ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Ex-Cell provides resettlement and support services for ex prisoners returning to Manchester, in the context of paid work and paid work placements for a period of up to 30 months; working towards:

“A guaranteed home and a guaranteed job, immediately on release”

HOW DOES THE PROGRAMME WORK?

Pre Programme

Each beneficiary is allocated a volunteer “befriender” at pre-release stage. The befriender is a volunteer recruited and trained by the Greater Manchester Community Chaplaincy and works with the beneficiary to draw up an initial six month Action Plan.

The Action Plan comprises three elements:

Sustainable Accommodation: suitable accommodation and the support required to sustain it.

Sustainable Employment: suitable mainstream employment or more supportive six month paid work placement, longer-term employment prospects and the support required to sustain it

Overcoming barriers: overcoming barriers to achieving the above e.g. drugs/alcohol issues, mental health issues.

Employment and Paid Work Placements.

Mainstream employment is accessed through appropriate employment agencies. Paid work placements are also provided where appropriate.Job search support complements the work of the befriender in supporting beneficiaries to sustain their paid work placement and then to move on to mainstream employment.

ACCOMMODATION

Arrangements are in place to access accommodation for beneficiaries through Greater Manchester Community Chaplaincy’s partnership with Green Pastures Housing Arrangements are also in place with other social landlords to provide a similar service with the befriender providing support to enable the new tenant to keep to the terms of the tenancy. In this context rent direct options are also available.

Progression and Advancement

The two key outputs at the six
month stage are

· Sustainable accommodation
· Movement towards sustainable mainstream employment

At this point a Post Programme Action Plan (for up to 24 months) is drawn up in order to reinforce these outputs and to develop an “advancement strategy” with each beneficiary who will continue to be supported by the befriender during the post programme period.

The rationale behind this post programme support is to avoid a situation where support and provision simply stops after six months, no matter how far beneficiaries have or have not progressed.

Ongoing support is individually tailored to the needs of each individual beneficiary. Some will have attained sustainable employment by the six-month stage and may simply need ongoing support in looking at how to advance further in their new working lives. Others will require more intensive ongoing support – in some cases including extended paid work placements.

But in all cases tailored support will be available for up to a further 24 months after completion of the six-month programme.

EX-CELL - COST EFFECTIVE

An average 6 month place with the Ex-Cell Programme costs just over £7,000 and the rate of reoffending while on the programme is under 2%. In contrast £11 billion a year is the cost of recorded crime by ex offenders; £65,000 is the cost of one reconviction and £37,500 is the cost of one prison place per year – and reoffending stands at 40% within 12 months of release and nearly 70% within 2 years of release. (source DWP Welfare to Work Director Keynote Address to Prince's Trust and CBI Conference "Successful Employment and Resettlement of Ex-Offenders" London. 21/09/06).

Stable and sustainable employment is the single most effective factor in reducing the re-offending rate. Yet DWP and Home Office research shows that nationally 67% of prisoners are unemployed at the time of imprisonment and 70% do not have a job to go to when they are released, while 40% of those on community sentences are unemployed. But having a job actually reduces reoffending by between a third and a half. (“Reducing Reoffending by Ex-Prisoners”. Social Exclusion Unit. 2002)

"Work is the best way to reduce reoffending. That is why we will be developing and testing new approaches to intensive work-focussed support" John Hutton, Work and Pensions Secretary, speaking at the launch of the Offender Employment Green Paper January 2006.

EX-CELL - A RECOGNISED SUCCESS

The Ex-Cell Programme were Finalists in the 2007 Greater Manchester Employer Coalition “Reducing Reoffending through Work” Awards and are quoted as an example of national good practice in the employment of Problem Drug Users in the UK Drugs Policy Commission Report “Working Towards Recovery: Getting Problem Drug Users into Jobs”. December 2008. (www.ukdpc.org.uk)

EX-CELL - SOCIAL IMPACT

An evaluation of the Ex-Cell Programme conducted by Social Information Systems Ltd on behalf of Manchester City Council in September 2007 reported a progression rate of over 40% into permanent employment immediately on completion of the 26 week paid work placement.

They reported that “Ex-Cell is delivered by skilled and experienced staff, with a good understanding of the complex personal and social issues facing this client group that may act as a barrier to employment…The programme provides good quality support to clients on the programme. Support is given around practical and emotional issues. Clients perceive the emotional and motivational support provided by Ex-Cell as being valuable”

Apart from successfully moving clients into permanent employment, Ex-Cell also boasts a less than 2% reoffending rate whilst on the Programme with an additional less than 5% prison recall rate due to breach of licence (i.e. recalled to prison not because of committing further offences but because of breach of licence conditions) and only 5.6% of those who have started the programme have left due to drug or alcohol relapse.