What are Employment Hubs?
Employment Hubs are the first, dedicated spaces in prisons where His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service staff, partners and prisoners can focus on employment. There are over ninety Hubs across prisons in England and Wales.
In the Hubs, prisoners can work with staff to identify their employment needs. The Hubs enable employment partners to collaborate to provide tailored advice and services to support prisoners on their employment journey.
Services may include:
- Producing a CV.
- Accessing guidance on career pathways.
- Viewing vacancies and applying for suitable jobs.
- Applying for a bank account and ID.
- Receiving assistance on how to access Universal Credit and other support on release from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Prison Employment Leads
Employment Hubs are managed by a Prison Employment Lead (PEL), who works closely with key partners in the prison including DWP, probation, education and Information Advice and Guidance providers.
All prisons that have a resettlement function have a PEL. They are the key point of contact for employment in prison to ensure serving prisoners can take up work and training opportunities, and more prisoners leave custody with a job.
They do this by:
- Driving the overall employment strategy for their prison.
- Assessing the job readiness of prisoners to understand their needs and career aspirations.
- Matching prisoners to suitable jobs.
- Managing the Employment Hub.
PELs have regular interaction with prisoners to better understand their needs and match them to suitable, sustainable employment.
PELs also run regular recruitment drives across a variety of sectors to increase awareness of prisoners and prison leavers as a recruitment choice and provide opportunities for employers to engage directly with prisoners.
The PEL works closely with the ID and Banking Administrator who ensures that prisoners leave custody with a bank account and ID so they can provide right to work documentation to employers.