Niki Chesworth

Prison and it changed my attitude t o e mployi ng ex- o f f e nder s , ” s ays Findlater.

“We decided to employ a few as interns at our graphic design company, but when clients asked to borrow our painting and decorating team we decided to create the social enterprise so we could train more of them up. We explained to our clients that our pa i nt e r s a nd d e c o r a t o r s were a l l ex-offenders and the fact that clients were so accepting has helped change perceptions.

“We are now an accredited training organisation and provide painters and decorators for offices, private homes and commercial premises, and have since set up a training centre in HMP Brixton as well as our training centres in the community in Kennington and Canning Town.”

HMP Brixton also offers a number of other resettlement training schemes including The Bad Boys Bakery, which is based inside the prison teaching baking skills and helping prisoners to resettle and find work once they are released.

Media for Development, a not-forprofit organisation based in Hackney, offers opportunities for training and work through its production company Inside Job Productions, which began by training women offenders out on temporary licence in admin and film production work. “Of the 10 I am st i l l in touch with, none have reoffended, t wo run their own businesses and one went on to work in TV production,” says managing director Ann Summerhayes. “So it is effective. The fact that they h ave worked hard with u s , h ave a go o d re f e re n c e , h ave learned more skills and learned how to work and do a job with training, shows there is hope.”

About a third of the staff at St Giles Trust are ex-offenders, who now work to support prisoners and ex-offenders through its advisory scheme. The charity trains about 25 people a year.

“We believe it is worth giving them a chance as they will go that extra mile,” says spokesperson Tamsin Gregory.