Community sponsors the 2025 Inspire Justice Awards

The fourth annual Inspire Justice Awards ceremony will take place this month at the QEII Centre in London. The awards celebrate the essential contribution and achievements of the justice sector workforce, from policing and probation to prisons, courts and more.

Ahead of this year’s ceremony, we spoke to Gavin Miller, National Secretary at Community, sponsors of the 2025 Inspire Justice Awards.

1. Community is a trade union that represents thousands of workers across the criminal justice system. Tell us more about your work.

Community have over 5000 members in the justice sector across the whole of the UK. Our membership covers 10 private sector jails, immigration centres, prisoner escort and custody services (PECS) in England and Scotland and electronic monitoring across England and Wales.

The justice sector is integral to what Community are as a trade union, it is firmly embedded in the unions structures, and we strive to improve the working lives of our members. We have commissioned our own reports into the justice sector (Beyond Bars) that have been widely reported and referenced and have conducted successful campaigns for PPE to be provided in the private sector as part of wider health and safety reforms.

Community also believe that the service of members in the private sector should be widely recognised in society, because of this we are campaigning for a national long service medal for private sector employees. In 2025 we ran our inaugural Justice Worker Week campaign to highlight the work of our members in the sector and thank them for making society a safer place.

2. You are sponsoring the Inspire Justice Awards for 2025. Why did you decide to get involved?

We believe that our justice sector workers deserve to be championed, the Inspire Justice Awards gives us all an opportunity to take time out of the day-to-day work and thank people for their contribution, we should never lose sight of the importance of saying ‘thank you’. Whilst we will always have our challenges to face it is important to recognise the superb efforts of the workforce across every area of the sector, the Inspire Justice Awards help us to achieve that.

3. The Inspire Justice Awards shines a light on the justice sector workforce whose roles are often hidden from view. Why do you think it’s important to celebrate the justice sector workforce in this way?

It has always interested me how different jobs that support society are valued differently by the media and the public. Front facing roles are rightly championed in all areas of society but let’s be clear – every role has a part to play in making the justice sector effective. Support roles are vital for prison custody officers (PCOs) to be effective in their job, court services need to pass correct information onto several different agencies, the examples are countless.

Everyone in the sector has a vital part to play, Community would always support that view, this was highlighted in our recent Justice Worker Week campaign.

4. Finally, what’s your message for this year’s finalists?

I would simply say thank you so much for your service and well done for being a finalist and making a vital contribution.