New Futures Network

As 2024 draws to a close, we are celebrating the success of this year’s prisoner recruitment campaigns. We hosted four sector-specific campaigns across the prison estate focused on: 🪑Manufacturing 🏗️Construction 👨🍳Hospitality 📝Self-employment. With the support of 186 employers and partners, we were able to reach more prisoners than ever, unlocking numerous recruitment opportunities for prisoners on release. A huge thank you to all our valued employers, brilliant third sector partners and the dedicated prison staff who made this possible. Together, we are giving people a better chance to successfully reintegrate into society. We can’t wait to see what we can achieve in 2025. Read more about one of this year's Unlocking campaigns in our latest blog post by Greene King ➡ https://ow.ly/HitY50UvSeZ

This week, we caught up with The Right Course to hear about how their prison training restaurants are supporting prisoners into employment. 👨🍳 Started in 2017 at HMP Isis as a pilot project inspired by Fred Sirieix's visit to a prison, The Right Course has since opened restaurants in five prisons offering training to achieve hospitality NVQs and transferrable skills that can be applied to jobs in other sectors. Simon Sheehan, The Right Course CEO, said: “We focus on providing authentic hospitality experiences to prisoners, replicating both the challenges and rewards of delivering a good service under pressure, preparing them for jobs on release. We also offer through-the-gate assistance and personalised job matching to give prison leavers the best chance of success as they readjust to civilian life. Our work is in partnership with prisons, education providers, the MoJ and NFN as well as employers. We are fortunate to have a network of employers both national and local, including Hilton, Greene King, Marston's PLC and Restaurant Lovage, to be able to offer our graduates sustainable job opportunities. I’ve seen first-hand the confidence built by this support, and the excellent employees that come out of it. We’re excited to be working on new plans, widening this opportunity to more people, and across more sites, in the coming year.” Find out how to get involved with prison leaver recruitment ➡ https://ow.ly/EgM150UsHzi

🚀Ready to grow your business while helping prisoners gain valuable skills? Join our virtual event to explore an exciting partnership opportunity with HM Prison and Probation Service. We're looking to partner with businesses and offer access to our industry facilities and a skilled workforce. Why partner with us? 🔹Make your products on demand. Whether it’s textiles, windows, or doors, we’ll help you find the right solution for your production needs 🔹Use our services for local production like recycling, assembling, packing, repairs, and more 🔹Reduce overheads by hosting a workshop or business unit in one of our prisons, utilising a flexible workforce and adaptable space We welcome businesses of all sizes and have a proven track record across sectors like manufacturing, logistics, engineering, laundry, customer services, and more. At the event, hear an address from Lord Timpson, the Minister for Prisons, as he shares his experience and vision for closer partnerships between HMPPS and businesses. Register your interest: https://lnkd.in/e7Ytcx_Y

Our work with Greene King shows how the right partnerships can truly make a difference in helping offenders rebuild their lives. Greene King’s Releasing Potential programme is now extending to HMP Onley and HMP Perth. This programme transforms lives by: 🔷 Equipping prisoners with valuable hospitality skills 🔷 Providing real employment opportunities upon release 🔷 Supporting successful reintegration into society This expansion marks a meaningful step forward in our effort to cut reoffending rates and open up real, lasting job opportunities for people leaving prison. See what this programme means for a prisoner on the programme ⬇️

As we wrap up Unlocking Hospitality 2024, let’s take a moment to celebrate an incredible partnership that blossomed during Unlocking Hospitality 2022! 🎉 Marston's PLC played a pivotal role in our first ever recruitment drive and since then their unwavering support to recruit prison leavers has been nothing short of inspiring. Through their fantastic Excel Programme, they have empowered individuals to gain new skills and secure employment in the hospitality sector upon release. Their partnership with HM Prison and Probation Service has led to some amazing achievements: 👨🍳 Regularly hosting engaging hospitality workshops with Prison Employment Leads. ✅ Launching their first Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) placement. 🎉 Celebrating the remarkable milestone of recruiting 50 prison leavers through their Excel Programme. Their partnership with one prison, HMP Liverpool, was particularly ground-breaking - it led to the opening of their first dedicated training academy ‘The Lock Inn’, during Unlocking Hospitality 2023. The bespoke 13-week course, delivered by Novus - Foundations for Change, replicates a real working environment in the hospitality sector. Participants on the course learn essential skills in customer service, food hygiene, and much more, preparing them to thrive in the bustling world of hospitality!   We want to say a massive thank you to all our invaluable partners who took part in Unlocking Hospitality 2024! Your commitment to enhancing training and work opportunities for prisoners, both in custody and upon release, is truly commendable. Together, we are making a significant impact! 🎊✨ Find out more about the Unlocking recruitment drives ➡ https://ow.ly/cI6Z50TKQuE #UnlockingHospitality #ReducingReoffending #EmploymentOpportunities 

