This week, the Catch22 team attended Labour Party Conference and took part in debates, roundtables, and as many receptions as could fit into our schedule, to talk about some of the most important topics for our organisation: restorative justice, tackling youth violence, helping people leaving care, getting people of all ages into careers they love, and more.

The conference was buzzing with activity, and helping young people stay away from trouble, find their feet, and flourish amidst a cost-of-living crisis was one of the most recurring themes across fringe events and the Conference Hall speeches made by the Shadow Cabinet.

In my last blog, about Tory Party Conference, I wrote about the nuance of tackling serious youth violence and how, behind the provocative headlines, there are careful, sensitive conservations taking place across civil society, local authorities and the civil service.

At the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, went one step further by introducing Young Futures, a cross-government national program, that hopes to innovate in that area. Its aim will be to provide young people in Britain with the strongest possible foundation in life. It will include a specialised component aimed at supporting those who are most susceptible to being drawn into violent crime, and providing assistance to young individuals grappling with mental health challenges. Labour have set themselves the ambitious target of halving knife crime and serious youth violence and, so far, this is one of the key policies that is aimed at achieving that.

In her speech, which was broadly welcomed by the youth sector, the Shadow Home Secretary correctly identified that the services that support young people have suffered over the last decade. She did not explicitly identify austerity as a cause, but we know cutting the funding for youth workers is the main culprit for the demise of many such services who have been surviving on the commitment of local staff.

The Commission on Young Lives’ Hidden in Plain Sight report described how:

“The experience of parents [of at-risk children and teenagers] told a consistent tale of missed opportunities, unmet need, and a confused tangle of services. When there is contact with services, families say that they are too-often met with a conveyor belt of assessments, churn of professionals and early closure of cases.”

The Shadow Home Secretary also mentioned some key statistics that paint a grim picture for young people in this country:

• A record number of children and young people are seeking mental health support from the NHS.
• Analysis from the think tank, Crest, shows over 200,000 children are vulnerable to serious violence.
• A record number of children are victims of crime in 2021/2022.
• Last year saw the highest number of people killed with a knife for over 70 years, with the biggest increase amongst young boys aged 16-17.

These are sobering numbers showing how badly needed more investment into youth work is.

Catch22 welcomes this programme and the recognition of youth mentors and mental health hubs as effective interventions. This is a step in the right direction, towards more prevention and less ‘sticking plaster’ policies that kick in when young people have already reached a crisis point, from which the return is much harder.

It is also optimistic to see the work of many organisations Catch22 works with, such as Redthread, being reflected in some of the promises in her speech, and the echoes of the discussion from other children’s charities in the fringe meetings throughout conference. Some of the reforms introduced were initially mentioned in Labour’s National Policy Forum consultations, which Catch22 fed into. But it is only during this conference that we found out that they are formally Labour policy and will hopefully make their appearance in Labour’s manifesto.

Specifically, the programme promises to deliver the following public sector reforms:

• A targeted programme in every area to identify the young people most at risk of being drawn into violent crime and build a package of support that responds to the challenges they are facing. This will be achieved through bringing together services at a local level to better coordinate delivery of preventative interventions around the young person, rooted in a strong evidence base.
• Develop a national network of Young Futures hubs to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision.
• Youth workers in A&E units, custody centres, pupil referral units and communities to target young people who are starting to be drawn into violence.
• Ensure existing enforcement measures are effectively utilised, including family interventions, the use of curfews, enforcement of penalties, drug and alcohol interventions, community work, and stronger action against the criminal gangs that are drawing young people into crime.

In the next few days, we will digest the learnings from party conferences and regroup with our colleagues and partners to make sure that, whichever party is next in Government, they have useful insight and stirring from frontline organisations that will help give young people the best chances in life. There is a lot more work to be done, but we are on the right path.

– Stella Tsantekidou, Catch22 Head of Policy and Campaigns

The post The importance of investment in youth work: Party Conferences 2023 appeared first on Catch22.

“Catch22 Zine is an annual publication designed to give you a flavour of the depth and breadth of what we do across our organisation. It allows us to share the latest achievements and successes across our hubs, giving a deeper insight into how our work improves the livelihoods of individuals across the community within the UK.

“With this people-focused zine we explore how our services and programmes have helped individuals build strong support networks, secure safe places to live and work, and find their purpose in life. We hope you enjoy and get to know Catch22 a little better.”

– Prince-Oke Ugorji, Editor

Download a copy

Editor’s highlights include:

• Reform of youth employment
• Community Links helping people of all ages to thrive
• Inequity in safeguarding
• Empowering care leavers
• New avenues for young creatives at the TikTok Creative Academy
• Essential digital skills for young people in a growing technological world
• Green Jobs For All Forum webinar series spoke with employers, job seekers, researchers and policy makers
• Sharing insight and experience with victim service users and survivors
• Closing off InspirEd by celebrating our staff and successes

The post Catch22 Zine: 2023 appeared first on Catch22.

This week, the Conservative Party held its annual conference in Manchester. This is an important time for the Conservatives as they are preparing for the next General elections which are expected to take place in 2024. The theme of the speeches and the debates were heavily focused on crime, policing and immigration. During the conference it was announced that the Government is looking into extending prison sentences for the worst offenders and sending prisoners to prisons abroad. These two policies are a return to the familiar territory of ‘tough on crime’ that rises in popularity during every election cycle.

To explore this ‘tough on crime’ narrative, Andy Canniford, Catch22’s Chief Development Officer, and I attended a roundtable hosted by Nacro and the Commission on Young Lives on ‘Reducing Crime and Reoffending’. The roundtable brought together politicians and sector experts including:

• Anne Longfield, Commission on Young Lives
• Helen Berresford, Director of External Engagement, Nacro
• Tim Loughton MP, Home Affairs Select Committee
• Damian Hinds MP, Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation
• Caroline Henry, Police and Crime Commissioner, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire

The discussion that followed was refreshingly nuanced for a topic that can often be presented unthoughtfully in the media. I found the following points to be the most illuminating:

• School-based interventions: The minister noted that working within schools to divert children from a life of crime has been highly successful, with a 95% success rate in keeping children engaged with education when these interventions are in place.
• Focus on prevention: Prevention was emphasised as a primary goal by everyone, with a recognition that being tough on crime does not mean neglecting the consequences of criminal actions. It involves addressing the root causes that lead to criminality in the first place.
• Overcriminalisation concerns: Concerns were raised about overcriminalising young people and the importance of identity for youth. Short sentences were noted to have worse reoffending rates compared to community sentences, making the latter a more effective approach to reducing crime.
• Child welfare and school attendance: School attendance was highlighted as a critical means of keeping a watchful eye on children and ensuring their protection from becoming both victims and perpetrators of crime.
• Prison and rehabilitation: The need for rehabilitation within the prison system was discussed. Drug addiction was noted as a significant challenge, with the importance of providing support to address addiction before release. The minister acknowledged how hard it has been for both himself and his predecessors to tackle the stream of drugs into prisons.
• Reintegration into society: Some stressed the importance of teaching prisoners the habit of work, providing them with opportunities, and establishing a clear plan for their reintegration into society after release.
• Transport and care system: Transport links and the rising number of children in the care system were mentioned as factors influencing school attendance and crime prevention.
• Alternative education: Andy highlighted that alternative education in the right environment should be an early prevention measure, with speech and language support also playing a role.
• Poverty and mental health: Poverty and mental health provisions were highlighted as top priorities in addressing the root causes of criminal behaviour.
• Cultural approach to crime: Crime was described as a cultural issue, and the importance of reintegration into society, work, and identity was stressed.
• Non-custodial options: Everyone agreed on the importance of good non-custodial options for dealing with offenders. These sentences do not mean being soft on crime, they simply mean being more effective in solving it.
• Technological solutions: Technology was mentioned as a tool for monitoring and enabling individuals to continue living in the community while being held accountable for their actions.
• Power of sports: A CSJ (Centre for Social Justice) representative, who has also spent time in prison, highlighted the positive impact of sports, particularly on young people. This was emphasised as a means of building self-confidence and providing an outlet for boys at risk of criminal involvement.
• Gendered approach: The importance of a gendered approach and integrating violence against women and girls (VAWG) into crime prevention strategies was highlighted.
• Trusted adults: The role of trusted adults in helping individuals turn their lives around was recognised as crucial, and it was noted that this is often more influential than formal programs.
• Early involvement in crime: Concerns were raised about the decreasing age of young people involved in serious violence, with 14-year-olds managing county lines.
• Violence Reduction Units (VRUs): VRUs were commended for their positive contributions in addressing violence and crime.

