News

The first hurdle to landing a job is getting an interview. But for someone with a criminal record, that hurdle can be the highest. Ex-offenders are discriminated against from the outset, mostly because of employers’ ignorance of their position legally, ethically and practically. The NewLife Project, run by London Action Trust, a charity dedicated to breaking the cycle of offending, works with both sides: offenders and, critically, employers.

NewLife, funded by the European Social Fund and London Development Agency, was established to help ex-offenders find work by overcoming the prejudice of employers against hiring people with a criminal record. Operating in London, the project aims to educate employers on the laws affecting employment of ex-offenders, and to assist clients in finding work.

"If an employer is going through someone’s CV and sees a record, they immediately cut them off," says David Soul, West End and ex-Starsky & Hutch star and NewLife ambassador. "Instead of stigmatising people, we have to encourage some sort of trust between an employer and an employee and give ex-offenders a chance. It’s about changing attitudes."

Despite labour shortages in London, because 20 per cent of the working-age population has a criminal record, recruitment becomes harder if ex-offenders are excluded. NewLife argues that research shows reformed ex-offenders make great employees: they stay longer and work harder because they have something to prove to society, their families and themselves.

Since September 2003, the project has trained more than 580 London employers and human resources professionals (from all sectors, but mainly the retail, local government, leisure, charity and financial services industries) in the laws surrounding employment of an ex-offender.

They have also been trained in risk management to enable them to assess whether someone’s past offences present any future danger to the business or its customers. As well as seminars on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, NewLife also provides consultancy and telephone support, assistance with internal policy and procedures, and recruitment consultancy.

"Some employers tackle their prejudice through the law – they find out what they can do legally and then not engage in it at all," says NewLife’s employment solutions specialist, Phil Lett. "What we try to show in these seminars is that people with criminal records have not lost their talent because at some point in their lives they committed a crime. They still have all the skills and qualifications and are determined to prove they can be trusted."

NewLife also works with ex-offenders to prepare them for employment by helping them to examine their skills and talents and so identify possible jobs. The main goal is to prevent clients from re-offending by not placing them into work experience but transferring them into real jobs with a salary and a future. NewLife researches training programmes, composes CVs, provides legal advice on disclosure of convictions and helps clients prepare for interviews.

Many clients are referred by Jobcentre Plus advisers who often do not have the detailed knowledge of what to tell a prospective employer about a criminal record. So, NewLife is beginning to provide training for advisers, and recently ran workshops which focused on criminal record disclosure and stereotyping at the "Barriers to Work" training day organised by Jobcentre Plus.

The overall results for NewLife are impressive. Since December 2003 more than 400 clients have attended a first interview and registered with the service. Of these, 234 have attended a second interview and 50 of these clients have found work. One such client says: "The consultation I received, and feedback I gained, was very helpful. I hope to now move forward in the right direction."

Visit: www.lat.org.uk/about/partnerships.html

LESSONS LEARNED

• Separate the functions - NewLife has a team that works almost exclusively with ex-offenders and a team that works almost exclusively with employers. "We have deliberately kept the teams separate in order to maintain our position as the 'honest broker'. For both ex-offenders and employers the first time they encounter the other can be a daunting experience and we want to ensure that the situation is well managed," says Lett.
• Recruit diversely - the NewLife teams have been recruited from the private, public and voluntary sectors. This diversity means they are able to communicate knowledgably with all the groups they work with.
• Recruit teams at the same time so everyone can be inducted together. "The way the project was set up also meant that policies and procedures were well sorted out before work started with clients," says Lett.