\n The call comes as part of the new Future Horizons employment scheme, launched in partnership with HMP Norwich and backed by Norse Group chief executive Justin Galliford.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “Most companies and public sector organisations struggle to find good candidates.\n<\/p>\n
\n “From our experience, the people placed with us have been excellent.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We\u2019ve invested less in this project than it would have cost us to recruit the excellent employees who have joined us.\n<\/p>\n
\n “So, it\u2019s not only good social value, it also makes real commercial sense.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The scheme connects ex-prisoners with employers through an online hub.\n<\/p>\n
\n It aims to tackle both labour shortages and high reoffending rates by offering meaningful employment to those leaving prison.\n<\/p>\n
\n Currently, 70% of employers say they would consider hiring an ex-offender, but only 17% actually do.\n<\/p>\n
\n The reoffending rate in the UK stands at around 40%. However, men going into employment immediately on release from HMP Norwich reduce that rate by more than 50%.\n<\/p>\n
\n Declan Moore, governor of HMP Norwich, said: “The prospect of employment means most people won\u2019t come back.\n<\/p>\n
\n “With this scheme, employers get to see the person they actually are first, not the person they were.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They will often get the opportunity to \u2018try before they buy\u2019.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The event was supported by national organisations including the CBI and the Construction Industry Training Board.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norse Group, which employs 9,000 people across England and Wales, is helping deliver the project by supporting Category D prisoners on day release with training in fields such as highways and facilities management.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Galliford said: “Some people don\u2019t even have a first opportunity in life.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There has to come a point where people can contribute to society.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is not about being soft on offending, it\u2019s about being smart.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The call comes as part of the new Future Horizons employment scheme, launched in partnership with HMP Norwich…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,1371,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-210006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-business","tag-jobs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}