The headlines during party conference season are always bold and sometimes unhelpful when dealing with policy issues that require sensitivity and patience. However, the thoughtful discussions that take place behind the conference walls give me hope that progress can happen when people with good intentions come together.

– Stella Tsantekidou, Catch22 Head of Policy and Campaigns

The post Reducing crime and reoffending: Party Conferences 2023 appeared first on Catch22.

Building on experience from our previous relationship-based Pause service in Northamptonshire, The Wave will offer holistic and flexible support to people aged 16-25 who are currently in care or who have experience of being in care, and who are identified as at risk of unsafe or unhealthy relationships.

Caseworkers at The Wave will have low caseloads compared to similar services, to ensure that they have the capacity to work intensively with each individual and provide young-person-led support. Their work will focus on building positive relationships, improving life choices and reducing risk and harm, with an aim to increase the independence and resilience of those it supports.

Joey Woodage, Service Manager at The Wave, said:  

“We are really excited to be able to continue important relationship-based work across Northamptonshire by supporting young people with experience of care. It has been a real honour and privilege to be given the resources to deliver this pilot in a community we care about. We are pleased to continue working with the close partners we have built over the years and look forward to building new ones.”

The Wave service will become part of Catch22’s portfolio of services for care leavers, which includes our National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum and our Keep Care leavers Connected campaign.

With Catch22’s dedication and national campaigning efforts to support care experienced young people’s transition to independence, alongside our proven track record of delivering relationship-based services and reducing harm and risk, this service promises to make a lasting difference to the lives of these young people.

The post The Wave launches to support young people who have experienced care in Northamptonshire appeared first on Catch22.

Today, Catch22 and John Lewis Foundation announce their new partnership, looking to address this challenge head on, supporting CEYP in Manchester to move into long-term, sustainable employment. Career Hive, a three year programme delivered by Catch22, will support local CEYP with training and education opportunities, employment guidance, and wrap-around well-being support.

The programme has been built around the core mission of building strong and trusted relationships with each CEYP; supporting them with job opportunities and providing in-work support once they have secured employment. Crucially, the programme will coordinate and advocate for all of their support needs with the key stakeholders involved in their lives – most notably their Local Authority Personal Advisor and their employer.

Catch22 has extensive experience working with CEYP across all of our services. We also run the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF), a network of over 140 local authorities promoting the development of quality leaving care services with member authorities and partner organisations through a process of benchmarking and shared learning on a national scale.

John Lewis Foundation have a made a clear commitment to do more to empower care leavers to thrive, both advocating to raise awareness of the inequalities faced by those who are care experienced, and working to be the employer of choice for care experienced young people in the UK.

Nicola Waller, John Lewis Foundation Trustee said:

“The John Lewis Foundation is proud to be funding Career Hive, Catch22’s project supporting care experienced young people in Manchester to move into long term sustainable employment.

Our long-term ambition is to become the employer of choice for people who are care experienced. Through our Building Happier Futures programme, we’re focused on amplifying their voices, changing public perceptions, donating both time and money, and crucially – improving access to jobs and education.”

Victoria Head, Strategic Director of Employability and Skills said:

“At Catch22 we work with CEYP across our services, we know and understand the challenges they face. Our partnership with John Lewis Foundation will help us to provide that critical relationship-based employability support and make a real difference to the lives of CEYP in Manchester.”

The post Catch22 and John Lewis Foundation launch new programme to support care experienced young people in Manchester appeared first on Catch22.

I started working at Catch22 a little over a year ago as Head of Policy and Campaigns. The brief I was given was to increase our policy influence. My background is in politics, and I used to work in Parliament where the word ‘influence’ was often interchangeable with public relations and raising the profile of people with their own political ambitions and agendas.

As I started meeting new colleagues from across Catch22 though, one thing became clear: there was no such vanity agenda held by any one person, let alone by the organisation as a whole. Across our various hubs and within teams, you find extremely dedicated social workers, teachers, youth workers, coaches, case workers. Our CEO started out as a youth and community worker, and still is one at heart.

The wisdom of frontline colleagues

What also became clear to me, intuitively and emotionally, from having meetings with frontline staff when preparing them for select committee evidence sessions and radio interviews, was that what they do works. The services they deliver work; their method and acquired wisdom over years of being embedded in the communities they serve is invaluable. If anyone knew how to prevent children from being involved with drugs and gangs, how to get young people on the career ladder, or how to give prison leavers the best chance of not re-offending, it is these people – not someone sitting behind a desk writing policy blogs (as much as I’d like to think that person plays their part too!).

It became clear to me, then, that no matter what topics are popular on social media or in the mainstream media, our next campaign needed to focus on the voices of our frontline staff and their expertise. And helpfully, the two often align very well.

The 2024 General Election

In the next year, the political parties in the UK will be looking at civil society for pointers on what to include in their manifestos for the 2024 General Election to tackle the vulnerabilities and challenges in the UK’s social welfare fabric. These are many, and the gaping holes left by the pandemic have only been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis which is eating into public services and individual household’s capacities to withstand change.

Catch22’s policy manifesto is rooted in the belief that every individual can thrive if they have Good People around them, a Safe Place to live, and a Purpose in life – the 3Ps. Our hope is that we can stir the conversation in the policy areas we have expertise on and convince future Governments to commit to what we know will most help the most vulnerable in our society.

The policy asks focus on five main areas:

• Renewing the focus on adolescents
• Ensuring job opportunities are open to all
• Investing in the skills of the future
• Placing rehabilitation and victims’ rights at the heart of criminal justice policy
• Introducing a national offer for young people leaving care to end the postcode lottery

Deciding what policies to focus on was challenging. Catch22 is a big  organisation delivering a range of programmes and  services that support people across the social welfare cycle. Our frontline staff are scattered around the UK, and our three hubs (Justice and Education, Young People, Families and Communities, and Employability and Skills) touch on different policy areas. We are also, above all, a service provider, not a campaigning organisation or a lobby group. We don’t take part in public affairs because we want to be political players. We do it because we believe our frontline staff have invaluable experience that policy makers can use to improve the lives of our service users nationally.

A wide-ranging manifesto

As I mentioned above, our manifesto asks range widely. For some, we chose policies that other organisations are campaigning on already and that we believe will make a difference. For example, the children’s sector has long asked for Child Criminal Exploitation to be defined in law and for a dedicated Child Criminal Exploitation strategy. For others, we chose to focus more on more specific issues that were becoming frequent in our frontline services and where we believe Government intervention is necessary, for example vaping among young people and the proliferation of online fraud.

For other issues, we looked at our external corporate partners and the ways in which we believe they should be putting their money where their mouth is to help future Governments, for example by contributing to an “AI for Good” strategy to eliminate bias in the hiring process, and for improving access to digital skills so that everyone can benefit from the sustainable, profitable careers these can lead to.

Finally, we chose to give care experienced young people its own section in our manifesto, because the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum, a part of Catch22 that is driven by leaving care professionals and care experienced young people, is a perfect example of bringing lived experience expertise into the policy making process, and this is something that charities across policy areas agree is largely missing from British politics.

What’s next?

We are organising a series of policy podcasts and events that we hope will attract campaigning partners who want to join their voices with ours.

We will also be going to party conferences this autumn where we hope to connect with policy makers and politicians alike. If you find yourself there and would like to meet with our policy team, let us know. We are always on the lookout for partners and friends.

We are also planning on using the expert voices of our frontline staff more, so if you are organising a conference or event and would like them to speak and share their policy insights get in contact with us.

– Stella Tsantekidou, Head of Policy and Campaigns

The post Reimagining public services: why frontline voices are critical to the policy making process appeared first on Catch22.

The programme, supported by Shell UK, includes training that will initially run in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Norfolk, and will see participants take part in a four-week pre-employment and introduction to energy transition skills programme. It will offer:​

• one-to-one support from a dedicated career coach​,
• access to training funds for specific energy transition roles,
• access to employers with energy transition job opportunities, and
• in-work support.

