VSNW Presents ‘Employing Ex-Offenders in the

VCSE Sector’

19th May 2021 4pm-5pm

A full recording of the event can be found here.

The pandemic has exaggerated unemployment levels, which has had dramatic effects on individuals, families and the wider community. Ex-offenders have a particularly high risk of unemployment after finishing their sentence, which, amongst other factors, enhances the likelihood of reoffending. Helping and securing employment can have long and prominent positive effects, not only for the individual but for wider society too.

VSNW welcomed a selection of speakers to discuss their processes and experiences of working with and employing ex-offenders, including an inspiring insight from John, who has been through the process himself.

Our key takeaway messages:

1. People deserve a second chance-employment is vital in lowering re-offending rates.

2. Re-creating real-life work scenarios inside prison is an important process of getting offenders ready to work.

3. Supporting offenders release from prison with travel expenses ,meeting them upon release etc is vital to the transition.

4. Many ex-offenders have transferable skills intrinsic to business and the workplace.

5. Support and buddy programmes needed as ex-offenders can be vulnerable.

6. Employment is only one variable that effects re-offending rates,family support and housing being examples of others. This needs to be kept in mind.

7. For organisations wanting to implement practices to employ ex-offenders, partnerships with other organisations to support can be key. Whether that’s another organisation already successfully employing ex-offenders to learn employment practices from, or a housing or mental health organisation for example to provide the wrap around support that can sometimes be required.

Darren Burns, from the Timpson Foundation, discussed the history of the foundation and how the group became invested in employing ex-offenders and giving them a second chance. They are now proudly the largest employer of ex-offenders in England.

They have four main streams of employment:

1: ROTL (Release on Temporary License)
This begins with informal interviews after liaising with prison staff, the aim of which is to grasp the character and personality of the individual. ROTL allows successful applicants to leave prison in the day to work and return to prison in the evening. They receive national living wage.

2. Prison training academies:
As a lot of prison work doesn’t get prisoners ready for the real world, these prison training academies aim to replicate a real Timpson branch environment for practice and assessing skills. When the prisoners are then eligible for ROTL, the continuity of environment is very positive.

3 .Some people in custody do not have access to ROTL (perhaps they are in category B prisons/sentence is too short). In this instance they are risk assessed and interviewed and then met upon release and given a travel pass and a job.

4. People feel confident applying through normal streams as Timpson is renowned for its employment ethos.

Darren explained some of main reasons why the Timpson Foundation has decided to engage with the above employment processes:

1. People deserve a second chance-reoffending rates are dramaticallyr educed if employed.

2. Reoffending costs the taxpayer vast amounts each year, thus reducing this benefits family, individual, wider society, tax payer and communities

3. Experience of prison often gives people qualities of personal resilience. They are often more hardworking, more honest and can be business savvy.

Annie Gale, from COOK Ltd and the Raw Talent Programme gave an overview of their experiences and processes too.

The RAW (Ready & Working) Talent Programme supports people with convictions, who suffer from addiction and who are homeless. Their company values see their employees as “essential ingredients” to their success, which they regard as doing the right thing by society as well as turning a profit. The programme has the following stages:

1. Training before job offer (a supported trial shift)
2. All those who complete the programme are interviewed
3. The programme is run 3 times a year and 2-4 jobs are offered from each.

COOK Ltd strive to see the potential in people and maintain that somebody’s past doesn’t have to define their future. They believe that doing good business attracts good people, shareholders, suppliers and customers. They put equality at the fore of their ethos and make sure that their employees are offered support, buddy programmes etc. They have high expectations and a disciplinary process, which has been devised from learning over the years.