St Giles were delighted to contribute oral evidence at the Welsh Affairs Committee (29/10/2025) as part of their Inquiry into ‘Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation’ in Wales.
Speaking alongside representatives from Estyn and the Prisoner’s Education Trust, Cymru Business Development Manager – Anne-Marie Rogan (pictured), championed the role of lived-experience led support in reducing reoffending and improving rehabilitative outcomes.
During the 45-minute session, Anne-Marie emphasised the importance of purposeful activity in prison, highlighting how accredited qualifications, transferable skills and peer-led support can transform lives inside the prison estate, through the gate and in the community.
It is about transferable skills and using time purposefully, and, as an individual, learning about your own aspirations, your value, your worth, and what you can take forward and what you can utilise within the prison estate,” she told the Committee.
For example, we very much focus on the lived experience model, using people’s direct experience to help and support others, but also to come to terms with your role within society.”
Anne-Marie also spoke to the challenges of ensuring continued employment and training post-release, calling for better coordination between agencies and targeted support for individuals navigating the transition from prison to community life.
We focus on accessing training, skills and support in prison, and being able to gain qualifications that are recognised outside by employers,” she said.
Attitudes are right. People want to work together, but it is knowing how best to do that.”
The Committee explored issues of devolution, Welsh language provision, and the effectiveness of cross-government collaboration. Anne-Marie praised Wales’s leadership in trauma-informed approaches and called for stronger relationships between devolved services and justice agencies.
We very much believe in using the power of the lived experience and trauma-informed approach in order to make changes in people’s perceptions and aspirations and provide a value-driven approach in terms of the education that is available to them within the prison.”
She also highlighted the critical role of Release on Temporary License (ROTL) in bridging the gap between prison and employment:
Placements are needed when people are released on temporary license in order to enable people to translate the skills that they are learning within the prison estate and have real-life experiences, breaking down those barriers and perceptions of what it takes for an employer to be able to accommodate learning and opportunities for people with criminal records.”
Anne-Marie called for a pipeline of employers, wraparound support, and sustained investment in transition services to ensure individuals can train, secure and retain employment post-release.
Finally, she stressed the importance of data access and analysis in improving outcomes:
In terms of access to data, we need to ensure that training is relevant, targeted appropriately, accessible and impactful. If we are going to co-produce, co-design and look at quality provision, we need to be able to analyse data to do that and gather and share the data.”
St Giles continues to advocate for evidence-based, peer-led interventions that empower people with lived experience to lead change.
Evaluations of our work demonstrate the impact of this approach:
- A St Giles project supporting short-term prison leavers to resettle achieved a reoffending rate 40% lower than the national average at the time. https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/our-impact/evaluations-of-our-work/prisons/through-the-gates/
- An evaluation of the in-Prison, Peer Advisor Programme found that it delivered £8.54 in societal savings for every £1 invested. https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/our-impact/evaluations-of-our-work/prisons/through-the-gates/
St Giles welcomes the Committee’s focus on rehabilitation and looks forward to contributing further to policy development in Wales.