The programme is part of Shell UK’s wider commitment across the decade to support communities across the UK by powering lives through jobs and skills. Shell UK aims to support 15,000 people into jobs, and will ensure people and communities in the UK benefit from the skills and opportunities in the energy transition.

According to research from LSE, one in five jobs in the UK (approximately 6.3 million workers) are expected to be impacted by the energy transition and the UK’s target of becoming net zero by 2050. Catch22’s work supports an urgent need for the workforce to embark on reskilling, upskilling, or using current skills differently.

Victoria Head, Strategic Director of Employability and Skills at Catch22, said: 

“Entry level energy transition roles are not always easy to access, yet we know this is a sector where more and more jobs are going to be created. Our programme will help those who perhaps lack the skills, confidence or wider support, to secure energy transition job opportunities and help build sustainable careers.

“With one-to-one coaching, wrap-around support and access to training funds, we’re giving people who face barriers to work – including poor physical or mental health, low education attainment, caring responsibilities – the chance to embark on a new career path.”

The programme builds on a suite of work Catch22 is doing in the energy transition employability space, including:

• delivering the Grid for Good programme, with National Grid, connecting socioeconomically disadvantaged young people to the energy sector,
• delivering the Green Spark programme, funded by City and Guilds Foundation, which is a bursary programme to help people develop the skills, confidence and motivation to succeed in green job opportunities, and
• establishing the Green Jobs For All Forum, with Green Alliance as our research partner, to explore the barriers and opportunities in the sector for people facing barriers to work.

The post New skills programme launches to help people facing barriers into jobs to support the energy transition appeared first on Catch22.

We work in justice, education, employability and with children, young people and families – and our approach is based on the ‘3Ps’. We believe everyone can thrive if they have good people around them, a purpose in life, and a safe place to live.

The ‘3Ps’ provide a platform for joined up policy making. We want to see all political parties, in the run up to the 2024 general election and beyond, commit to policies that ensure everyone in society has good people around them, a safe place to live and a purpose in life.

Our manifesto outlines “22 ways to build resilience and aspiration in people and communities” across five key areas:

• Renew focus on adolescents
• Ensure job opportunities are open to all
• Invest in the skills of the future
• Place rehabilitation and victims’ rights at the heart of criminal justice policy
• Introduce a national offer for young people leaving care to end the postcode lottery

Download a copy of our Manifesto

Renew focus on adolescents

Too often media stories about drug taking, gangs or anti-social behaviour, depict adolescents as criminals. This ‘adultification’ bias fails to understand the environment in which many of our adolescents grow up: one fraught with risks – from online harms to County Lines exploitation, through to knife crime and harmful trends such as vaping.

Young victims of exploitation and those displaying risky behaviours are rarely the focus of policymakers. We want to change that. We believe that through well thought out policies, adolescents can be better protected from harm and supported to thrive.

We want to see the next Government commit to making the UK a safe place to grow up – and one where adolescents are able to build resilience and aspiration that will remain with them for life.

1. Implement a national strategy to tackle Child Criminal Exploitation, including County Lines.

2. Commit to tackling online harms as a priority, enacting with urgency the legislative changes that will come out of the Online Safety Bill.

3. Invest further in the presence of youth workers in communities, to ensure the impact of the National Youth Guarantee is sustained beyond 2025.

4. Mandate training for all professionals working within education settings on how to intervene, address and support young people impacted by ‘gang’ affiliation, ‘serious youth violence’ and knife crime.

5. Ensure School Exclusion Panels consult with local experts on child exploitation, ‘gangs’ and ‘serious youth violence’ before making an exclusion decision.

6. Introduce measures that prevent vaping products being marketed to young people, such as plain packaging and banning sports sponsorship.

Ensure job opportunities are open to all

The world of work is changing rapidly. Sectors such as green jobs, digital and tech and health and social care are growing significantly and AI is creating both opportunities and challenges to the nature and type of work available. With a wealth of pathways to enter the labour market – from bootcamps and apprenticeships to employability and sector-specific training programmes – there is plenty of opportunity.

Yet for the millions of people facing barriers to work, be that poor physical or mental health, low educational attainment, caring responsibilities or other challenges, those opportunities are often limited. Accessing training pathways and securing a ‘good’ job can be hindered by a lack of available guidance, limited flexibility within the system or simply through a lack of confidence.

We want to see the next Government commit to supporting every person to secure a good job and access the training they require to ensure they’re skilled for the future world of work.

7. Introduce an Opportunity Guarantee for young people, to ensure all young people have the opportunity of an education place, apprenticeship or job, no matter what their background.

8. Increase the apprenticeship minimum wage to the living wage to improve take up, especially for those from underserved communities.

9. Increase flexibility in the apprenticeship levy so that it can be spent on pre-apprenticeship training.

10. Consult on an ‘AI for good’ strategy to help build a diverse workforce, eliminate bias in hiring processes and open up job opportunities to all.

11. Revolutionise Job Centre Plus so that, alongside other employment related services, they become a place where people are supported into careers rather than placed into ‘any job.’

Invest in the skills of the future

As the UK continues to embrace new technologies and drive forward the digital revolution, millions of people are experiencing digital poverty. This can mean not having a device to get online, not having enough data to use the internet effectively and reliably, or not having the right level of digital skills.

We’re seeing thousands of older people socially isolated through a lack of essential digital skills and thousands of young people – often dubbed ‘digital natives’, lacking the digital skills required for the changing world of work.

We want to see the next Government commit to ensuring the UK is a true skills hub, identifying the skills required for jobs of the future and equipping the workforce to meet those needs.

12. Publish a full digital inclusion strategy and ensure that accessing data is a fundamental right.

13. Invest in ‘digital skills for work’ programmes for the UK workforce, to ensure that every person is equipped for the future world of work.

14. Increase the number of ‘green’ skills training courses and amend more courses to be ‘green’ such as Lifetime Skills, Bootcamps and apprenticeships.

15. Ensure digital skills remain a key priority in the delivery of the media literacy strategy, with clear targets to close the skills gap.

Place rehabilitation and victims’ rights at the heart of criminal justice policy

The UK justice system tends to prioritise custody over rehabilitative alternatives, an example of which is the high number of fixed term recalls to prison (over 20,000 a year) that occur for recently released offenders. Yet there is growing evidence that investment in strong rehabilitative services that start in the custodial setting reduces reoffending – which currently costs the UK £18bn a year – and therefore saves money.

Alongside rehabilitation, the justice system must work effectively for victims of crime. Fraud represents over 40% of all crimes on individuals and yet the resources for tackling it are lacking compared to other crimes. There is also an under-use of Restorative Justice in our justice system, an approach that is proven to benefit victims and reduce reoffending.

We want to see the next Government commit to empowering victims through strengthening the Victims’ Code and putting appropriate resource into the crimes that are most prevalent.

16. Prioritise rehabilitative alternatives to Fixed Term Recalls (FTR) and introduce national standards upon which an FTR is evoked.

17. Broaden access to technology in prisons for the use of education and rehabilitation.

18. Drive better outcomes for victims of fraud through an increase in police investigations and reduction in revictimisation.

19. Widen access to Restorative Justice (RJ) by including access to RJ Services as a right within the Victims Code.

Introduce a national offer for young people leaving care to end the postcode lottery

More than 11,000 young people leave the care system each year in the UK, often without the financial stability and support network that others take for granted.

We know that care experienced young people suffered disproportionately during the pandemic and have been hit hard again by the current Cost of Living crisis. Many are forced to choose between paying bills or buying food as money is so tight. Many more report they’re struggling with poor mental health. While some Local Offers for care experienced young people provide excellent support packages, there remains a postcode lottery.

We want to see the next Government commit to supporting care experienced young people through bold national policies, so they are given the best chance to succeed in life.

20. Ensure all care experienced people are made eligible for the over 25 Universal Credit rate from the age of 18.

21. Introduce Corporate Parenting Responsibilities so that organisations and government service providers are expected to treat care experienced people up to the age of 25 as their own children.

22. Make ‘care experience’ a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010.

The post Catch22 Manifesto: Reimagining public services appeared first on Catch22.

