DEALS, MERGERS AND PARTNERSHIPS


HMP Leicester’s support for skills


HMP Leicester, a new member of the Chamber, is looking to work with new employers across the local area to help support industry training within the prison, ensuring inmates have the skills employers require, while helping to find work experience and employment for individuals leaving the establishment. HMP Leicester already engages


with many local employers, including through the National Careers Service Careers Inspiration in Custody contract - which organises employer-led activities – as well as education providers. For example, in December 2017,


HMP Leicester hosted its Business Challenge Day, an interactive, educational and confidence building activity. Inmates had the opportunity to work with their peers and employers as a team to consider business ideas and practical ways to develop those ideas. The sessions provided prisoners with an opportunity to socially interact with local employers, to recognise that employers will consider them for employment on release, and provided an opportunity to explore and build their own personal skills and attributes while offering great networking opportunities. Prior to that, HMP Leicester has


hosted a resettlement day - with employers and agencies offering inmates support and employment - an interview skills day and, earlier in 2017, HMP Leicester hosted a TedX conference, a popular lecture series that had never before been held in a British jail.


It is important that businesses are seen to understand and


Engaging with prisoners about skills and employment opportunities can be both rewarding and beneficial to businesses


‘National statistics demonstrate that businesses can reduce re-offending by supporting campaigns such as Ban the Box’


provide assistance to address some of society’s key challenges, including offering sustainable employment to ex-offenders. Many central and local Government contracts now require organisations to demonstrate CSR via the tendering process to articulate how companies support this important agenda. In addition, the blight of crime


and its impact on both individuals, communities and the growing cost to the state clearly highlights the need to work together to identify ways to address this issue effectively.


Businesses can get involved in


campaigns such as Ban the Box, which encourages employers in the UK to increase the opportunity for people with convictions to compete for jobs and offer fairer recruitments practices. National statistics demonstrate


that businesses can reduce re- offending by supporting campaigns such as Ban the Box or by supporting local prisons to assist them to develop pathways to employment. A Government report states: “The employment prospects of offenders are well below those of the community in general: 67% of prisoners were


Energy deal promotes further growth at Shakespeare Martineau


Shakespeare Martineau's Nottingham-based Energy Team is expanding as a result of a hive of activity in the sector – leading to the completion of a significant deal.


And part of this growth is down


to the appetite in the market for alternative technologies, with the East Midlands leading the way.


Shakespeare Martineau’s Energy


Partner, Peter Dilks (pictured), said: “The introduction of battery storage has long been seen as the solution to solving some of the UK's energy supply challenges, and we have just advised on what is believed to be the largest operational battery storage plant in the northern hemisphere, second


‘The introduction of battery storage has long been seen as the solution to solving some of the UK's energy supply challenges’


20 business network April 2018


globally only to the 120MW ‘Mega Battery’ installed in Australia. This plant, installed on a piece of land smaller than a football pitch, has sufficient capacity to power the entire city of Derby.” Renewables are also likely to


continue to play a key part in the UK’s energy mix. Last year saw the first 24-hour period since the 1880s where Great Britain relied solely on low carbon sources.


not in work or training in the four weeks before going to prison and 76% of prisoners do not have paid employment to go to on release. These low rates of employment are damaging to the individuals concerned and the economy and community more widely. Evidence suggests employment and a reduction in re-offending are linked, and that stability and quality of employment, along with the level of satisfaction expressed towards it, are key factors”. The Chamber recently ran a


business breakfast event at HMP Leicester about how businesses can work with HMP Leicester to drive industry training, help reduce skills gaps and how to support prison initiatives to help prepare inmates for release and to get into employment.


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