Latest

A Parliament Committee’s report show’s that government policy is failing people with convictions.

For more latest news, you can:

1. see the posts at the bottom of this page
2. click here for a full list of news posts
3. sign up our mailing list to receive updates by email
4. follow the latest on Twitter using the hashtag #SupportforPWCRs

The problem

People with convictions in the community, and those leaving prison, do not get adequate support to help them turn their lives around and overcome the negative barriers associated with having a criminal record.

We set out more details of the problems as we see them in our submission to the Work and Pensions inquiry in 2016.  

What we think needs to change

Government, prisons, probation providers and others need to improve the support for individuals with a criminal record to help them secure meaningful employment. This means:

Government stating clearly who has ultimately responsibility for helping prison leavers into work

Everyone being released from prison should understand their criminal record and the impact this will have. This includes understanding the impact of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and being confident in if, what, when and how to disclose to employers

Everyone whose role it is to provide advice and support on employment issues should have the knowledge, skills and confidence to advise on issues relating to criminal records.

All Jobcentres should have a specified person who specialises in helping people with criminal records into employment and must have expertise on matters such as disclosure of convictions.

Prisons should develop strong links with employers, including local businesses, and offer opportunities with real employers

CRC’s should be required to track the outcomes of the people they help, including whether they have helped them into work.

For those prison leavers who cannot work, claims for ESA should be made in prison and paid on day one of release.

Make a prison leavers’ first month’s entitlement to Universal Credit available on daily one of release

We also made a number of specific recommendations in our submission to the Work and Pensions inquiry in 2016.

(We also think that more needs to be done to support employers to recruit people with convictions. Find out more about this.)

What we’re doing

We are working with the government to take forward the recommendations made by the Work and Pensions Committee in their inquiry into support for offenders.
On a practical level, we provide a range of training workshops and courses to practitioners on criminal record and disclosure issues.

Latest news

The latest on this issue can be found at the top of this page. You can also find below the latest from Twitter, using the hashtag #SupportforPWCRs (although we cannot endorse what gets displayed here).
#SupportforPWCRs Tweets

Case studies

Case of Jimmy – Job centre simply passing on people that are looking for help finding work

Project diary

December 2016 – We issued a response to the report published by the Work and Pensions Committee on the support for ex-offenders, which calls on government to drastically improve the support provided to people released from prison and do more to encourage employers to recruit people with convictions

September 2016 – We gave oral evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Inquiry into the support for ex-offenders and submitted the results and analysis of a survey we conducted of people who had left prison

May 2016 – We submitted written evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Inquiry into the support for ex-offenders.

Useful links, resources and publications

Support for ex-offenders – Report by Works and Pensions Committee (December 2016)

Oral evidence by Unlock to Work and Pensions Committee (September 2016)

Results and analysis of survey (September 2016)

Support for ex-offenders inquiry – Unlock response (April 2016)

For more information

1. Practical self-help information for people with convictions  – We have information on the support available to help people get into work on our information site
2. Personal experiences – We have posts relating to the support people receive on our online magazine, theRecord
3. Discuss this issue – Share your views and experiences on our online forum

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