🙌 We are thrilled to announce that last Friday marked the launch of our latest sector-based recruitment drive, Unlocking Hospitality! This initiative is designed to improve employment opportunities for prison leavers, which will play a vital role in reduce reoffending. Our first Unlocking Hospitality campaign in October 2022 took place prisons in England and Wales. Since then, we’ve successfully delivered eight more recruitment drives, focussing on sectors such as construction, retail, logistics and manufacturing. Unlocking Hospitality 2024 is set to see prisons hosting over 60 incredible events during this fortnight. These will be in collaboration with employers, education and training providers, and charities, all working together to create meaningful opportunities. Together, we are making a real difference, and we can’t wait to see the positive impact of Unlocking Hospitality unfold! A special shout out to our fantastic partner Greene King - since joining us for Unlocking Hospitality 2022, they are gearing up to deliver an impressive 33 events this year to showcase their Releasing Potential Programme. And let’s celebrate their remarkable achievement - last month Greene King proudly recruited their 250th prison leaver. 🎉 Find out more about their journey 👇 https://ow.ly/eUO250TFOih #UnlockingHospitality #ReducingReoffending #EmploymentOpportunities

New Futures Network has two core roles: 🤝 Building partnerships with employers and organisations who support prisoners and prison leavers to find and stay in work. 💼 Helping prisons to increase prison leaver employment by creating the best environments for this to happen. To do this, we find evidence about what is working well and what isn’t, through a variety of methods. These findings inform our approach to help staff with their work and prisoners to thrive - this could be through systems, programmes, resources or infrastructure. Our Head of Data and Insight, Surini R., has led a lot of this work during her time at New Futures Network. In our latest blog, she shares her top tips on innovation and managing teams through change. ➡ https://ow.ly/QzRi50TFOLZ #ReducingReoffending #EmploymentOpportunities

Brilliant to see Sodexo Justice hosting one of our Unlocking Manufacturing 2024 events at HMP Bronzefield, alongside our Senior National Employment Manager Lance Harris and New Business Manager Charmane St' Ange. We look forward to hearing how the partnerships with these new businesses grow!🤝

🤝Employment Advisory Boards (EABs) provide a platform for business leaders, HM Prison and Probation Service staff and stakeholders to improve the training and employment offer to prisoners. Lynne Kennedy and Robert Cooke from Greene King lead Greene King’s ‘Releasing Potential’ Programme, which supports prison leavers into employment on release. They also Chair the EABs at HMPs Durham and Altcourse. Lynne told us: “At HMP Durham, we work together to pilot new ways of working, including creating EAB steering groups to focus on key segments of a prisoner’s resettlement journey. Progress is reported at each EAB meeting to seek advice. We’re in our early days, but already starting to see green shoots.” 🌱 Robert said: “Previously, employers were getting frustrated if prisons couldn’t quickly find appropriate candidates. Following this feedback, we supported PELs to find and focus specifically on individuals who are work ready.” ✅ Examples like this show that through the support provided by EAB members, that every small win adds up to bigger results and is collectively making a difference to people's lives. We know that employment post-release reduces the likelihood of reoffending, which keeps the public safe. 👀 Stay tuned to hear more about Greene King’s involvement with Unlocking Hospitality 2024! #ReducingReoffending #EmploymentOpportunities

🗝 Building strong networks is key for Employment Advisory Boards (EABs). These Boards provide opportunities for HM Prison and Probation Service staff, stakeholders and partners to work together to support more prison leavers into employment on their release. This collaboration was evident at a recent EAB meeting at HMP Durham, which brought together Beverley Brooks, Founder of The Recruitment Junction and Karen Kenmare, Chair of the Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE) Operations Group – who both support people towards employment in the North East! 🤝 Beverley and her team had been supporting ‘C’ since 2021 - a prison leaver with complex needs, who had recently found themselves without a job or accommodation. After securing C a new hospitality role and offering further resettlement support, the barrier to available housing remained. During the EAB meeting, Beverley and Karen worked together to explore permanent housing options. Through Karen’s links with HENNE, accommodation was offered by another HENNE partner Tyne Housing, along with an offer of support from their specialist keyworkers. A great example of the power of partnership and the positive impact EABs are having outside of the prison walls. 👏 A massive well done to everyone involved in C’s journey, which led to him maintaining the job he worked so hard for – his appreciation for this was shown on his ‘moving in’ day when he told Beverley 👇