Dominic Williamson

Welcome to our new website!

27 April 2010

Today Revolving Doors launches a new website, our new strategy and a campaign document aimed at candidates running for parliament in the General Election.

And my first blog entry.

All of these are key elements in a new phase for Revolving Doors.

Since we were launched in the early 1990s this organisation has spoken out for a group of people who find themselves on the margins of our society. Over the intervening years our research and practical work on the ground has influenced thinking at the heart of government and won prizes. But even after all that time, the reality is that people in the revolving doors group very rarely get the sort of help they need and remain trapped in lives that are damaging to themselves and society. Even where services do exist and are successfully helping people to turn their lives around, we find that the lack of policy drivers so often means that local commissioners have too many other priorities and services struggle to get funding.

The frustrating thing is that we know that getting the right help to people at the right time is cost effective. That is why one of the first things we are doing is developing a cost-benefit model which we hope will be a tool to demonstrate what we have known all along: that leaving people trapped in the revolving door is expensive, and effective interventions are much much cheaper. Given the current deficit and forthcoming cuts in public expenditure, demonstrating immediate savings will be essential.

Our new strategy sets out how we now believe we must work to build support and make the change happen. Developed over several months of discussion with members of our service user forum, our funders, partner organisations and our trustees, this new plan aims to create a momentum that will bring a real and lasting change in the way our public serivces and our criminal justice system respond.

This website will be one of our primary tools for sharing solutions, ideas and contacts so together we can stop the revolving door of crisis and crime.

We are busy loading content on to the site, so if you have any comments or suggestions do please get in touch.

But for now a huge thank you to all involved but especially members of our service user forum who agreed to be photographed for this site and have shared some of their stories in these videos.

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