Fair-chance hiring
Clear, practical guidance to help recruitment teams recognise where processes may unintentionally screen people out, and make fair-chance hiring work in real roles.
Our programmes
Programmes that build a route back
Five programmes matched to sentence stage, release timeline and setting, built around confidence, capability and opportunity.
Our programmes are multi-week with group and one-to-one mentoring and a confirmed referral pathway for every participant. Each follows the same journey; confidence, capability and opportunity and every session is co-facilitated by a trained peer mentor alongside a professional mentor and/or subject-matter expert.
Foundation Programme
The core of what we do, in three phases. Phase one, Identity and Confidence Reset, helps people recognise the strengths built through adversity and describe them in language employers understand. Phase two, Positioning for Opportunity, turns that into a story that builds trust with employers, mentors and educators. Phase three offers a sector pathway: enterprise through Build Your Own Lane, further and higher education, Digital Bridges for AI and digital confidence, or logistics through Moving Your Future. Every pathway ends in a referral. Delivered over three days, six weeks or twelve weeks, in custody or the community.
Empowerment to Employment
Industry-focused programmes for prison leavers and people experiencing long-term unemployment, with sector-specific learning, employer insight and referrals into roles in logistics, engineering, digital and AI, and entry-level work. Length is agreed with you.
Empower Her Future
Gender-responsive support for women affected by the justice system. It can be any of our programmes and workshops, adapted for the women we support and delivered by professional practitioners and people with lived experience. It runs from a three-day Foundation to a three-month programme, where it adds expert, industry-focused and clinical wraparound support. Longer programmes allow deeper support and greater impact.
Where I Fit
A cultural capital programme built around each cohort. Participants first build identity and voice, then prepare for and take part in visits to professional, cultural and institutional settings they would not normally reach, and finish with a personalised pathway into employment, education or enterprise. The visits are chosen for the group. Reading, writing and speaking skills are built into the activities and not taught as classroom lessons.
Working for Yourself
A 12-week programme for people deciding whether self-employment suits them. Eight sessions cover your record and the rules, licence conditions, ID and banking, your idea, customers and market, pricing, costs and cash flow, and your first 90 days. Reviews at weeks 4, 8 and 12 test the plan against reality, using Guess, Check, Change. Each participant works with a business mentor, and those ready to go ahead receive extended support.
At a glance
Foundation Programme
- Length
- Three days, six weeks or twelve weeks
- Setting
- Custody and community
- Participants leave with
- A strengths statement, a clear way to present themselves, and a referral through a sector pathway.
Empowerment to Employment
- Length
- Agreed with you
- Setting
- Custody and community
- Participants leave with
- Sector knowledge, employer insight and a referral into work or training.
Empower Her Future
- Length
- From three days to three months
- Setting
- Custody and community
- Participants leave with
- Confidence, skills and support shaped to women's needs, with wraparound support on longer versions.
Where I Fit
- Length
- Planned around the cohort and the visits
- Setting
- Community and custody-linked
- Participants leave with
- A written portfolio, a strengths and motivation statement and a personalised pathway.
Working for Yourself
- Length
- Twelve weeks
- Setting
- Custody and community
- Participants leave with
- A tested business plan and a mentor for the first 90 days.
| Programme | Length | Setting | Participants leave with |
|---|---|---|---|
Foundation Programme | Three days, six weeks or twelve weeks | Custody and community | A strengths statement, a clear way to present themselves, and a referral through a sector pathway. |
Empowerment to Employment | Agreed with you | Custody and community | Sector knowledge, employer insight and a referral into work or training. |
Empower Her Future | From three days to three months | Custody and community | Confidence, skills and support shaped to women's needs, with wraparound support on longer versions. |
Where I Fit | Planned around the cohort and the visits | Community and custody-linked | A written portfolio, a strengths and motivation statement and a personalised pathway. |
Working for Yourself | Twelve weeks | Custody and community | A tested business plan and a mentor for the first 90 days. |
More than 100 people have taken part in our programmes in prisons and in the community since 2025.
Which programme fits your cohort?
Where participants go next
Programmes end with a clear next step, agreed with each participant according to their goals and readiness.
Employment
Roles in logistics, warehousing, technology, business services and more.
Training and skills
Digital skills bootcamps and sector training.
Further and higher education
Access courses, vocational qualifications and university, with help on applications and student finance.
Self-employment
Help to test an idea and build a plan, including support through free enterprise resources.
Work experience and mentoring
Placements and business or career mentoring from employers.
Further support
Wraparound help from our network where it is needed.
Questions commissioners ask
Every programme can be complemented by our standalone workshops.
See our workshopsEmployer awareness and training
Practical sessions for employers ready to turn fair-chance hiring into a workplace practice, not simply a policy statement.
Disclosure, onboarding and support
Support for managers and teams on navigating disclosure with confidence, creating a thoughtful onboarding experience and putting the right support in place once someone starts.
Building an inclusive, second-chance workplace
Sessions that build the understanding, language and everyday practices needed to create a workplace where people with criminal convictions can contribute, progress and stay.
What we deliver
Alongside our programmes and employer sessions, we provide joined-up delivery for organisations seeking meaningful rehabilitation, employability and social value outcomes.
Employment and skills
Structured pathways into employment, covering job-readiness, employer engagement, application support and in-work retention.
Mentoring
One-to-one and group mentoring from practitioners who combine professional expertise with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Workshops
Focused, practical sessions in personal development, digital skills, job search, communication and interview preparation across custodial and community settings.
Employer engagement
Inclusive recruitment pipelines, supported onboarding and practical guidance for businesses building a fair-chance workplace.
Social value delivery
Credible employment, skills and mentoring activity delivered against contract commitments and evidenced through clear reporting.
Consultancy
Support to design, structure and evidence social value activity, from bid-writing and programme design to outcome measurement.