Top employers join prison employment advisory boards

Leaders from employers including the Co-op, Greggs, Iceland and Oliver Bonas have been appointed as employment advisory board chairs across 92 resettlement prisons, which prepare prisoners for release into the community.

Employment advisory boards link prisons with business figures who can offer their expertise on the skills, qualifications and training needed to help prisoners become “job ready”, enabling prisons to tailor their training to local labour market needs.

The government believes the initiative will help address labour shortages while tackling the £18bn annual cost of reoffending. Ex-prisoners in steady employment are nine percentage points less likely to re-offend, it claims.

The number of ex-offenders in employment six months after release increased from 14% to 23% between April 2021 and March 2022.

Each resettlement prison in England ad Wales has dedicated job experts that support prisoners with job applications and offer interview training. There is also a career advice hub in all but one resettlement prison, where prisoners can access support with CV writing.

Richard Walker, executive chairman at Iceland Foods, said businesses can see huge benefits by employing rehabilitated offenders.

“At Iceland we feel it’s the right thing to do, and although we’re at the beginning of this rehabilitation journey we are already seeing how it can offer real societal and business impact,” he said.

“Employment advisory boards allow business leaders, including Iceland’s own director of rehabilitation Paul Cowley, an inside track to support ex-offenders, equipping them with much-needed skills that employers like us will value both now and in the future.”

Beckie Rowlands, Fresh Start manager at Greggs and chair of the employment advisory board at HMP Foston Hall said: “At Greggs, we pride ourselves on our culture, creating an environment which is inclusive of everyone. Being an inclusive business also means making it easier for people who might face challenges with getting a job.

“Through our Fresh Start programme, we proactively offer training and work experience to people who are transitioning into work, including care leavers, people who have been unemployed for a long time, or who are leaving the armed services or prison. We provide employability workshops, mentoring, mock interviews, interviews, placements and, most importantly, sustainable job opportunities to candidates that we would not ordinarily meet.

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“Working with the employment advisory boards is a great way for us to not only reduce the impact of re-offending within our communities, but also an avenue to find great employees to join Greggs.”

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