Employment and Offenders Graham McCabe and Izzy Temple LMI@cfbt.com

What we will be covering What the research tells us The North East labour market The opportunities for ex-offenders

The context An interesting time to look at the subject with Government announcing that they want To increase prison education, To create reform prisons with links to charities and business and To adopt the ‘ban the box’ approach from the US.

The evidence base Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Criminal Justice Statistics Proven Reoffending Statistics Quarterly Local Adult Reoffending Large scale cohort studies Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction (SPCR) - a longitudinal cohort study of adult prisoners (approx. 3,800) sentenced to between one month and four years in England and Wales in 2005 and 2006 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/surveying-prisoner-crime-reduction-spcr The Offender Management Community Cohort Study (OMCCS) OMCCS is a longitudinal study which tracked a cohort of adult offenders who commenced a community order between October 2009 and December 2010 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-offender-management-community-cohort-study MoJ research

Re-offending Probably only one thing the government hates more than offending – it is re-offending “…the failure of our system today is scandalous. 46% of all prisoners will re-offend within a year of release. 60% of short- sentenced prisoners will reoffend within the same period.” (David Cameron, 8th February 2016)

Factors in re-offending MoJ report (1) lists eight dynamic factors associated with re- offending Drug misuse Alcohol misuse Impulsivity of low self-control Attitudes that support crime Social networks Lack of/poor family relationships Suitable accommodation Lack of employment

Employment and re-offending One of the factors associated with a reduced risk of re-offending is having been in employment in the 12 months before custody Employment as a desistance factor “Evidence suggests that steady employment – particularly if it offers a sense of achievement, satisfaction or mastery – can support offenders in stopping offending. Employment has been identified as an important factor in supporting desistance among offenders aged over 27. However, employment alone cannot prevent offending, and some offenders can desist without employment.” (1) For custodial sentences of less than one year, the one year proven re-offending rate was 9.4% lower for those who found P45 employment after release than for the matched comparison group. For sentences lasting one year or more, the one year re-offending rate was 5.6% lower for those who found P45 employment than for the matched comparison group

Employment and re-offending Large scale data sharing between MoJ, HMRC and DWP 4.3 million offenders who have received at least one caution or conviction for a recordable offence in England and Wales between 2000 and February 2013 and who were successfully matched to at least one benefit and/or P45 employment record. (2) An estimated 22% of all out-of-work benefit claims open on 1 December 2012 were being claimed by people in the matched data who had been cautioned or convicted for a recordable offence at some point between 1 January 2000 and 1 December 2012 There is a short term impact on P45 employment levels At 21% one month before sentence and 17% at release and 19% one month after release. BUT One year after release P45 employment rates for adult prison leavers have recovered to 24%, the same level as one year before sentence

Employment and re-offending Around a third (30%) of working age offenders who were convicted/cautioned or released from prison in 2003/04 had no recorded P45 employment over the next nine years (2004/2005 to 2012/2013) Conversely, a fifth (20%) of these offenders spent almost all of the next 9 years in P45 employment What other questions are there.

Qualification and Skill Levels Educational attainment at GCSE level at grades A–C was similar amongst prisoners and the general population (around one in five: 22%), but this may be due to prison education programmes Educational attainment beyond GCSE level amongst SPCR prisoners was lower than the general population. Just over half (53%) reported having any qualification, compared with 85% of the working age population Forty-seven per cent of the SPCR sample stated that they held no qualifications. In 2003, the proportion of the population of working age in the UK holding no qualifications was 15%. (3) What other questions are there.

The North East Labour Market What other questions are there.

The North East Labour Market What other questions are there.

The North East Labour Market What other questions are there.

Vacancy Information - Labour Insights – online postings North East Last quarter to Dec 2015 Vacancies posted online 40,856   Most Postings Newcastle 13,923 Durham 5,205 Sunderland 3,331 Top Jobs Nursing/Social Care IT Admin Customer Service Retail Education Sources Employer Sites 2,790 Job Boards 37,097 Staffing Agencies 969 Experience Not available 36,354 Unknown 29,521 The jobs wi

Vacancy Information The jobs wi

The major growth sectors are expected to be North East LEP says A target to add a further 100,000 new jobs (including people going into self-employment) by 2024 More jobs will be in the private sector Most of the jobs will be high skilled and higher paid The major growth sectors are expected to be Business services Information Technology, Media and Telecoms Low carbon including renewable technologies Tourism Logistics The jobs wi

Tees Valley Unlimited says An additional 25,000 jobs created by 2025 The new jobs are expected to be in Low carbon Advanced manufacturing Construction Professional and business services Logistics Digital Higher Education Health and social care Services More people to be qualified at higher levels (NVQ Level 3 or 4) by 2025 Creating 3,200 new Enterprises (small businesses) by 2025

Opportunities for ex-offenders Employers who commonly recruit ex-offenders are working in the voluntary sector, and to a lesser extent the public sector Employers tend to be from larger organisations, both in terms of the overall size of the organisation and the number of employees working on site Employers have a general lack of understanding about what prison education provides Barrier - employers who have not recruited an ex-offender (24% say a criminal record is an automatic barrier). (4) What other questions are there.

Opportunities for ex-offenders Researchers have also concluded that (1) Employment programmes are unlikely to be effective unless they are combined with motivational, social, health and educational support services to help address other needs that may act as barriers to finding employment (for example, learning difficulties, mental illness and substance abuse) Vocational training activities without associated links to tangible employment prospects are unlikely to lead to reductions in reoffending The most successful elements of employment programmes appear to be: strong local partnership working; training which is related to local employment needs and opportunities; long-term funding; and long lead-in times. The most successful programmes are likely to be those which co-ordinate work before and after release from prison. What other questions are there.

Opportunities for ex-offenders See Potential campaign #SeePotential – encouraging employers to see the business benefits of recruiting people who find it difficult to enter/re-enter employment including ex-offenders LinkedIn page provides messages from employers who are supporting the campaign https://www.linkedin.com/company/see-potential?trk=biz-brand- tree-co-name What other questions are there.

Sources (1) Transforming Rehabilitation: a summary of evidence on reducing reoffending, Ministry of Justice 2013 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/243718/evidence-reduce-reoffending.pdf (2) Experimental statistics from the 2013 MoJ /DWP /HMRC data share: Linking data on offenders with benefit, employment and income data https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304411/experimental-statistics.pdf (3) The pre-custody employment, training and education status of newly sentenced prisoners Results from the Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction (SPCR) longitudinal cohort study of prisoners, MoJ 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/278832/newly- sentenced-prisoners.pdf (4) Employers’ perception of best practice in prison education, CfBT 2011 What other questions are there.