From the Frontline

Throughout 2008, we will be talking to previous winners of the Justice Awards to find out what it meant for them to win an award. We'll also be asking how the award has impacted on their work in criminal justice.

We now follow Marianne Fellowes, domestic violence co-ordinator and finalist in the 2007 People's Award who has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

In 2007 when Marianne became one of just five Justice Awards nominees entered into the People's Awards, held in association with the Daily Mirror, she had yet to realise that the journey would not end there. For Marianne's passion and drive in helping others gain access to domestic violence services has now been honoured by the Queen in this year's birthday honours.

"It was a great honour to be nominated for a MBE, this is an award not just for myself, but for all those in Suffolk and across the UK who work so hard in this important field of work."

Marianne's inspirational journey has given her a unique insight into domestic violence. Six years ago, Marianne was forced to leave her entire life behind as a successful career woman in a bid to escape domestic violence. Starting her life all over again, with nothing but a few posessions and a caring for young daughter, Marianne has worked her way back and spent the last few years dedicated to providing support for other victims of domestic violence. Her success has been evident - since her work began the number of incidents of domestic violence being reporting to the police has doubled, including those from hard to reach audiences in the black and minority ethnic communities, single-sex relationships and from male victims.

Her MBE, is now a badge of honour "it is as an example of hope to victims that there is a future beyond the abuse, that domestic violence is recognised as an unacceptable crime and that there is support available," she said.

In her role, Marianne has been heavily involved in bringing together several different organisations to improve and develop the provision of services for victims of domestic violence. She has also been instrumental in delivering high-profile public awareness campaigns in Suffolk.

Since her Justice Award nomination last November, the pilot specialist domestic violence court on which Marianne led has been so successful that the good practice learned is being rolled out locally, with dedicated domestic violence courts being established in all magistrates' courts across Suffolk. Marianne's team has also set up countywide Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) to share information and create joint action plans for high risk cases of domestic violence and abuse, and have held a major conference to raise awareness of honour based violence and forced marriage.

Marianne continues to strive towards helping others and has enjoyed being part of the Justice Awards, "It was an amazing experience to take part in the Justice Awards process, and I would encourage people to nominate individuals or teams who have made a difference"

Nominations for the awards are open until 4 August and individuals and teams working at the frontline with victims, witnesses, offenders and defendants are eligible. Visit www.cjsonline.gov.uk/justiceawards for more information or to make an online application.

To find out more about Marianne, please visit our People's Award 2007 winners section.

Previous Winner Profiles: Nazir Afzal

Nazir Afzal was the winner of the 2007 People's Award for his outstanding work talking honour-based crime in England and Wales. His tireless work on the issue won the admiration of the public who voted him the clear winner last year.

The Justice Awards team caught up with Nazir recently, and we asked him how winning the award has helped his campaign.

"There has certainly been increased interest and activity around the issue of honour-based crime," said Nazir, "and this interest is coming from all areas, particularly the government, ministers and the public. Previously things had moved forward at a slow pace, but now there is an escalation of action, particularly with the setting up of the National Steering Group on Honour Crime which I am part of. We're now looking at what is already happening nationally and what is really needed. This increase in activity has been due in no small part to the People's Award."

Since the Justice Awards ceremony in November, Nazir has certainly been keeping himself busy with work on honour crime, in addition to his considerable role as Director in the Crown Prosecution Service. Alongside his membership of the Steering Group he has also given evidence to the Home Office Select Committee, and is due to speak at conferences in Cardiff, Birmingham and London in the coming weeks. Nazir has become a face of the campaign for media as interest has grown with interviews in the Times, The Mirror and The Observer, and appearances on Australian television and CBS News in America.

Being up for a public vote was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience for Nazir, but he nonetheless sees winning the People's Award as a massive boost to a cause he is so passionate about. Most importantly, he believes that in voting for him the public showed that they genuinely recognise how important it is to support the Criminal Justice System in dealing with these crimes.

To find out more about the People's Award 2007, and the other finalists, please visit the People's Award page.

Winners 2007

The winners of the 2007 Justice Awards were announced on Monday, 5 November at a special ceremony in London hosted by the BBC's Fiona Bruce. The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw were guests of honour.

The ceremony was held at the Merchant Taylors' Hall in the heart in the City of London. Guests were treated to lunch in the historic main hall, and an exhibition showcasing the work of our partner agencies, sponsors and justice-related organisations. Please visit our winners 2007 page to see who won this year.

The 2007 awards have been our biggest yet. We received 830 nominations this year, and all through the decision-making process, our judges have commented on the high calibre of individuals and teams being celebrated by their peers.

For further details on the ceremony together with photographs from the day, please visit the ceremony 2007 page.

Peoples Award 2007 Launch

The People's Award has been launched today in the Daily Mirror newspaper and here on the Justice Awards website. Five individuals working in the Criminal Justice System today have been selected as finalists for their outstanding dedication to their work, and the positive effect they have had on those going through the system and their own communities. The winner will receive a prize of £1,000 from the Daily Mirror to donate to a justice-related charity of their choice. Nominations are open from the 29 October to 2 November by phone or text, details of which are available on the Daily Mirror website. A proportion of the cost of the phone calls and texts will be donated to Women's Aid, the key national charity working to end domestic violence against women and children. Check out this year's finalists on our People's Award page, follow the link to the Daily Mirror website and vote for your favourite practitioner now!

Voting closes at Midnight, Friday 2 November 2007

Finalists 2007

Two finalists in each category have now been chosen in the 2007 Justice Awards. This year we have eight categories recognising individuals and seven categories recognising teams.

All who have taken part in the judging process so far have commented on the high standard of nominations we received. It was not an easy task to shortlist and then select the finalists, so we would like to send out thanks to all those who have taken part this year.

