Memorandum submitted by Rob Owen, St Giles
Trust
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
2. Re-offending costs the state an estimated
£11 billion annually, or 44,000 additional nurses or school
teachers every year. St Giles Trust is a multiple award winning
charity with a simple but highly effective and cost efficient
service that dramatically reduces re-offending. It puts offenders
at the centre of the solution. Currently we can impact 15,000
lives a year on a turn over of just £4.35 million.
3. In my report you will see the dynamics of
how the multiplier effect works and the the fact that it is a
win win situation for all. Offenders, ex-offenders and society
in general. It is a hugely scalable model, we are well recognised
by industry experts at achieve life changing behaviours of often
the most destructive members of our society. By turning ex-offenders
into valuable positive agents of change, because they have the
credibility and we've given them the training, we make all
our streets safer.
4. SOCIAL RETURN
ON INVESTMENT
5. St Giles Trust is a pioneering mid-sized
charity that feels it has found a solution to help tackle the
issues of re-offending and chronic prison overcrowding. The peer
advice model is the cornerstone of our offering, creating a positive
cycle which uses serving prisoners to help their fellow inmates.
St Giles Trust gives people the chance to change.
6. The model in prisons is simple. We run NVQ
level 3 courses in Advice and Guidance, during the course the
prisoners go around the prison offering help to other inmates
with resettlement issues. These so-called peer advisers not only
improve their own self-confidence, skills and job prospects, but
also help many around them. One peer adviser alone sees around
250 new arrivals a month and provides them with vital information
to enhance a successful rehabilitation. Currently, we operate
like this in just over 25 prisons and we aim to offer this service
to 100 prisons within the next five years.
7. Our thinking behind this model is also
simple. Former offenders who have successfully turned their backs
on crime provide the most authentic, credible role models and
mentors for others who are motivated to change. Furthermore, offenders
are more likely to listen to those who have had first-hand experience
of the issues they are dealing with.
8. Where St Giles Trust has the ability
to run an NVQ course we can really enhance the existing service
provided to prisoners, through providing easily accessible advice
and support to a greater number of people than would otherwise
have been possible.
9. Many peer advisers then work as volunteers
for St Giles Trust on release, offering a "Meet at the Gates"
service to other offenders and which supports them to stop re-offending
in the early stages of their release (the most vulnerable time).
Through this programme, they are also offered employment brokerage
with other employers, with a view to gaining full-time, paid work.
We have an excellent success rate. Of the 400 odd people who have
successfully completed the NVQ3 course, only a handful have re-offended
against the national average of around 55%.
10. The rate of re-offending is a thorn
in the side for anyone involved in the rehabilitation of offenders.
Our experience shows that people are most likely to re-offend
because they lack basic needs such as an income, housing, support
and a regular structure such as a job or training. Our model of
working helps stop the negative cycle of prison, re-offending
and prison through offering support which meets these basic needs.
11. One of our biggest challenges as an
organisation—one which we are already making headway towards
tackling—is finding employers who share our vision to unlock
the potential of ex-offenders. Statistically, it is eight times
more difficult to get a job with a criminal record. However, one
in four of the working population has already committed an offence
so employers are already—perhaps unknowingly—employing
ex-offenders. Our NVQ students are highly motivated, skilled and
ready for work, offering an untapped pool of talent for employers,
in many cases plugging a skills gap. Employers who won't use this
resource are—quite simply—losing out.
12. We are aiming to expand our work into
as many prisons as possible, including women's prisons. We firmly
believe that our services can add real value to the work already
underway in prisons and help drive down re-offending.
13. Just one of our trained ex-service user
has a client group of 50 young gang members—he develops
his relationship with them in prison (currently HMP Rochester—in
line with our funding for this project). These are "hardened"
gang members who have a string of offences and are a great cost
to society. They are in and out of prison on a regular basis.
14. Because of his unique style, and the
fact he's well trained, and an ex-offender himself the failure
rate for his clients is much lower. He works very intensively
with them, helping them re-settle back into society, severing
their ties with old bad associations, and finding accommodation
and ETE (Education, Training and Employment).
15. His client group's re-offending rate
is 10% (being recalled after two years). Re-offending rate for
same age group is 70-75%.
16. Each re-offender costs the state a minimum
of £143,000 a year (Social exclusion report) and this excludes
costs to the victims of their crimes.
17. So the cost in terms of re-offending
from a group of 50 gang members is that 75% of them will re-offend
costing the state (50 X 75% = 37.5. 37.5 X £143,000) = £5,362,500.
18. With just one trained peer advisors
intervention and support from St Giles Trust, only five will re-offend,
saving society in terms of their re-offending (5 X £143,000
= £715,000 against £5,362,500) a remarkable £4,647,500
in savings.
19. This is a hugely scalable project, and
just a very small but very visible fraction of the work we do.
Each peer advisor costs us about £49,000, that's fully funded
and fully trained.
20. It is a very simple model. It is taking
an offender, and putting them at the centre of the solution.
21. Why spend money on failure—currently
re-offending rates are far too high. Why not spend money on success,
invest in projects that dramatically reduce re-offending. I have
attached a variety of reports that highlight some of our successes,
and prove beyond double that we can reduce re-offending dramatically,
which can then pay for more services like those offered by St
Giles that will continue this virtuous cycle.
October 2008
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