Conference explores the demand and supply sides of the market for offender employment

Some 150 people met in the Connaught Rooms London for this one day conference organised by Neil Stewart Associates.   The emphasis was very much on engaging with both ex-offenders and employers to get ex-offenders into work, so that they stay ex-offenders and don’t become re-offenders. 

THE RATIONAL BUSINESS CASE FOR THE DEMAND SIDE OF THE MARKET

Both Dianah Worman,  (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and Alison Itani (an employer and representative of the Corporate Alliance) said that employing ex-offenders offered enterprise the opportunity of securing loyal and effective employees.  The emphasis was very much on the head rather than the heart; employing ex-offenders can be effective and profitable as well as socially beneficial.

The research Dianah presented to show the benefits included the CIPD 2007 report “Employing Ex-offenders to Capture Talent”.  It is available free of charge from their website at http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/dvsequl/exoffenders.  This is a useful resource for those looking for justifications to employ ex-offenders.  Alison Itani spoke from personal experience of the business benefits of employing ex-offenders in a small business in Wales. 

At the end of the first session a questioner rather penetratingly asked if these messages were getting through to employers.  The conference was definitely ‘a gathering of the faithful’.  Inspection of the attendance list showed that Alison was probably the only private sector employer of ex-offenders at the event, apart from another presenter, Neil Fisher of Wessex Water.

THE NEED FOR PASSION TO CHANGE BEHAVIOUR SO THAT OFFENDERS ARE JOB-READY

Another, and perhaps more powerfully put message, was made by the charismatic Mark Johnson.  An ex-offender himself, he had “turned it around” over the last seven years, kicking a £300 a day drugs habit, and a chaotic and squalid lifestyle, to become a successful author, employer and special adviser to The Prince’s Trust. 

His message was that many ex-offenders need a strong example, from workers prepared to put their hearts into the resettlement effort, rather than just their heads.  In a powerful seminar at the end of the day one of the ex-offenders working with Mark on a Prince’s Trust counselling project said that they had only found the strength to turn their life around when: “someone believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.”  Earlier Mark himself spoke of the crucial intervention of a worker determined not to let him sink.

This is not the sort of intervention that is going to come from employers.  On the demand side of the market for offender employment, business people are rightly interested in the bottom line.   The energy to help offenders to become truly job-ready, so that a viable supply of labour is available, has to come from committed workers with a passion for helping their clients.   Those devising the vocational curriculum must be mindful of the need for these soft skills and interventions.

A MEETING OF MIND AND HEART

Middle ground was offered by Joyce Moseley (CE of Rainer) who put a quantified business case for a resettlement package including mentoring support for ex-offenders returning to freedom.  The analysis showed a cost saving of £12,000 per offender supported.

Work done by the Prince’s Trust, and confirmed by other speakers, indicates that even just being met at the prison gates, to be got past the nearest pub and towards a resettlement plan, is of great benefit.  Richard Marsh (Head of Development, Prince’s Trust), who lead the final seminar on preparing for release, further emphasised that it is much more effective for the mentors to be ex-offenders themselves and able to relate to the client.

More on this excellent work and the report:” Breaking the cycle of offending” at: http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/Main%20Site%20v2/headline%20news/whats%20in%20your%20region/offending%20seminar.asp   

More than once offenders were described as feeling that “resettlement was something done to me rather than by me”.   Teachers, like me, raised on the principles of student-centred learning, should not be surprised to hear that interventions fail unless they are meaningful to the client. 

An approach blending a bottom-up as well as a top-down interventions is needed for resettlement success.  Certainly the evidence from potential employers (including the CIPD survey of 474 employers of ex-offenders; and the presentation by Neil Fisher of Wessex Water) indicates that soft skills (like punctuality, regular attendance, commitment and sociability) are more important to employers than motor skills, such as a trade.

Much of this work concerns young offenders.  However, both Richard March and Joyce Moseley were of the opinion that the lessons learned were also applicable to older age groups.

NEWS FROM A TEST-BED REGION

On the subject of how resettlement is to be administered, the afternoon session started with an interesting presentation by Matthew Kelly (Deputy Regional Offender Manager, East of England).  He gave a review of the early developments in a test-bed region for the planned Campus Model for resettlement.

[see http://www.thelearningjourney.co.uk/news_item.2007-01-08.6041282460]

He described the early days of building their delivery of the Campus Model.  Matthew said: “We are in a people business and it is people that make a difference”.  He also emphasised the importance of mentoring to achieve successful resettlement.

Their objective is the creation of a brand viewed from both the supply and demand sides of the offender labour market as a centre of excellence.  Matthew was frank about the challenges presented by “struggling with through-the gate-activity”.  On the supply side, he said short term prisoners were difficult to make job-ready and longer-stay clients were scattered all over the estate, rather than focused for preparation for employment in their region of origin.  On the demand side, he added, the region was characterised by micro-enterprises (95% have 5 or less employees).

Matthew is mobilising the Corporate Alliance to assist in the solution of these difficult problems, by recruiting a powerful leadership group of local employers. He spoke of the importance of a coherent communications plan to align attitudes and spread knowledge, supported by a self-sustaining social enterprise and a web-based centre of excellence for employers to go to.

WRAPPING IT UP

Perhaps the most immediate challenge to the audience was put by Jim Narey, the Employability Development Manager at Business In The Community.  He said that, if you have a really job-ready ex-offender, then he will help find them a job.  Their website is  http://www.bitc.org.uk .

I apologise for not reporting all the proceedings.  Much was done in parallel sessions, and I could not be everywhere at once.  If you want the papers from the conference they are available, at a price, from sarah.spencer@neilstewartassociates.co.uk. 

Some of the speeches are available as pod casts via an interesting new service from Policy Review TV.  They provide a video archive of speeches by the good and the great. For the moment you can hear some of the speeches from the conference for free, and the website also contains the detailed agenda of the event.  Go to: http://www.policyreview.tv/system.php?page=conf/intro&conf_id=25