Watch the playlist in full

Catch22 delivers a range of services in the Criminal Justice System (CJS), supporting both victims and those convicted of crimes. Catch22 delivers support and advocacy to victims of crime through its Victim First and Hertfordshire Beacon services. Our CRS contracts, like Personal Wellbeing, Finance, Benefit and Debt and Dependency and Recovery work to support people leaving custody with their rehabilitative needs. We also work within custody to support Foreign Nationals and those on remand, as well as delivering HMP Thameside’s Offender Management Unit.

Delivering services across the criminal justice sector for the past 15 years has afforded Catch22 the opportunity to develop, grow and innovate in the way it designs and runs these services, which we believe holds the key to unlocking new levels of impact and inclusivity within the justice system. By embracing innovation in various aspects, justice services like those that Catch22 delivers can revolutionise the way they operate and positively support those they are designed to serve.

Innovation in justice is a necessity. It brings service design that is tailored to individual needs, collaborative stakeholder engagement, empathy grounded in lived experiences, a commitment to protected characteristics, effective interventions and a nurturing workplace. By continuously thinking of new ways to do things, justice services can truly fulfil their essential role in society – promoting fairness, rehabilitation, and safety for all.

The post Doing things differently: innovation in our justice services appeared first on Catch22.

The Refugee Employability Programme is a UK Government funded initiative designed to support the successful integration of refugees in their new communities through sustainable work and help with developing their language skills, where necessary.

The service aims to close gaps in the employment rates between refugees and the wider UK population. Faster, more successful entry to the labour market has an economic benefit to the country and better enables refugees to build their life in a new community and improve the long-term prospects for themselves and their families.

The Refugee Employability Programme provides eligible refugees with an allocated Case Manager at Catch22 to assess their needs and work with them to develop a tailored plan of support.

Three key elements of support are provided by the service. Which elements a refugee receives will depend on how they have entered the UK and what other support they are already receiving.

Expert employment support from their Case Manager helps refugees to use their existing experience and skills to achieve a sustainable local job. Alternatively, help can be provided to develop new skills for work. The support offered includes help to identify how and where to job search in the UK, support with CV development, applications and interview practice, access to free skills training and work experience opportunities and funding for travel and job searching activities.

Alongside this employability support, refugees who require help with their language skills can access English Language classes, invitations to formal and informal conversation clubs and lesson to support literacy.

The third element of support provided by the service helps refugees to integrate and settle into their local communities by providing access to local community groups and services such as local healthcare provision, childcare options and housing support.

The service was developed in consultation with refugees and stakeholders in the refugee support sector, including Migrant Help and the International Organisation for Migration. A range of accessibility and translation support is available to aid participation in the service.

Commenting on the launch of the new service, Victoria Head, Strategic Director for Employability and Skills at Catch22 said:

“This is a hugely important programme that provides crucial support and well-being for people looking to rebuild their lives. We are committed to working alongside Reed in Partnership to deliver the Refugee Employability Programme, supporting more people to become work ready and helping them to thrive in their local communities.”

The post New support launches to support refugees with work and life in England appeared first on Catch22.

Greater Manchester Victims’ Services support victims and witnesses of both reported and unreported crime from across the city-region. Independent Victim Care Coordinators, positioned within GMVS, will provide comprehensive and tailored support to individuals affected by crime, ensuring they receive the care and assistance they deserve during their journey towards recovery.

The refreshed service will support Greater Manchester’s unwavering commitment to improving services for victims of crime and will also focus on strengthening local partnerships and fostering greater collaboration with Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

Andy Canniford, Chief Development Officer at Catch22, said:

“We are thrilled to have been awarded the contract to deliver Greater Manchester’s Victims’ Services. This opportunity strengthens our dedication to providing comprehensive, compassionate, and empowering support to victims, helping them rebuild their lives in the aftermath of crime, and creating a safer, more united Greater Manchester.”

The Greater Manchester Victims’ Services will become part of Catch22’s victims portfolio, which currently supports victims of crime to cope and recover across Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire.

With Catch22’s proven track record of delivering impactful services and unwavering commitment to empowering communities, this service promises to make a lasting difference in the lives of victims and survivors across Greater Manchester.

The post Catch22 to deliver Greater Manchester Victims’ Services appeared first on Catch22.

“Truly helped me understand the harm I was causing to myself and, as a result, has encouraged me to want more from my life. To the point I am excited to live, laugh, and love without the dependence on drugs.”

– Service user

Catch22 has been working with children for over 200 years and today we focus on designing and delivering services that build resilience and aspiration. Catch22 has vast experience of delivering effective child exploitation and missing services and substance misuse throughout the UK.

The 3Ps are our organisational DNA. We believe that improving the lives of the young people and everyone we support is only possible when these basics are in place. To have good people around them, a purpose, and a good place to live.

We apply this when creating care plans with young people alongside our outcome star data, local authority action plans and their child exploitation risk assessment matrix.

Aim of the service

Catch22 are proud to have been delivering in the London Borough of Merton for over 13 years holding contracts working with the most vulnerable young people in the borough.

The Merton Risk and Resilience Service is an integrated substance misuse, child exploitation and missing from home service, focused on mitigating risk and promoting resilience in young people.

“Catch22 supported me during a hard period of my life, and I now feel like I am able to continue my life – feeling strong, settled in work, and I have left my ex who was pulling me down.”

The aim of this service is to reduce harm to young people aged 24 and under who are at risk of harm from, are experiencing, or have been:

• using substances,
• reported missing from home or care, and/or
• exploited.

Merton Risk and Resilience also receives funding from The Wimbledon Foundation to deliver a counselling service in several schools across Merton. This service is aimed at children and young people (aged 11 – 16 years), who have been identified as requiring a one-to-one intervention for a range of emotional health issues and/or as part of dealing with the impact of their parents’/siblings’ substance misuse.

Outcomes

In the contract year 2022 – 2023, the service reached a total of 925 people.  Of these:

• 174 were engaged in care planned interventions with SMART and achievable goals agreed,
• 95 successfully exited the service, and
• 76 remained engaged at year end.

This year, the service achieved 97% positive outcomes for the young people engaged in these interventions.

Where child exploitation and missing from home services are commissioned together, we find that they are more effective at identifying and managing risk. From the data depicted in full in the downloadable report for under-18s, young people supported across multiple service strands reduce the need for multiple services and workers.

The highest presentation to our service came from Mitcham, followed by Colliers Wood and Wimbledon, and then Morden.

“They listened to what I had to say and didn’t just give advice, they listened to my point of view.”

– Young person supported by Merton Young Person’s Risk and Resilience

The post Merton Risk and Resilience: Annual report 2022-2023 appeared first on Catch22.

Consider how you interact with the digital world every day. Do you work online – perhaps remotely? Do you use online banking, or have an app to book your GP appointments? You may even scan a barcode to order food when you go to a restaurant. We were always heading there, but we are now firmly in the digital age.

Let’s consider the facts.

• 4m people in the UK are still unable to complete a single basic digital task to get online.
• 82% of jobs require digital skills, yet 13.6 million workers in the UK do not have the essential digital skills for work.
• People living in poverty, Black and minority ethnic groups, care leavers, older people, those without English as a first language and disabled people, are all already more likely to be digitally excluded.

We know that people are unable to access the internet because they either don’t have the data, the device or the skills to get online. This is causing a digital divide that is undermining efforts to tackle existing socioeconomic inequalities, and the current cost of living challenges are only making these inequalities worse.

Taking urgent action

Community Clicks is a digital skills and social inclusion programme for Newham residents aged 50+. With twice-weekly sessions delivered over six weeks, it builds participants’ everyday digital skills; making online medical appointments, online banking and shopping, navigating online benefit claims, and connecting with family and friends. Participants also receive their own tablet.

Last year, more than 1,500 Newham residents accessed our Welfare Benefits advice service last year.  Our staff quickly realised that many older people simply weren’t claiming Universal Credit and other benefits, because they were unable to access, or navigate, the online forms.

In one particularly extreme case, an elderly resident had £23,000 of unclaimed benefit.

There were also residents accessing other services within our wider Community Links provision who told us they struggled to make contact with their GP because appointments were increasingly moving online. One elderly lady said how during the pandemic lockdowns she’d struggled to keep in touch with her sister in America because she couldn’t work out how to use Skype properly. Others told us they wanted to do their grocery shopping online because of mobility issues but were unsure of how to go about it.

