Andrew Selous MP to speak at Novus event

Andrew Selous MP will be delivering a speech at Novus’ Employer Engagement event in London today.

The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation is one of the speakers at the eagerly-anticipated event at the Grand Connaught Rooms.

Peter Cox, Managing Director of Novus, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew Selous MP today and look forward to hearing his speech.

“The aim of the Employer Engagement Event is bring together key partners and employers to take forward an integrated regional approach to improving the volume and quality of contacts between NOMS, Novus, partners and employers in the Greater London Region, in order to increase the number of offenders who find work on release and thereby reduce the re-offending rate.

“Working with employers will improve offenders' prospects in the job market - ensuring that our courses are relevant to employers' needs, and overcoming employers' resistance to employing ex-offenders.  It will thus contribute directly to reducing re-offending, and will benefit the offender, offenders’ families, and the communities that they return to.”

The overarching aim of the Greater London Region Learning & Skills strategy is to prepare prisoners for the successful transition into sustainable employment.  The priorities are to link the Learning and Skills delivery strategy with finding suitable and sustainable employment for prisoners upon release and develop strategies to engage employers in reducing re-offending. 

The Employer Engagement Strategy aims to engage with employers through a sector approach, to have a better understanding of the requirements of particular industries and to remove the barriers that prevent prisoners progressing into employment upon release.  The strategy targets employers in sectors that have significant skills gaps and/or who are receptive to recruiting ex-offenders. Local labour market information is used to identify potential employers to work in partnership with a range of organisations who are already involved with employers.

A Ministry of Justice report on the effect of employment on re-offending concluded in 2013 that P45 employment has a positive impact on reducing re-offending.

Novus enjoys an excellent working relationship with key partner NOMS.