All information on the finalists has now been sent to the Justice Awards judging panel chaired by Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, who will decide on the winners later this month.

The finalists will be invited to the Justice Awards national ceremony hosted by the Baroness Scotland at the Merchant Taylors' Hall, London on 5 November, where the winners will be announced.

Please take a look at the list of finalists by category. You might see an individual or team you know on the list, or maybe even yourself!

The Justice Awards shortlist

The Justice Awards shortlist has been announced and our congratulations to those who have been selected. From the 830 nominations we received, we have now sifted these down to ten per category. These have now been sent to our cross-agency sifting group, who will meet on 19 September to decide this year's finalists, who will also be announced here on the Justice Awards website soon afterwards. For further information on the sifting and judging process, please visit the "awards process" section.

The shortlist is arranged by your Local Criminal Justice Board. Take a look to see who has made it this year!

Nominations for the Justice Awards

Nominations for the Justice Awards have reached a record-breaking 830 for this year, an increase of 29 per cent on our total last year. We would like to thank all who nominated and helped to make a difference to individuals and teams across England and Wales.

At the heart of promoting the value of the Justice Awards are the 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards across England and Wales. Below is a table the five boards who received the most nominations. As you can see, congratulations are due to Greater Manchester with 78 nominations.

Local Criminal Justice Board	Total Number
Greater Manchester	78
Lancashire	59
London	52
Avon and Somerset	44
Dorset	35

We will be announcing the shortlisted candidates at the beginning of September. Until then, continue to visit our site for more details on the Justice Awards ceremony later this year.

Justice Awards ceremony host Fiona Bruce talks about the value of the awards and rewarding frontline heroes

I'm delighted to be part of the Justice Awards again. This will be the third year that I have hosted the ceremony, and each time the judges have chosen some truly outstanding individuals and teams to celebrate.

All too often in my line of work, we seem to hear only bad news, but the Justice Awards has for some years now been providing a platform for good news: the inspiring stories, the teams who pull together to ensure justice is done, and the individuals who help save lives.

Last year, Operation Lund and the Force Major Investigation Team won the top award for 2006 for their work on the Morecambe Bay cockle-picker tragedy. It was a case I remember reporting on, and although their work was been praised on many occasions by the public it was fantastic to see these people get an award from their colleagues across the Criminal Justice System.

Nominations close on 3 August, so we need you to think of individuals and teams who go the extra mile in their work and nominate them now.

All we need from you on the form is your details, the details of the individual or team you are nominating and 400 words on why they deserve an award.

Thanks for your time and good luck with your nominations!

Fiona Bruce
Journalist and broadcaster

Jan Howell – Justice Award winner to receive MBE

Jan Howell, a Young Witness Service volunteer and Justice Award winner has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Jan was recognised for her outstanding achievements in working with witnesses at the Justice Awards last November, and now has been honoured by the Queen for her tireless work at the Young Witness Service in Greater Manchester.

Jan provides effective care for many young witnesses, often in traumatic circumstances, throughout the course of a trial. She has also been active in spreading good news about the Criminal Justice System, helping to increase confidence in her community.

When Jan received the letter informing her of the honour she could not believe it at first, and called three times to confirm that it was true. Family and friends are excited and proud of her, including Jan's manager Deborah Bennett, who originally nominated her for a Justice Award.

Winning these prestigious accolades has made Jan even more determined to continue her work with young witnesses for many years to come. It is a job she truly loves, and feels that working with young people keeps her young. Although Jan has personally received the honour, she believes that it recognises the excellent work of the Young Witness Service as a whole. "To be given such a special honour by the Queen will hopefully raise awareness of volunteering for Victim Support & Witness Service and make other people think about getting involved." said Jan.

Jonathan Sedgwick, Acting Chief Executive of the Office for Criminal Justice Reform said, "It's fantastic that one of our previous winners has been honoured by the Queen. Jan thoroughly deserves this, and we are pleased that we were able to pay tribute to her great achievements ourselves through the Justice Awards."

To read more about Jan Howell's Justice Award, please visit our previous winners section.

The Internet and Multimedia Unit, Avon and Somerset Police

In the first of regular reports from the front line, we take a look at the Internet and Multimedia Team, Bristol, who have taken an innovative approach to diversity issues at Avon and Somerset Police. The Internet and Multimedia Team were highly commended for their efforts in the ‘outstanding commitment to diversity’ category at the 2006 Justice Awards.

Avon and Somerset Police's Internet and Multimedia Unit, part of the Corporate Communications Unit, is also targeting hard-to-reach groups. Thanks to sign language video clips and subtitles on the police website, members of the deaf community can go online and find out how to contact the police or apply for jobs.

The unit, created in 2000, recognised that some people were unable to access the Internet because English is not their first language or, although they use British Sign Language (BSL), they cannot read and write English. In addition, wheelchair accessible information kiosks offering a similar service have been installed at shopping centres and park and ride facilities offering speech facilities for those with dyslexia, eyesight problems or learning difficulties.

"The aim is to make the communities of Avon and Somerset feel safe and be safe," says internet and multimedia manager Scott Fulton. "This is achieved through ensuring that we deliver a feature-rich service through as many delivery channels as possible whilst building relationships with different groups and communities and ensuring our information and service is accessible to them."

The BSL section on the website has had more than 16,000 visits since it was launched and the clips on the kiosk service accessed over 700 times. One website user posted the following feedback on the site: "As a disabled person I am very impressed with the accessibility features you have implemented in your website. It's nice to see the police catering for people with disabilities in this way."

Text: Saba Salman

This feature originally appeared in Issue 13 of CJS Now.