The hall was full of tables piled high with leaflets advertising employment and apprenticeship opportunities.Then came a throng of men in grey tracksuits; some eager, some anxious. This was an employment fair with a difference: it was in a prison.
Taking the lead from companies such as Timpson, Virgin and Halfords, some employers are making the most of a rare opportunity to search for employees in a slightly different pool of talent. They realise there are many skilled potential employees behind barbed wire and walls—more hungry than most for a chance to find a job and build a better life.
For the 85,000 people in our prisons, finding employment and taking on higher-level education are two of the surest ways to break the cycle of reoffending. In prisons in England, National Careers Service (NCS) staff guide people towards both of these opportunities. They organise employment fairs like the one above, and meet with men and women throughout their sentence to help them plan how to use their time inside to gain the qualifications employers are looking for. But from March 31, this service will disappear, following a decision by the government not to extend NCS contracts. For a prison system already overburdened and underfunded, this is a crushing blow to staff, prisoners, and the hope of rehabilitation.
The Prisoner Learning Alliance wrote to Prisons Minister Rory Stewart last month to ask for an urgent explanation of why these contracts are being cut, and what replacement service will be offered. When this issue was raised in the House of Lords, Lord Keen of Elie, on behalf of the government, cited “inconsistencies” in provision, referring to an internal analysis that has not been published.
Many individual careers service staff go over and above to help prisoners
We are aware the contracts have weaknesses: the standard NCS offer is three 20-minute sessions per prisoner per year—not enough to support people with multiple barriers to employment and without access to the internet to do their own research. However, despite this, many individual careers service staff go over and above to help prisoners, by prioritising individual needs over contractual requirements.
Big changes in the way prison education and related information, advice and guidance services are commissioned and delivered in prisons are due to come into place in April 2019. These will give more power to prison governors. However, while prison education contracts were extended to ensure consistency of provision to prisoners, the ceasing of the NCS contracts will mean a gap of a year in careers advice being available for prisoners. On behalf of the government, Lord Keen suggested that Department for Work and Pensions job coaches and Community Rehabilitation Companies will fill the gap left by the NCS.