Press Release

Skills for Justice is banged up with Blunkett

12 June 2008

Tomorrow at noon (13 June), the new Sheffield headquarters of Skills for Justice will be formally opened by the Rt. Hon David Blunkett MP, at Centre Court on Brightside Lane.  To mark the event the former Home Secretary will give a speech on Justice in the UK and talk about his plans to tackle criminality in a brand new Channel 5 TV show entitled ‘Banged up with Blunkett’.

Skills for Justice, the Sector Skills Council for Justice, recently moved into the new premises, which are in close proximity to the Brightside Shiregreen ward, for which Mr Blunkett is Member of Parliament.  

News that Mr Blunkett will be ‘cutting the ribbon’ has been greeted with great excitement by the 70 Skills for Justice employees who work to help organisations within the UK Justice sector to become more efficient and effective, through the development of a variety of products, qualifications and services designed to improve workforce skills.

As well as formally opening the new office, Mr Blunkett will say a few words about his brand new Channel 5 TV series, ‘Banged Up with Blunkett’, to be broadcast in the summer.  The series aims to discourage a group of young people on the verge of criminality, to take the necessary steps to steer themselves away from a life of crime.

Mr Blunkett said, “Everyone working in the criminal justice process knows how vital it is to the well-being of our society, as well as the protection of individuals, that we have an efficient, speedy and trusted system.  All of us want to stop youngsters offending in the first place and discourage them immediately when they have.  The Channel Five series, transmitted in July, will take a look both at what has gone wrong and what might work in early intervention and, where needed, put things right.

“There is much to learn from what is already making a difference across the country but this ten day experiment also offers insights which may give us considerable food for thought in terms of spreading ‘what works’ in very different settings, to the prison environment in which the young people involved voluntarily subjected themselves.

“It is therefore a pleasure to take this opportunity of addressing those involved with crucial training programmes as part of the work of Skills for Justice and in turn, to hear thoughts and ideas from those working throughout the system.”

Alan Woods OBE, Chief Executive of Skills for Justice said, “We are delighted that Mr Blunkett has agreed to formally open our new headquarters, and look forward to hearing more about the forthcoming television series.  Our new premises are much better suited to our needs as an organisation, enabling us to move forward as we look to achieve our vision of becoming a leading recognised sector skills council delivering a world class skills agenda for the UK Justice sector.  In doing so, we hope to enable those organisations we work with to operate more effectively and efficiently, thereby making a real difference to society.”

“We are also proud to be able to display some artwork in our new office from the Koestler Trust – the UK’s best known prison arts charity.  All the artwork has been created by offenders and detainees within UK institutions.”

The Koestler Trust awards, exhibits and sells artworks by offenders, detainees and high security patients, with the aim of helping offenders lead more positive lives by motivating them to participate in the creative arts.  The Trust’s work demonstrates the power of arts activity in the criminal justice system, and the selection of work on display in the new Skills for Justice office shows the talent possessed by some of those caught up in the criminal justice system.