Equal - Digital Repository

Background

There is much evidence of the role of unemployment in offending and re-offending for ex-offenders.

• Future Skills Wales confirms in their report published March 2004 that the vast majority of employers in Wales (76%) described themselves as micro –establishments  - i.e.employing fewer than 10 people. Only 1% of companies employed more than 250 workers. Micro businesses are unlikely to have Human Resources Departments with polices about employing ex-offenders, the majority of ex-offenders will apply to companies who will reject their application out of hand on the basis of their criminal record.
• Research undertaken in a joint Prison and Probation group suggests that employment reduces re-offending by between a third and half. Three quarters of prisoners say they do not have paid employment to go to on release.
• In the report Barriers to employment for offenders and ex-offenders the National Institute for Economic and Social Research 2001 found that “75% of employers would treat a candidate less favourably if they were aware that they had a criminal conviction”.
• MORI survey reports that between 60% and 80% have specifically been refused employment because of their criminal record.
• The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) report Reducing offending by ex –offenders stated that “Of the small minority of prisoners who had attended a course to prepare them for release only 8% had received any advice on how to deal with disclosing their criminal record”.  Unemployment makes it harder to maintain stable accommodation or to earn money legitimately.
• The SEU reports that most prisoners have never experienced regular or high quality employment. 5% of the general population are currently unemployed, 67% of the prison population were unemployed in the four weeks prior to custody. 13% of the general population are in receipt of benefits compared with 72% of prisoners immediately before entry to prison.

Aim

The overall aim is to reduce the inequalities and indiscrimination in the labour market for ex-offenders.

Objectives

The objectives of the proposed Development Partnership (DP) are to:-

• Bring together key individuals representing organisations that work with offenders, strategic partners such as the Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Network in the Welsh Assembly Government, Employment Services and organisations that represent employers.
• Pilot ways of helping employers understand the economic and social arguments for equality  for equality and diversity in the workplace
• Test mechanisms for providing financial support for people making the transition back into the labour market by increasing New Deal wage subsidy in the first 18 weeks of employment.
• Challenge with employers, the negative stereotypical imagery of criminals and the reason crime is committed.
• Increase the number of employers who will employ people with a criminal record.
• Learn from best practice from NEON (National Equal Offender Network) and transnational partners
• Through NEON, engage with policy makers to include ex-offenders in the social clauses of suitable contracts – e.g. building contracts, maintenance of public places

Target Groups

• Ex-offenders

The DP has its origins in the National Offender Management System initiative to bring together key individuals representing organisations that work with offenders: Welsh Assembly Government, Job Centre Plus, Probation Service, the Prison Service and Careers Wales.

The project has been establishing networks and support mechanisms to enable ex-offenders to seek and maintain sustained employment. The lasting impact of the DP will be that the mechanisms which have been pilotted be embedded within the ex-offender support structures of the Probation Service, Prison Service and Job Centre Plus and that these will be incorporated in the Strategy to Reduce Re-offending in Wales currently being developed by the Welsh Assembly Government.