Made Inside Britain is a Ministry of Justice funded campaign to support prison leavers into sustainable employment in the Northwest of England.

An innovative partnership between New Futures Network, Antz Junction, Fulcrum Scaffold & Safety Ltd and the two prisons, have designed and invested in employer-led workshops called Real Work Environments (RWE’s) creating clear job outcomes for participants in the sector.

These are the first CISRS centres to be located in a prison establishment. Participants are taking part in practical scaffolding training and leaving with a CISRS COTS card and real-life work experience leading to full-time, sustainable employment, ScaffMag reported.

The first Real Work Environment launched at HMP/YOI Thorn Cross on the 4^th April with nine men all who expressed an interest in a career in scaffolding and who are extremely motivated to learn new skills. Following the successful training, all nine men have been matched with a job on release.

After delivering the first course at HMP Thorn Cross, Fulcrum’s Managing Director, Dave Abraham, said “It was a pleasure to deliver the course, the lads are a great bunch and are keen to integrate back into society up on their release. The course is held over 5 days, during which the candidates are given practical hands-on experience, achieving a CISRS COTS card and GQA Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment.

"We are pleased to announce that all those who attended the course have been offered employment with the following companies: Allied Access, Connolly Scaffolding, PDL Scaffolding and Gorilla Scaffolding. I would like to thank these companies for their support and for recognising that prison leavers deserve the opportunity of employment.”

Dave went on to say: “Our staff at Fulcrum have put a lot of time and commitment into this project but we would not have been able to make this happen without the support from CITB and Procure Plus (Wiktor Morrell & Simon O’Donnell).”

Tim Bailey, Business Manager, Made Inside Britain, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire Prison Groups commented: “I am very excited by the potential of this initiative and what can be achieved.

Ultimately, we want to increase employer confidence in the value of employing prison leavers, which to this point is a largely untapped employment market. We also want to ensure there is improved workforce retention among prison leavers and that they get the qualifications and skills needed to enter the local labour market.”