We realised that a lack of digital skills was fundamentally affecting the quality of life for many of the older people we worked with.  Older people needed to be connected and digitally literate not only to do the basic things like shopping and banking online, but also to connect with family. We also saw how the lack of social interaction during the pandemic had resulted in increased loneliness and isolation.

We knew that by delivering such a course, we would be able to drastically improve the lives of people – and allow them to participate in the day-to-day activities that are increasingly reliant on being digitally literate.

The need for investment is clear

We were taken aback by the high demand for the course. Within a week of the programme being advertised locally, 40 people had signed up. With each programme cohort only being able to accommodate 15 people, we took the decision to change the delivery plan and deliver multiple cohorts simultaneously.

The course saw a retention rate of 88% across the 6 weeks – with 115 people starting the course and 101 completing it.  Due to the enthusiasm of participants, we introduced an additional higher-level course for those interested in developing their digital skills further. 70% of participants went on to complete that course.

On average, participant’s evaluation of how confident they are in using digital skills rose from 24% in week 1 to 76% by week 6, indicating a significant improvement in digital literacy.

Beyond this, the programme has provided us with a wealth of anecdotal evidence regarding the link between digital exclusion and social isolation. By improving their basic digital literacy, participants can stay in touch with family and friends, access local services and lead fuller lives.

Holistic support

Many of the participants on the programme were referrals from other Community Links services – such as those using our foodbank service or the parents of young people attending the Links Media College. Community Clicks has been the missing piece in the jigsaw for many of those taking part.

At Community Links, we are proud to develop programmes for the people of Newham, based on observation and direct feedback from the community.

-Agnes Collet, Policy and Communications Manager

The post Community Clicks: Giving people links to the digital world and their community appeared first on Catch22.

The short answer to this question is no. With Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion, and Just Stop Oil protests filling the media, a common assumption is that most, if not all, young people are environmentalists.

At Catch22, we know that life is more complicated for the people who we support: if a young person is struggling to support themselves financially and secure housing, the environment may well be important to them, but their primary concern is to start earning… quickly.

The green sector promises a wealth of new training and job opportunities. At Catch22, we ensure that people from all backgrounds can access future industries: supporting people into entry-level green roles through skills and employability programmes Green Spark and Grid for Good. Research we carried out with young climate action researchers found that the main barriers to green opportunities are:

• knowing what a green job is,
• educational requirements,
• cost of training, and
• the loss of income in pursuing training, which can take a long time to complete.

In our report with Green Alliance, Giving the green light: creating green jobs for all, we made a number of recommendations around awareness, training and employment:

With both an acute labour and skills shortage, the UK will struggle to deliver its net zero and nature targets. Without addressing these challenges, the UK will also miss the chance to expand access to good, green jobs for people currently left outside the labour market. To close the skills and labour gap, the government should turn to this pool of untapped labour by supporting disadvantaged individuals to enter green jobs.

In short, if we have any hope of delivering net zero targets, everyone needs to be involved. The latest labour market review from the Office for National Statistics showed that the unemployment rate for 16-24-year-olds is now 11.36%, (the highest it has been since July-September 2021), with the number of young people who are not in full-time education or employment up by over 82,000 compared to the same time last year.

With the green sector offering new opportunities, what can we do to support young people into these roles?

Start the conversation earlier

Education is key: young people should learn about green skills and jobs earlier, to form a clear career pathway. Practical, project-based learning can engage young people, in addition to insight sessions with people who have overcome similar challenges and succeeded in the green sector.

Involve young people

Co-design is everywhere, but how do we make this meaningful and not tokenistic? The young people who we support at Catch22 have brilliant ideas: we equip them with the skills, confidence and space to voice their views, for example in the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum.

Publish where green roles are available and when

There is a real need for transparency on green employment – industry should endeavour to publish what green roles are available, when, to avoid regional disparity and make sure more people can access these opportunities.

Create inclusive recruitment practices

At Catch22, we work closely with employers to develop inclusive recruitment practices and challenge their pre-requisites, asking questions such as: “Are these qualifications needed for this role?” and “Can the employee be trained on the job?”

Develop policy that supports better skills pathways

Recent policy stipulates that retrofitters must be fully-qualified electricians. What is the infrastructure supporting this and more widely, young people into green employment? Could existing systems be used, for example Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs)?

Shorten qualification routes and cover the cost of training

Training pathways need to be shorter so young people can get into green roles more quickly. Equally what funding is available to pay for training? Our Green Spark and Grid for Good programmes address this through incorporating skills training bursaries.

Offer better starting salaries

Apprenticeships are a great opportunity for on-the-job training. Employers need to assess the viability of the wages they are offering, and ensure they are competitive, so that young people apply.

Harness the passion of young people

There is a social dimension to climate change: young people can be trained in advocacy. There is also a wide range of innovation in this space. How do we engage young entrepreneurs and support them to create businesses that incorporate green innovation and the circular economy?

What is crucial to all of this is speed: with these simple changes, young people can be supported into roles and we can grow our green workforce at pace, essential for a greener future that is also fair.

– Carly McGoldrick, Assistant Director of Partnerships

The post Green skills for youth: are all young people interested in green opportunities? appeared first on Catch22.

All sections of the referral form should be completed in as much detail as possible to facilitate the team’s decision-making process. Incomplete referrals that are received may result in a delay to decisions being made.

The post The Hive: Referral forms appeared first on Catch22.

In Their Own Words is an event organised and run by care experienced individuals, highlighting the importance of various topics and identifying what would make a difference to them at a local and national level. The event was aimed at senior policy and decision makers across government, local authorities and the third sector including MPs, lead members, directors of children’s services, policy leads and more.

As online events go, it was incredible, with over 200 decision and policy makers tuning in to hear from care experienced individuals directly, in addition to the 100 people in the room. Each speaker spoke passionately, representing the views of many other care leavers from across the country, with a clear understanding of how change can be implemented on a local and national level to better support care leavers.

The event focused on how a number of initiatives have impacted care experienced young people already, and how they could impact in the future. These initiatives included:

• cost of living,
• care leaver hubs,
• unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) triangles,
• free transportation, and
• care experience as a protected characteristic.

Below, we have outlined some of the key local and national asks that these speakers raised.

1. Cost of living

As we know, the cost of living has impacted many people over the last few years and continues to affect care leavers today. Victoria, our YPBMF steering group representative, took the stage to talk about the NLCBF Survival Is Not Easy report, that captured the views of 461 care experienced individuals on the impact of the cost of living crisis. The report painted a stark picture of how this has impacted young people’s mental health, relationships and financial situations.

Local asks:

To help with cost of living at a local level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• keep in contact and maintain relationships,
• provide debt support and financial skills,
• create care leaver hubs,
• provide access to advice,
• provide crisis support, and
• ring fence finances from the household support fund.

National asks:

To help with cost of living at a national level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• prioritise financial wellbeing as critical to care experienced individuals and their futures, including mental health support,
• encourage local authorities to ring fence part of the allocated household support fund for care experienced individuals, and
• make all care leavers eligible for the over 25’s rate of universal credit.

2. Care leaver hubs

We were then joined by Rylee, a YPBMF Champion who took part in creating one of the country’s first Care Leaver Hubs, which has had a huge impact on the care experienced individuals across their local authority. The heart of this Hub beats with the belief that everyone deserves a chance: an opportunity to thrive, and a place where they feel they belong. Not only does the Hub provide crisis support and a place to have fun and relax and life skills teaching, but it also acts as a temporary respite for those who are in need. The experiences shared reflected a real passion and positive engagement from young people.

Local asks:

With regard to the creation of care leaver hubs at a local level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• ask themselves, “If you do not have a stand-alone care leaver hub at the moment, why not? What could you do to change this?”,
• co-produce the hub with care experienced individuals and encourage them to use it and make it accessible,
• form a steering group with young people and keep them involved in the development of the facility, and
• get a care leaver hub in your budget and keep resourcing it.

National asks:

With regard to the creation of care leaver hubs at a national level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• think about how they can support the development of care leavers hubs across the country,
• make the creation of care leaver hubs in each local authority a statutory duty,
• ask if there are businesses who have resources that can help support us with spaces or additional resources, and
• find out who else can help us influence people and raise the profile of the benefits of care leavers hubs.

3. Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) triangles

The Barnardo’s Triangles Project works with care experienced young people across the country to produce ideas on how to create change in the care system and have their ideas invested in. This year, they have brought together young people with experience of seeking safety in the UK as unaccompanied children. Alnour and other care experienced young people wanted to change the experience of entering the UK, because their experiences were impersonal and traumatic. Through this they have designed and created a comic book to help other young people in similar situations feel welcomed, valued and cared for rather than vilified.

Local asks:

In support of the UASC Triangles project at a local level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• provide comic books for all children and young people seeking safety in the UK to bring comfort and guidance and help them know that they are not alone,
• encourage local authorities that work with children and young people seeking safety in the UK to purchase comic books or contact Barnardo’s for further information on how to acquire them, and
• share the Barnardo’s video with professionals and decision makers.

National asks:

In support of the UASC Triangles project at a national level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• provide a warm welcome for children and young people seeking sanctuary, seeing them as children first and foremost,
• ensure that children seeking asylum in the UK are met with love and care, and have access to the same opportunities as other children and young people,
• advocate for the rights of UASC young people as children and young people first, and
• challenge the often dehumanising rhetoric around those seeking sanctuary in the UK.

4. Free transport

Transport is something that affects many care leavers across the country. Research conducted by Carefree Cornwall recently identified that this was one of the biggest barriers for care experienced individuals in their local area and, in June 2023, their free transport scheme went live. This has had a huge impact on the mental health and wellbeing of care leavers, enabling them to feel the freedom to travel and improving their independence skills. Alongside the Barnardo’s Transport for Freedom campaign, Lawrence and many other care experienced individuals have campaigned and visited parliament to encourage people to implement this nationally.

Local asks:

Recognising the importance of free transport at a local level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• make transport free for care experienced young people aged 18-25 in your local area

National asks:

Recognising the importance of free transport at a national level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• make transport free for care experienced young people aged 18-25 across the country.

5. Care experience as a protected characteristic

Our final speaker Leigh, a YPBMF Champion, took the stage to talk about the importance of care experience as a protected characteristic: a campaign which over 40 local authorities have adopted. Leigh shared their recent interview with the BBC Look North about how discrimination has affected them in the past, and how securing protected characteristic status could improve the outcomes for care leavers and give them the same opportunities in life.

Local asks:

In support of making care experience a protected characteristic at a local level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• find out if their council has passed the motion to make care experience a protected characteristic,
• ask how we can help implement it if the motion has been passed by their council, or
• consider writing to their MP, if it has not, to request the motion is developed with care experienced young people and heard at council meetings.

National asks:

In support of making care experience a protected characteristic at a national level, the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum asked decision and policy makers to:

• re-open the discussion about making care experienced a protected characteristic within government,
• hold national events to discuss the campaign, and
• consider pilot schemes to explore how local authorities are adopting and implementing in the area.

Improving outcomes for care experienced individuals is something the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum advocate for every day. This event was a showcase the views of care experienced individuals and how important each of these topics are, how these topics have impacted them, and their everyday lives.

To close the event, Mark Riddell MBE reflected on each of these key topics that had been picked up by the YPBMF, encouraging local and parliamentary leaders to look at each of them and include care leavers in the decision making process:

“I always have something to say about the world of our care experienced and care leavers. It still feels like a post code lottery, you get it based on where they live… To sum up, everything I have heard today, I will be taking back to parliament and government.”

– Mark Riddell MBE, National Implementation Adviser for Care Leavers at the Department for Education

A massive well done to all of our care experienced speakers and host.

– Toni McClelland, NLCBF Digital Marketing and Events Officer

The post In their own words: care experienced young people ask senior policy and decision makers for change appeared first on Catch22.

Catch22 Charity Ltd. manages the data you provide in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

• The Data Controller (the organisation that determines how your data is managed) is Catch22. Contact us if you have a query about how your data is managed.
• The Data Processor (the organisation that does data processing on behalf of Catch22) is Totally.Tech.
• We are committed to giving you (the Data Subject in legal terms) an easy way to exercise your eight rights under the GDPR.
• We retain your data for as long as you allow us to do so. You can exercise your right to erasure at any time however, there may be some instances where we need to retain your information for a longer duration for legal reasons, such as when applying for a job with Catch22.

What information do we collect?

Catch22 may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:

• information about your computer and your visits to and use of this website, including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views (cookies),
• information that you provide to us for the purpose of applying for a job or receiving job alerts (job applications / job alerts),
• subscribing to email newsletters including your name and email address (email newsletter), or
• information that you submit that relates to a complaint, service feedback or enquiry (complaints / feedback and enquiries).

Specific detail of each processing activity is provided below.

Cookies

Cookies are text files that are stored on your web browser by a website’s server. Each cookie is unique to your browser, and will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the website domain name. This information is sent back to the server each time your browser requests a page from it. This enables the website server to identify and track your web browser via your unique, anonymous, identifier.

Catch22 only uses cookies on its website where they will support the functioning of its website and to improve the experience of its website visitors. These cookies may be created by Catch22’s website, or by third-party services that Catch22 uses, to enable its website to be run effectively.

Some, ‘necessary’ cookies are essential to the running of our website and are exempt from the requirement of consent as per the GDPR and PECR. Functional, analytical and advertising cookies are all optional, and we will only store these cookies on your browser where we have received your freely-given, specific, informed, and unambiguous consent.

Any information that is collected by Catch22 via cookies is processed in a way which does not, and cannot, identify an individual person. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting the Catch22 website.

You can find out more about Catch22’s use of cookies, and how to opt-out of or delete cookies from your browser via our Cookies Statement.

Job applications

If you apply for a job with Catch22 using our hosted online job application system, this service will be provided by a data processor on our behalf (SmartRecruiters).

To process your application, we ask for your personal details including name and contact details. We will ask you about your previous experience, education, referees and for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for. The hiring managers for the role, along with our Recruitment and HR teams will have access to all of this information.

Catch22 processes your job application data for the purpose of its legitimate interest to process your HR information.

• If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus six years following the end of your employment.
• If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for six months from the closure of the campaign.
• Equal opportunities information is retained for six months following the closure of the campaign whether you are successful or not.

For more information, please see the SmartRecruiters privacy notice.

Job alerts

Through the SmartRecruiters job application system, it is also possible to sign up for job alerts, which will let you know when new jobs that meet your criteria have been posted.

These alerts are managed by the data processor (SmartRecruiters) on our behalf, and will only be processed using your freely-given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent.

If at any point you wish to unsubscribe from SmartRecruiters job alerts, this can be done by clicking the unsubscribe link on the latest email. You can also log into your SmartRecruiters candidate profile to modify or withdraw your details.

For more information, please see the SmartRecruiters privacy notice.

Email newsletter

If you subscribe to Catch22’s newsletter and/or event mailing lists, you will receive regular communications relating to our work. These mailings will be facilitated by a third-party provider, such as Mailchimp or Salesforce (marketing platforms), and your data will be processed by a third-party client relationship management platform, Salesforce.

Catch22 will only process your contact details and send you newsletters following your freely-given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent.

You have the right to unsubscribe from any of our email mailing lists at any time. If you wish to unsubscribe from a Catch22 mailing list please click the unsubscribe link on the latest email or contact dpo@catch-22.org.uk to ensure that you do not continue to receive email newsletters from us. We will need to continue to hold your details after you have unsubscribed to ensure that we do not send you further communications.

For more information, please see the Mailchimp or Salesforce privacy notices as appropriate.

Feedback and enquiries

Catch22 processes the data submitted through any of our website contact forms for the purpose of receiving your message and responding to it under the lawful basis of consent, which you give when submitting the form.

We will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues, and to check on the level of service we provide.

These contact forms are processed using the WordPress plugin, Gravity Forms. When these forms are submitted to us, notification emails are automatically generated to send your enquiry to the appropriate team within Catch22 who will store your email for as long as is required to deal with your enquiry and any subsequent issues.

Form submissions are also stored within the Catch22 WordPress database for a period of 90 days. This allows us to identify if there are any issues with forms being received by our teams. After this time, forms and all accompanying personal data are automatically deleted from the system. Gravity Forms does not receive copies of any of forms, or any accompanying personal data, that are submitted via the Catch22 website.

