Bosses at Greggs, Iceland and Oliver Bonas in main drive to assist make use of criminals

Bosses from Greggs, Iceland and Oliver Bonas will spearhead a major drive to get thousands of criminals into stable jobs.

Business leaders will sit on new Employment Councils to help probation staff get offenders serving their sentences in the community into work. National Highways, Greene King, Balfour Beatty and Wates will also be among those companies involved in advising the probation service on employment opportunities.

Chiefs will work with probation officers to help them better understand the local jobs market and build relationships with suitable employers. The councils will also see work coaches on hand to provide offenders with mock interviews and CV advice to get them job-ready.

Prisons Minister James Timpson has made it his mission to reduce reoffending – which makes up around 80% of all crime. Latest data shows that offenders employed six weeks after leaving prison had a reoffending rate around half of those out of work.

The new Employment Councils, which will be led regionally, build on the success of Employment Advisory Boards, a scheme created by Lord Timpson before he joined the government. The boards saw business leaders go into jails to improve prisoners’ skills and education to help them get a job after their release. The new councils will now also bring in the probation service in a bid to extend support beyond the prison gates.

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.” DWP Minister Maeve Sherlock said: “As well as making our streets safer, helping offenders into work will enable employers to fill vacancies and plug our skills gaps.”

Lord Timpson’s message:

In our country today around 80 percent of offenders are reoffenders. That’s way too high – I’m sure Mirror readers agree.

One of this Government’s missions is to make our streets safer. But our prisons see the same faces over and over again – so it’s clear we need to do something different.

We know that if prison leavers have a job to go to, they have a better chance of staying out of trouble. And it’s a win-win because so many businesses are desperate to hire people right now – so ex-offenders can fill skills gaps.

I want to see more of them boosting business. I’ve seen it work myself, hundreds of times. As the boss of the Timpson Group – the cobblers and key cutters you see on the high street – I met an ex-offender called Matt. He’d got into a fight and landed himself behind bars.

I was impressed by Matt. He was enthusiastic and bright. So, 22 years ago, I offered him a job. He still works for Timpson today. That’s more than two decades without Matt reoffending, all because he turned his life around.

It’s the same in Timpson stores up and down the country. Around 12 percent of my ex-colleagues are ex-offenders and they’ve helped to grow the business. Each of them has put in the hard yards to sort their lives out, rather than returning to a life of crime. We need to make sure more people can graft their way to success like that.

In 2021, at my personal expense, I worked with the Prison and Probation Service to set up Employment Advisory Boards. They link prisons with employers to help ensure offenders are trained up with the skills needed locally. Now, I’m the Prisons Minister – doing the only job that I would ever have left my family firm to do. And today, I’m building on this work by setting up Employment Councils.

These new groups will build proper links between employers and everyone working with offenders to turn their lives around for good. Local businesses will be joined by Probation leaders, to build closer relationships with employers so that the Probation Service is better positioned to support offenders into employment.

And leads from the Department for Work and Pensions will bring intel on the picture locally and keep Job Centres updated on what employers want and need, so that they can better support people with convictions in their areas who are looking for work.

Employment Councils are part of our bold plan for change – they can make our streets safer.