As part of a government drive to address skills shortages and rehabilitate criminals, National Highways has joined some of the largest corporations in Britain in hiring ex-offenders.
The government-owned business, which looks for the highway and A-road network in England, will be a part of a new system of "employment councils" that will help thousands of criminals find employment.
In order to help coordinate efforts to train and find employment for ex-offenders, managers from the companies—which include Greggs, Balfour Beatty, Iceland, Co-op, and Greene King—will join the councils in 11 districts around England and Wales.
The councils are being set up by Lord Timpson, the prisons minister whose own retail company led the way in recruiting ex-inmates.
They will not only bring business leaders into jails to improve education and work opportunities but also link up with probation service and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to boost contacts with local job centres.
Around 80 per cent of all crime is reoffending, but Ministry of Justice data show offenders employed six weeks after leaving prison had a reoffending rate around half of those out of work.
‘It will help employers fill vacancies’
Lord Timpson said: “Getting former offenders into stable work is a sure way of cutting crime and making our streets safer. That’s why partnering with businesses to get more former offenders into work is a win-win.”
Baroness Maeve Sherlock, a DWP minister, said: “As well as making our streets safer, helping offenders into work will enable employers to fill vacancies and plug our skills gaps.”
Among the other companies and organisations to have committed to work on the councils are City & Guilds, Wates, Oliver Bonas, Sodexo and Cook, a manufacturer and retailer of frozen ready meals.
Rosie Brown, co-chief executive of Cook, said: “A job provides a key way to help people restore their lives and relationships following a stretch in prison.
“In return, we get committed, loyal team members to help us build our business. Reoffending is reduced and families, communities and society as a whole wins.”
Research from the Ministry of Justice shows that 90 per cent of businesses that employ ex-offenders agreed that they are good attenders, motivated and trustworthy.
Employment Councils will serve as the successor to regional employment advisory boards and will officially bring together probation, prisons, local employers and DWP under one umbrella for the first time, with a renewed focus on broadening support to offenders in the community.
The boards will continue at 93 individual prisons but the addition of regional Employment Councils will help prison leavers look for work across an entire region, not just the immediate vicinity of the last prison they were in.
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