You have the right to withdraw consent for us to contact you at any time by contacting dpo@catch-22.org.uk. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, which in the United Kingdom is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

For more information, please see the Gravity Forms privacy notice.

Complaints

Complaints can be submitted using our online feedback form, by emailing feedback@catch-22.org.uk, or by post. Catch22 undertakes the processing of your complaints data as part of its legitimate interests.

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for six years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘data minimisation’ principle.

For more information, please see the Complaints, Compliments and Feedback policy.

Use of data processors

The Data Processor (the organisation that does data processing on behalf of Catch22) is Totally.Tech.

Catch22 also works with third-party data processors to provide our:

• content management system (WordPress),
• website analytics (Google Analytics),
• marketing platform (Mailchimp),
• client relationship management platform (Salesforce),
• social media advertising campaigns (Meta Pixel, Twitter Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, TikTok Pixel), and
• recruitment service (SmartRecruiters).

We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it and retain it for the period we instruct.

Individual Catch22 services may work with additional third-party data processors in line with their contractual requirements. For more information, please see the relevant Service Privacy Notice, which can be downloaded from their service page on this website, or found by searching for the service by name in our Policy Library.

Disclosures

Catch22 may disclose information about you to any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or data processors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy notice.

In addition, we may disclose information about you:

• to the extent that we are required to do so by law,
• in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings, or
• in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).

Except as provided in this privacy notice, Catch22 will not provide your information to third parties without your consent.

Security of your personal data

Catch22 will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.

We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure, encrypted password and firewall protected servers. As data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

Where information is held on our behalf by data processors, we will ensure, to the best of our ability, that they hold your information securely and in line with data protection legislation. We hold contracts with all data processors to make sure that they cannot do anything with your data unless we have instructed them to do so.

Notice amendments

We may update this privacy notice from time-to-time. Check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.

Your rights

Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you have any queries regarding this Privacy Notice or if you would like to exercise or query any of the following rights afforded to you under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• right to access
• right to erasure
• right to object
• right to rectification
• right to be informed
• right to restrict processing
• right to data portability
• rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
• right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) – via the Complaints page on the ICO website or by calling 0303 123 1113

For further information on your rights, please visit the Individual Rights page on the ICO website.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or of our treatment of your personal data, please email dpo@catch-22.org.uk or write to:

Data Protection Officer

Catch22
27 Pear Tree Street
London
EC1V 3AG

Data controller

Catch22’s data protection registration number is Z1473239

The post Privacy notice appeared first on Catch22.

The grant is part of a significant £20m funding package that NCS Trust has awarded to organisations across England for the delivery of community-based experiences at a local and grassroots level.

These new experiences will complement NCS’ existing away from home residential offer by providing more opportunities for teenagers to engage in local activities that foster skills development, deepen their understanding of the community, and empower them to contribute positively to its improvement. The grants will also support organisations that cater to specific groups of young people who may not have participated in previous NCS initiatives.

In collaboration with the National Youth Agency and StreetGames, NCS assessed more than 400 applications and Catch22 was selected as one of around 100 organisations to receive funding.

The grant will allow Catch22 to deliver 7,983 local community experiences across the West Midands area, giving over 2,650 young people the opportunity to gain new skills, develop their networks and make a positive contribution to where they live. Our partners in the West Midlands include Activate, YMCA and Sport4Life who are firmly embedded within their local communities.

In Greater Manchester, Catch22 will be partnering with Salford Foundation and Youth Federation to deliver 9,024 experiences reaching over 3,000 young people. Sessions are designed to be flexible and led by the needs of the young people, with a focus on making a positive impact on their personal development, local organisations and community.

Lisa Widdowson, Head of Operations (NCS) at Catch22, said:

“We are very excited to be involved in the Community Grants, and have chosen partners that are firmly rooted within the local community and have over 50 years combined NCS experience to share. The Community Grants will allow us to work with more young people, reaching more disadvantaged communities and having a more sustainable impact, as we have the opportunity to build relationships with young people over a longer time period.”

Mark Gifford, CEO of NCS Trust, added:

“I am delighted to welcome a diverse range of local, grassroots and community organisations from across the youth sector to deliver reimagined NCS experiences. This allows us to reach more young people than ever before, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and perspective to become work ready and world ready. Additionally, our grants for targeted experiences will enable us to reach underserved young people and communities. Together, we will work towards creating a country of confident, connected, caring citizens where everyone feels at home.”

Over the past decade, more than 800,000 young people have benefitted from an NCS experience, dedicating over 18 million hours to community based social action, while gaining invaluable life experiences.

The post Catch22 awarded NCS grant for delivery of experiences to help local teens become “world ready and work ready” appeared first on Catch22.

Catch22 reserves the right to amend this policy, following consultation, where appropriate.

Date of last review: August 2023

Date of next review: August 2024

What is the policy about?

This policy sets out the procedure of making a complaint for parents and carers of our pupils. The procedure explains the process and detail of complaints made at:

• Stage 1 – informal resolution
• Stage 2 – formal resolution
• Stage 3 – panel hearing
• Complaints against Catch22

The policy reflects the requirements set out in Best practice guidance for school complaints procedures 2020.

Who does this policy apply to?

All Catch22 Education staff, pupils, parents/carers, volunteers, contractors, visitors, inspectors, and stakeholders.

Policy requirements

Catch22 welcomes suggestions and comments from parents and carers, and takes seriously concerns or complaints which may arise, as they can help us to improve the educational experience that we provide.

The aim of this procedure is to achieve a fair, effective and as rapid as possible resolution of parental concerns or suggestions about the education and/or welfare of individual pupils in the care of the school.

These procedures apply to all parents/carers of pupils and to prospective parent/carers of the school. A copy of this procedure is available on the school’s website and can also be obtained on request from the school office or Headteacher.

Should a pupil, a member of the community, or a stakeholder have any suggestions or concerns, they should also follow this procedure.

Any staff with concerns or suggestions should follow the procedures outlined within the Whistleblowing Policy.

Complainants must always be made aware of this complaints policy, of what stage their complaint is currently at, and the procedures of the complaint’s current stage should be made clear to complainants at each stage.

If a complaint involves an allegation against, or naming an employee of, Catch22, Catch22 or an agency worker engaged by the Academy then the following process must happen:

• A triage call involving the Headteacher, HR and the Assistant Director of Catch22 must be arranged before any process is begun.
• A decision made whether the allegation meets the threshold to inform the LADO.
• A decision on whether this policy or the Managing Allegations Policy is most appropriate policy to be followed.

Key contacts

Complaints Officer (Catch22)
27 Pear Tree Street, London, EC1V 3AG
feedback@catch-22.org.uk

The post Education complaints, compliments and feedback policy appeared first on Catch22.

The VRU, which was set up and is funded by the Mayor of London, has invested in The Social Switch Project to deliver support for 1,000 young people and will train more than 2,000 frontline practitioners to better support children and young people.

The three-year programme, delivered by leading charities, Catch22 and Redthread, will:

• upskill frontline professionals on the opportunities and risks the online world presents to young people
• provide a pre-employability programme for young people that includes training modules on how to stay safe online

The Social Switch Project raises awareness of the dangers of the online world and aims to switch the narrative on how social media’s relationship to violence affecting young people and online harms is understood, tackled, and solved. Over the past four years, the project has trained more than 1,500 professionals working with young people to deal with the challenges and opportunities of the online world, supported 109 young people into digital careers, and provided intensive career support post-programme.

The new programme, which starts this summer, will also look at the growing concern around violence against women and girls, and how this is portrayed online. A recent report by Amnesty International revealed that online abuse of women is widespread in the UK with one in five women having suffered online abuse or harassment. The programme will build another level of support to young people taking part, providing specialist awareness training on violence against women and girls and how this relates to the online world.

Lib Peck, Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, said:

“We firmly believe that violence is preventable, not inevitable and a key part of our approach is putting children and young people first.

“The VRU is committed to working in partnership with Catch22 and Redthread to unlock the vast array of opportunities the digital world presents for children and young people to help them develop and thrive.

“We also know there are risks online and that’s why The Social Switch Project is crucial in working to support and protect young people, as well as highlighting violence and exploitation with internet and social media companies.”

