Employment Opportunities with Families Outside

Family Support Coordinator     Ref: FSC/HR
SJC Scale AP4/5: £22,408 - £27,844*

Based primarily at The Wise Group office in Glasgow, you will manage a client caseload for direct provision of support but will also offer support through links with, and referrals to, relevant local organisations. This post covers Glasgow, North Strathclyde, Lanarkshire, and South West Scotland, so close cooperation with relevant support services in these areas is essential.

Family Support Worker     Ref: FSW/HR
SJC Scale AP4/5:  £22,408 - £27,844*

Based primarily at the Edinburgh Prison Visitors’ Centre, you will have a client caseload for direct provision of support but will also offer support through links with, and referrals to, relevant local organisations.  Working with the Development Worker at the Visitors’ Centre, you will help create a network of support for families of people from Lothian & Borders.  From January 2009, the post will extend to include Fife & Forth Valley.

* estimated salary to be confirmed on publication of SJC Salary Scales for 1 April 2008 onwards.

To apply for either position please request a job application pack quoting the appropriate reference from:
HR Dept, The Wise Group, 72 Charlotte Street, Glasgow G1 5DW E: humanresources@thewisegroup.co.uk T: 0141 314 1470.

The Wise Group is committed to equal opportunities and are proud holders of the double tick disability symbol.

CLOSING DATE - FRIDAY 25th JULY 2008

Change of Address

Families Outside will be moving to new premises on 1 May 2008. The new address for the organisation will be:

13 Great King Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6QW

The Una Padel Award 2008

The Una Padel Award 2008

The nomination process for the 2008 Una Padel Award is now underway. We are inviting nominations in both the outstanding individual and outstanding organisational category.

Further details about this year's award can be downloaded here (Adobe PDF, 76KB). When you are ready to make your nomination, download the relevent form here.

• Individual Nomination Form (MS/Word, 44KB)
• Organisational Nomination Form (MS/Word, 45KB)

If you would like more information about the award or if you can help us circulate details about the award via a newsletter, mailing or at an event please contact Sandra Harper, Email sandra.harper@kcl.ac.uk Tel 020 7848 1690

To see who won and who was short listed last year click here.

Dr Nancy Loucks
New Chief Executive of Families Outside

Families Outside is delighted to inform you that Dr Nancy Loucks will be taking up the post of Chief Executive from 1 September 08.

Until that date she will continue in her capacity as Acting Chief Executive.  We are more than delighted about this appointment and are sure you will agree that fortune has smiled on us.

Rosamond M. Cullen
Lady Cullen of Whitekirk, Chairman

Change in Director/Company Secretary

Families Outside regret to advise you that Sean McCollum has tendered his resignation as Director/Company Secretary of Families Outside as of 14 March 2008.  

The Board will be seeking to appoint a successor as soon as is practicable.  In the meantime, Dr Nancy Loucks has agreed to become Acting Director/Company Secretary and can be contacted at Families Outside's main office.

Sacro Annual Conference - March 2008

Sacro is running its Annual Conference on Wednesday 5 March 2008: 'Community Sentences - Making Scotland Safer'.

Kenny MacAskill, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, will address delegates along with Julius Lang, Director of Technical Assistance for the Center for Court Innovation in New York.

Venue: The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Queen Street, Edinburgh.

To book please contact Sacro on events@national.sacro.org.uk or visit www.sacro.org.uk.

November Event - Feedback

The Families Outside Partners and Progress Day took place at the City Chambers in Glasgow on 23 November and was attended by over 140 people.  Attendees included families of prisoners but also a wide range of professionals including Social Work Workers, Addiction Workers, Nursing staff  and Scottish Prisoner Service (SPS) personnel. 

The event was also an opportunity to introduce Sean McCollum, the new Director at Families Outside, who commenced duties on 8 October.  Sean’s presentation reviewed research which clearly demonstrated that supportive family contact with offenders during and post imprisonment is linked to reductions in offending.  Other presentations included a description of the excellent interventions being implemented by SPS in relation to substance misuse and an update on the groundbreaking work being undertaken by SPS, the Wise Group, Families Outside and Relate through the  Routes out of Prison (RooP) Project.

The main theme to emerge from the day was that families are  underutilised in terms of their potential impact on reducing offending despite research showing that supportive family contact can reduce offending.  Families Outside wishes to ensure that the potential role of families in reducing offending is recognised and utilised at strategic and operational level within the criminal justice system. 

A key objective emerging from the event for  Families Outside is to seek to ensure that the families of prisoners  receive adequate support which will in turn assist them to help their loved ones to  reduce and cease offending.

Members Event - 23 November 2007
Glasgow City Chambers, Glasgow

Families Outside will be holding an event on 23 November 2007 at the City Chambers on George Square in Glasgow.

The purpose of the event will be to introduce you to Families Outside's new Director and to update you on our activities eg. our work on HDC, Home Leave and the Assisted Prison VIsits Scheme. We will also provide an update on our work on families affected by imprisonment and substance misuse, highlighted at out conference in November 2006.

Registration for the event is between 9.30am and 10.00am with proceedings expected to close at 3.30pm. Lunch will be provided.

The event is now full to capacity, so please ensure you are booked before attending.
No new bookings can be taken as of today.
4.00pm, 21 November

For a copy of the programme for the day click here.

Annual Report 2006/07

We are pleased announce the release our Annual Report for the year 2006/07 which provides an overview of the organisation’s work and development.

