{"id":211933,"date":"2025-01-10T02:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T02:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/major-companies-part-of-drive-to-get-thousands-of-offenders-in-work\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T02:16:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T02:16:01","slug":"major-companies-part-of-drive-to-get-thousands-of-offenders-in-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/major-companies-part-of-drive-to-get-thousands-of-offenders-in-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Major companies part of drive to get thousands of offenders in work"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/11\/1920x1080\/skynews-hmp-barlinnie-glasgow_6752054.jpg?20241125090147&amp;resize=1920,1080&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Major companies part of drive to get thousands of offenders in work\" title=\"Major companies part of drive to get thousands of offenders in work\" \/><\/div>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>Bosses of leading high street businesses are set to lead a new drive to cut crime and get ex-offenders into stable jobs.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s part of a government initiative creating 11 new regional employment councils across England and Wales.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders from firms including the Co-Op, Iceland, Greggs, and Oliver Bonas will provide voluntary advisory roles in conjunction with probation, job centres, and the Department for Work and Pensions.<\/p>\n<p>The idea is to help ex-prisoners find work while they serve the remainder of their sentence in the community.<\/p>\n<p>The government says roughly 80% of offending is reoffending, while the latest data shows offenders unemployed six weeks after leaving jail have a reoffending rate more than twice that of those in work &#8211; 35% versus 17%.<\/p>\n<p>The employment councils will supplement the work of existing employment advisory boards, created by the former Timpsons chief executive, now prisons minister, Lord Timpson.<\/p>\n<p>The advisory boards bring local leaders into 93 individual jails to help provide education and training advice, but largely stop at the prison gates.<\/p>\n<p>The government wants the new councils to act as better bridges for offenders, under one umbrella &#8211; bringing together probation, prisons and local employers, helping prison leavers look for work.<\/p>\n<p>This will include connections with work coaches at job centres that will provide mock interviews, CV advice and training opportunities in the community.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/under-strain-prison-system-to-lose-thousands-of-cells-for-fire-safety-and-security-improvements-13271258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thousands of prison cells shut for fire safety<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/prison-recalls-soar-as-broken-justice-system-struggles-13245493\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prison recalls soar as &#8216;broken&#8217; justice system struggles<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lord Timpson called the new scheme and partnering with business a &#8220;win win&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Getting former offenders into stable work is a sure way of cutting crime and making our streets safer,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Last month Sky News <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/more-ex-offenders-getting-jobs-but-still-battle-stigma-of-employers-who-assume-the-worst-13280812\u00a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">heard from former offender<\/a><\/strong>, Terry, now employed at the cobblers and key cutters Timpsons, about what he calls an &#8220;invisible stigma&#8221; for those with criminal records seeking employment.<\/p>\n<p>He said getting a secure job was life-changing because without other options &#8220;you&#8217;re probably going to think about doing crime&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Annie Gail, head of social impact at Cook Foods, which is taking part of the government&#8217;s new scheme, also told Sky News that prison leaver programmes such as theirs are &#8220;challenging&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She said having ex-offenders in public-facing roles &#8220;can cause concern&#8221; but insists &#8220;good business is about more than just turning a profit&#8221; and instead is about being &#8220;a force for good in society&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The new scheme is set to start next week, and plans to get thousands of ex-offenders into stable jobs, away from a life of crime.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/major-companies-part-of-drive-to-get-thousands-of-offenders-in-work-13286160\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bosses of leading high street businesses are set to lead a new drive to cut crime and get ex-offenders into stable jobs. It&#8217;s part of a government initiative creating 11 new regional employment councils across England and Wales. Leaders from firms including the Co-Op, Iceland, Greggs, and Oliver Bonas will provide voluntary advisory roles in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/11\/1920x1080\/skynews-hmp-barlinnie-glasgow_6752054.jpg?20241125090147","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[771,4199,846,47836,3651,57,1396],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211935,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211933\/revisions\/211935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}