REACH Project For Offenders Employability

The Reach Project works within prisons and the community to help hard-to-reach participants begin their journey to employment.

The REACH (Regional Employ-Ability CHallenge) project, supported by the NOMS ESF programme in the East Midlands, delivers an intensive package of learning and training support to higher risk/higher need offenders to improve their chances of finding work. The project operates using the NOMS offender manager model in custodial and community settings. Case managers attached to probation teams work closely with offenders and their offender manager in overcoming barriers to employment, developing skills, increasing employability and helping to find suitable courses, placements and jobs. Case managers based in prisons work intensively on bespoke action plans, and then hand over to their counterparts in the community to execute the final stages of the plan.

The project targets those offenders furthest away from the job market and those with complex, often multiple barriers to employment, including those serving less than twelve months in custody, who are often without support, and currently very limited in terms of the through-care services that are offered as they move from prison into the community. There is a particular focus on engaging groups who face additional barriers to employment, including women, ethnic minority offenders, people with learning disabilities and other health needs, single parents, people over 50 and young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). Individuals in these groups are often hard to reach for more mainstream employability services.

The contract recognises that hard-to-reach participants have a distance to travel before becoming job-ready, and successful referral to mainstream provision which provides the necessary support to secure employment is recognised as a positive outcome. 45% of the cohort at any time has a health difficulty or disability. By adopting the case management model, the contract is able to deliver an individual tailored service to all participants and refer to appropriate services to support them in overcoming their barriers to employment.

The project is led by Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Trust and is subcontracted to Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire Probation Trusts, Lincolnshire Action Trust, Nacro and Women in Prison.