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

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

3. 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.

4. 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 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 and December
MoJ research

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. The North East Labour Market
What other questions are there.

12. The North East Labour Market
What other questions are there.

13. The North East Labour Market
What other questions are there.

14. 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

15. Vacancy Information
The jobs wi

16. 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 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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 tree-co-name
What other questions are there.

21. Sources
(1) Transforming Rehabilitation: a summary of evidence on reducing reoffending, Ministry of Justice (2) Experimental statistics from the 2013 MoJ /DWP /HMRC data share: Linking data on offenders with benefit, employment and income data (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 sentenced-prisoners.pdf (4) Employers’ perception of best practice in prison education, CfBT 2011
What other questions are there.