lamp, nodding my head rhythmically to the sound of Stormzy on the radio I take a minute to pause as I contemplate the fact that we are surrounded by…

These blogs demonstrate how the team have adapted to the challenges of Coronavirus to support service users to continue to engage and to offer much needed support during difficult times. Below you can read about the virtual mutual aid groups that were set up during lockdown from the perspective of a member of staff, a…

Along with other organisations, we have written a letter to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, about accommodation for prison leavers and the Comprehensive Spending Review. We all know how important having a safe and secure home is. But for too many people leaving prison this has…