New pilot breaks down barriers to employment for ex-prisoners

New pilot breaks down barriers to employment for ex-prisoners

St Giles is working with the CIPD Trust and Offploy to help people with lived experience of the criminal justice system re-enter the workplace and sustain current roles.

A six-month pilot will have about 20 mentors and mentees matched and working together to rebuild things such as confidence, skills and help those who have been out of the workplace for some time become comfortable and settled again.

Over 100 people professionals signed up to find out more and lend their support at a CIPD webinar to launch the initiative.

Andrew Parker, Skill Centre Manager at St Giles, said;

“This is an exciting partnership. We have a lot of members of staff with lived experience of the criminal justice system. Our aim is to create social justice and a society where everyone has a future. We want those who have put their lived experience behind them to benefit from the experiences and expertise of others and to empower them at work.”

The CIPD Trust was created last year to help get people into work, back into work and develop in their roles. It aims to be inclusive and to inspire change by empowering people to seek and secure opportunities through providing access to the expertise of CIPD members and industry partners

Sally Eley, Head of CIPD Trust, said;

“We are thrilled about this pilot and exploring new ways of supporting those who have lived experience of the criminal justice system by leveraging the skills and expertise of the people profession. Getting a job is one of the key factors in supporting those with lived experience get their lives back on track and with the cost of reoffending costing the economy c ÂŁ18 billion a year, initiatives like this are exciting as they have real potential to scale.

We are delighted to be working with St Giles Trust and Offploy who both have significant expertise in this area which they will bring to the pilot.”

Rik Willis, Service Manager at Offploy, said;

“We are looking forward to working in partnership with CIPD on this pilot to promote positive change . We have had great success with peer mentored programmes for those just out of prison. Employers often come to us asking how to hire people with convictions but don’t know where to start. Running this project with CIPD will give more HR managers the confidence to safely hire people with lived experience but also give many of our candidates the vital new chance that they need.”

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