The report’s title is “SHARE” which reflects the need for effective partnership working between relevant agencies to ensure that families affected by imprisonment receive appropriate help.  Families Outside has been involved in a number of excellent partnership initiatives in the last year and these are documented in the Annual Report.  

We have always said that families deserve services in their own right.  The fact that research indicates that maintaining supportive family contact with prisoners reduces the likelihood of reoffending very much reinforces the need for families always to be at the heart of justice and imprisonment policies.  

We look forward to the opportunities and challenges in the year ahead and to continuing our work with partners to seek to ensure that the needs of families affected by imprisonment are considered in the planning and implementation of criminal justice interventions.

A pdf copy of our Annual Report can be found on the Publications page of our website. If you would like a copy of the Annual Report posted to you, please contact us.

Families Outside has a new Director!

We are very pleased to report that we have appointed a successor to Angela Morgan.  The new Director will be Sean McCollum who will take up the post on 8 October 2007.

Sean comes to us from Fife Social Work Service where he has undertaken integration and partnership work across a range of agencies which are responsible for helping people affected by substance misuse and so, among other qualities, he will bring a wealth of practical experience.

We would like to thank Angela for all the tireless and hard work she has given to Families Outside. She will be sorely missed by the organsisation and team alike. We are very proud of her and what she has achieved at Families Outside and we would like to wish her every success in her new role.

Extended Home Leave leaflet

Families Outside has now published a new Extended Home Leave leaflet which is available on our Publications page.

We would like to thank both Frank Design Limited and the Scottish Executive for their support in the development of this leaflet.

After a Death In Custody - information development

We have been working closely with prison Chaplains to develop information materials for Chaplains to use in their work with families after a relative has died in custody.

For more information about this please contact Elaine Stalker who is our Support and Development Manager.

Do Not Pass Go…Travel Links to Scottish Prisons

The launch of the report to an invited audience took place at the offices on Standard Life on 22 June 2007.

Malcolm Higgenbotham, who was seconded from Standard Life, presented his finding and recommendations which were well received.

A copy of the report can be downloaded from the Publications page of our website. Please click here.

We would like to thank Malcolm for all his work on the development and publication of the report. We would also like to thank Standard Life for affording us the opportunity to work with Malcolm through their Community Investment Secondment Policy.

Can I get help with the cost of prison visits?

If you would like help in claiming your travel expenses for prison visits, you should visit the Assisted Prison Visits Unit (APVU) website for information.

E-mail for advice at assisted.prison.visits@hmps.gsi.gov.uk or you can telephone on 0845 300 1423.

'Playing Our Part' - Families Outside Conference
Final Report

Following this event in November 2006, the conference partners have been reviewing the outcomes and planning follow up actions. These have been incorporated into the final report which we hope you will find informative.

The report can be downloaded here - pdf.doc or Word.doc

There will be an opportunity for discussion of the action taken following the report at a Families Outside members event which will be held in November 2007 at the City Chambers in Glasgow.

Please feel free to download a copy of the programme for the day or any of the presentations given:

• Presentation 1: The Lighthouse Foundation
  Please contact us for a copy of this presentation
• DOWNLOAD - Presentation 2: Adfam
• DOWNLOAD - Presentation 3: SPS & Phoenix House
• DOWNLOAD - Presentation 4: The Wise Group
• DOWNLOAD - Presentation 5: Family Support Unit Scotland
• DOWNLOAD - Presentation 6: Dr Nancy Loucks

The Butler Trust  -  The Wates Foundation Award for work with Female Offenders 2007

Families Group, Cornton Vale Prison

This multi-disciplinary team has created a safe and welcoming environment in the Families Centre to nurture family ties whilst involving families in integrated case management.  Some of the excellent initiatives include the refurbishment of the Mother and Baby Unit, allowing older children to remain with their mothers in the Independent Living Unis, Open Days and Children's Panels inside the Families Centre. 

As one child says: "My mum and I can talk all we want and I know that she really loves me.  It didn't feel like she loved me in the visit room because we had to whisper".

Hear Voices of Families Affected by Imprisonment

The Families Outside website now has audio exerts of family members talking about their experiences of having a relative in prison. A transcript is also available to read.

To hear these, go to our website's Why Are we Here? page.

Travel Links to Scottish Prisons for Visiting Families

Malcolm Higgenbotham, a Business Analyst from Standard Life, has been seconded to Families Outside for 3 months as part of Standard Life’s Community Investment Policy.

The project he will be looking at is travel links to Scottish Prisons for visiting families. This will involve research into public transport links to prisons, as well as commercial and community initiatives.

A report will be produced with Malcolm's findings and this will be published in June 2007 and will be available on this website.

If you have any comments or information that could assist with this research, please email malcolm@familiesoutside.org.uk or you can telephone on 0131 557 9800.

Prisoners, Families and Visits in Ecuador

At the Families Outside Board meeting in March 2007, our guest speaker, Jennifer Fleetwood, talked about the prisoner and family visiting system in Ecuador. This was a very informative and enlightening presentation on prisoners, families and visits in this South American country.

A copy of Jennifer's report is on our website. Please click here.

Edinburgh Visitors Centre Survey - July 2006

A report outlining some views and perceptions of the needs of visitors to Edinburgh Prison’s Visitors Centre. Please click here.

Routes Out Of Prison
'Their Chance For Change'

A leaflet outlining what The Routes Out Of Prison (RooP) project is about can be downloaded. Please click here.

Alternatively you can contact us for a leaflet and more information on the project.