By Beverley Brooks, Founder of The Recruitment Junction|  The Recruitment Junction

Employment can be transformative for someone leaving prison. It provides income, routine and independence, but it can also offer something less tangible and equally important: the opportunity to build a future beyond a conviction.

Government increasingly recognises the role employment can play in successful resettlement and reducing reoffending. But if we are serious about employment as part of rehabilitation, we need to look beyond how many jobs are offered and ask a more important question: what helps someone not only find work, but sustain it?

In its manifesto for the new government, Clinks recommends funding voluntary sector community employment brokers, supporting people from prison into the community to find and sustain work. The recommendation reflects the experience of voluntary organisations already delivering specialist employment support and turning opportunities into job starts and sustained employment.

From our experience at The Recruitment Junction, this is exactly the kind of infrastructure that is needed.

Since 2020, we have supported over 1,100 people with convictions into paid employment. What we have learned is that the barrier between somebody who wants to work and an employer who needs staff is rarely solved by simply putting the two in the same room. Successful recruitment requires somebody to build the bridge between them.

Employment support needs to be relational

Effective employment support starts with knowing the individual.

People leaving prison do not all need the same intervention. Some may be ready to work immediately. Others will need more intensive support to overcome the practical and psychological barriers between a conviction and employment.

At The Recruitment Junction, that means developing an ongoing relationship with the person rather than providing a one-off intervention. But successful employment brokerage also means knowing employers.

Our model is built on deep, local and long-term relationships with businesses. We understand the people we support, but we also understand what employers need. That allows us to make thoughtful matches between candidates and businesses rather than simply generating referrals.

Many of the employers we work with are local businesses rather than household names. They recruit from us repeatedly and recommend us to other employers. Those relationships matter.

This is an important part of what community employment brokers could offer.

Employment markets are local. Specialist voluntary organisations can develop detailed knowledge of the employers in their communities while building trusted relationships with the people they support. A community employment broker should not simply become another referral point in an already complicated system. It should provide a genuine bridge between the person looking for work and the employer looking for the right person.

The bridge needs to start before release

That relationship should not begin when somebody walks through the prison gate.

One of the persistent weaknesses in the current system is the disconnect between support provided in custody and specialist employment provision in the community. People can leave prison without a warm connection to the organisations in their release area that could support them into work.

That matters because the days and weeks around release can already involve navigating accommodation, probation, finances, healthcare and other services. Expecting somebody to identify and establish relationships with employment providers at the same time creates another avoidable barrier.

Community employment brokers should therefore be connected to people before release, with enough time to understand their aspirations, skills and circumstances and to begin identifying realistic employment opportunities.

That relationship can then continue through the gate and into the community.

This principle extends beyond employment. Clinks' manifesto calls for referrals and handovers to relevant community services to take place before release, with responsibility for continuity shared between custody and community services rather than placed solely on the individual leaving prison.

Employment brokerage should be part of that wider approach to resettlement.

Getting the job is only the beginning

We also need to be clearer about what success looks like.

The goal cannot simply be getting someone into work. It has to be helping them stay there.

At The Recruitment Junction, our involvement does not end when somebody starts a job. In-work support is a core part of the model, providing continuity for both the employee and the employer after a placement has been made. We look at retention at 13 and 26 weeks because sustained employment, rather than simply a job start, is what matters.

That distinction should be reflected in how employment provision is designed, commissioned and measured.

Employment also cannot be separated from the wider realities of resettlement. Sustaining work is considerably harder if somebody is simultaneously struggling with accommodation, health, substance use, finances or other unmet needs.

Community employment brokers therefore need to be connected into wider local resettlement partnerships, including probation and other statutory and voluntary services, rather than operating as another standalone service.

Building a system that supports sustained employment

Funding community employment brokers would be an important step. But our experience at The Recruitment Junction suggests there are further changes that could make that investment considerably more effective.

First, there should be a clear pre-release referral mechanism connecting people in prison with recognised specialist employment organisations in their release destination, with sufficient time to begin building the relationship before release.

Second, government should consider a time-limited hiring incentive for employers recruiting people with convictions through specialist employment organisations. Similar incentives already exist for other groups facing barriers to employment. Extending that principle could encourage more employers to consider recruiting people with convictions.

Third, we need to measure what matters, and be honest about who the published figures cover. The government’s reported employment outcome of 38% risks being read as though it describes everyone leaving prison. Our concern is that it is drawn from probation records covering fewer than half of the total release cohort, and that jobs secured but not recorded on those systems are missed. A figure based on such incomplete coverage cannot show the full scale of employment outcomes or unmet need. It risks weakening the case for the very support that could make a difference, including community employment brokers embedded in voluntary organisations. Government should publish the size of the cohort behind its figures, use verified HMRC and DWP employment data where possible, and measure job starts and sustained employment, including retention at 26 weeks, rather than relying on referrals, activity or a snapshot at a single point in time.

Finally, commissioning should reflect those outcomes. Employment providers should be incentivised to achieve sustainable employment rather than being rewarded primarily for activity. Outcome-based commissioning would create stronger incentives for the intensive, relational work required to make employment last.

Community employment brokers can provide the missing bridge

There is no shortage of ambition around employment and reducing reoffending. The challenge is turning that ambition into a system that works consistently for people leaving prison and for the employers willing to recruit them.

That requires more than vacancies, job boards or commitments to employ people with convictions.

It requires relationships.

It requires specialist organisations that understand candidates and employers.

It requires support that begins before release and continues after somebody starts work.

And it requires us to judge success not simply by whether somebody gets a job, but by whether they are supported to keep it.

Clinks' recommendation to fund voluntary sector community employment brokers provides an opportunity to build that bridge.

We should take it, and we should make sure we build it properly.

Source documents

This blog is based on: Clinks, “LATEST - Manifesto for the new government”; and The Recruitment Junction, “What successful ex-offender recruitment looks like” briefing note.

Useful links: Clinks | Clinks publications | The Recruitment Junction