Catch22’s Chief Executive Officer, Naomi Hulston, said:

“We are thrilled to be working with London’s Violence Reduction Unit to expand this hugely successful and important programme. While the online world presents a wealth of opportunities for young people, we know all too well that it also presents very real dangers. It’s vital that young people feel safe and are protected from online harms – and The Social Switch Project will play a major role in making that a reality.”

Geethika Jayatilaka, CEO of Redthread, said:

“We are delighted to partner again with Catch22, and with the backing of London’s Violence Reduction Unit to deliver the violence against women and girls part of The Social Switch Project. We know all too well the insidious nature of online harm for children and young people, so we are committed to working with professionals and young people to improve their understanding of how to stay safe online.”

The post London’s Violence Reduction Unit invests nearly £4m in programmes to keep young people safe online appeared first on Catch22.

Placing significant pressure on this already-stretched system is the rising number of remand prisoners.

The remand population

The remand population describes those that are being held in custody whilst awaiting trial or sentence and are therefore unconvicted. They are typically deemed unable to be monitored safely in the community or are remanded for their own protection, and are usually held in Category B prisons.

Since March 2020, there has been a 44% increase in remand prisoners, taking the total population to 14,591, a figure which stands at a 50-year high. This issue is two-fold: as well as more people being on remand, they are also there for longer periods of time. Such an increase is due in part to the incomplete recovery of our courts after the COVID-19 pandemic, creating long backlogs of cases awaiting trial. In fact, although a Custody Time Limit (CTL) of six months exists to prevent defendants from spending an excessive period behind bars ahead of their trial, many hundreds are held in custody for much longer than that.

Unique and significant challenges

Those on remand often face a double disadvantage: the mental turmoil that the uncertainty of their case takes, combined with a lack of the same support that those on determinate sentences qualify for. Unlike those who are sentenced, individuals held on remand can suffer from increased feelings of anxiety and apprehension due to the unpredictability of their circumstance:

When will their court date be?

Will they be sentenced?

How long for?

In addition, for many people on remand it is their first time in prison and the shock and confusion of the new custodial environment can significantly destabilise their mental wellbeing.

Lack of support

Those on remand, however, often cannot access the same opportunities as those who have been sentenced – for example, employability support or educational courses – despite often having identical need. Before 2022, Community Rehabilitation Companies provided enhanced Through the Gate (TTG) resettlement services to all people in custody, whether remanded or sentenced. Catch22 successfully delivered enhanced Through the Gate services across 14 prisons, which provided such resettlement support to remanded individuals. However, the reunification of the Probation Service in 2022 meant that remand prisoners were not included in new contracts with accommodation support agencies in prison.

What’s more, many support services that work in custody, for instance substance misuse or mental health services, prioritise cases by release date, which significantly disadvantages untied and unsentenced remand prisoners who do not have a release date. In combination, there is very little adequate resettlement done pre-release with those on remand to help them prepare for life outside.

The result can be grave, with the remand population accounting for 28% of self-inflicted deaths in custody, despite making up 18% of the whole prison population; a discrepancy which demonstrates a need for the reintroduction of and considerable investment in custodial support services that cater to the specific needs of those on remand.

How Catch22 works to support those on remand

In HMP Wandsworth, where the remand cohort makes up  63% of the prison population, Catch22 deliver the Life Skills Remand Project. The Life Skills Remand Project is a pilot course intended to resource participants with strategies and skills to deal with the specific uncertainties and challenges that come with being on remand. The course consists of seven sessions across one week, including an initial one-to-one session to establish a rapport and set out the aims of the course as well as a follow up one-to-one session the week after. Amongst others, the topics of sessions include tools and strategies to navigate stress and anxiety, building effective emotional management skills, maintaining effective relationships and creating useful and achievable goals.

Out of the learners who completed the course, Catch22 measured outcomes using a distance travelled assessment at point of initial one-to-one assessment and follow up one-to-one assessment, whereby individuals took a self-assessment questionnaire. So far, 94% of participants in the Life Skills Project evidenced a positive shift in outcomes, and all 122 participants provided 100% positive feedback.

Participants have reflected on the skills and support they have gained from the course, noting:

“I can’t explain how great the course was. I found it very helpful and insightful as I learned a lot about how to better myself mentally and build better relationships with people. I also learned that working as a group could benefit me and those around also. Feedback and positive criticism can be of great help to a person as it allows them to think better and make better decisions going forward.

“The course helped me to think about my goals. It was like a refreshment and helped me to make a plan for when I get out.”

We know that to process the whole remand population through the Criminal Justice System (CJS) is not a quick or simple task. As such, we must act to provide those already at detriment from the remand system with services that support their unique and significant needs. At the same time, if we are to ease the pressure that the growing remand population is having on the custodial estate, we must begin to prioritise rehabilitative alternatives to custody entirely.

The post The unique needs of a rising remand population appeared first on Catch22.

The event, held at Microsoft’s Experience Centre on Oxford Street, brought together a room full of ventures, employability providers, government departments and young people to draw focus on both the benefits and concerns of AI and the power this may hold in the sector.

We heard from three of our current ventures who have been working on the programme for the past year. They took the time to talk us through what they do, their successes and struggles, but mostly importantly provide insight on their experience:

• Imployable – A  free career management tool which provides all learners with the skills, resources and knowledge to identify careers, develop themselves, and search and apply for jobs and training. The app works can support employment advisors to track, monitor, support and communicate with learners.
• Earlybird – Software that can replace the time-consuming, form-heavy, initial meetings between an employment adviser and a participant, and helps employability providers to create supportive relationships with participants and focus on their needs.
• SkillLab – A mobile app which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to allow people to capture and express their unique skills, explore careers and apply for jobs. In parallel, SkillLab builds platforms for career counsellors where they can access this data, allowing them to better understand their clients, informing and creating opportunities to tailor the career counselling process.

To further explore the power of AI and digital we held a panel discussion with:

• Claudine Adeyemi, Founder and CEO of Earlybird,
• Sean Williams, Founder and Chief Executive of Autogen AI,
• Sue Attewell, Head of AI and Co-Design at Jisc, and
• Stefan Atanasiu, Senior Cloud Architect at Microsoft.

Panellists shared their experience and thoughts on AI and the possibilities it holds for the sector going forward.

David Hinton, Senior Venture Partner for Catch22’s Social Tech Amplifier, said:

“We had some great conversations about AI and other digital technologies which have the potential to transform the employment and skills support landscape. Whilst no doubt there will be challenges ahead, the underlying feeling in the room was of optimism and opportunity. Our ventures in the room really brought this message to life when showcasing their technologies which are already having great impact helping people into work today. It has been a real pleasure working with these ventures over the past few months and I’m looking forward to watching them continue to do great things.”

The post How is AI changing the employability and skills support landscape? appeared first on Catch22.

Catch22 reserves the right to amend this policy, following consultation, where appropriate.

Date of last review: June 2023

Date of next review: June 2024

Policy statement

Articles 13 to 22 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UKGDPR) affords data subjects rights over the data being processed by organisations. Catch22 will ensure that the rights of the data subjects whose data is processed by us are upheld appropriately and in accordance with the regulation and any associated legislation including the Data Protection Act 2018.

The post Data protection: observing data subject rights appeared first on Catch22.

Catch22 reserves the right to amend this policy, following consultation, where appropriate.

Date of last review: June 2023

Date of next review: June 2024

Policy statement

Catch22 is committed to ensuring that it protects and manages the personal information it holds in the course of doing business with the highest care and respect. In order to do this we will abide by a number of principles which are based on, but not limited to, the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UKGDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulation (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR), ePrivacy Regulation and the Human Rights Act 1998.

We understand the responsibility that we hold and trust that is placed in us in holding the personal information of our staff, volunteers, service users, contractors, stakeholders, supporters and other individuals who in the course of our business provide us with their relevant personal information. We will ensure that we implement the appropriate organisational and technological measures to protect the information as required based on the level of assessed risk for each data asset.

Scope

The aim of this policy is to ensure all staff are aware of their responsibilities and obligations in relation to data protection in order to minimise risk of infringement. The policy also aims to improve the understanding of the asset value of the data Catch22 holds. It aims also to inform members of the public how Catch22 complies with data protection legislation and how to exercise their rights to the data we hold about them.

The post Data Protection: Overarching data protection policy appeared first on Catch22.