To date, 75 employers have signed up to the campaign and removed the criminal record tick box from job application forms - taking the total number of jobs covered by Ban the Box to over 700,000. Companies to pledge their support over the past year include Virgin Trains, London ‘super-sewer’ developer Tideway, and the entire civil service following an announcement from former Prime Minister David Cameron.
However, the charity is calling on more employers to Ban the Box in order to support the thousands of young people looking to enter the labour market with a criminal conviction.
As of March 2016 there were 16,000 young people aged 18-24 in custody in England and Wales.[i] Re-offending rates for the youngest people in the UK criminal justice system are chronically high with 68% of under 18s going on to re-offend within one year of release from custody, compared to 46% for the adult population.[ii] The social and economic costs of young men and women offending have been estimated at anything up to £19 billion a year.[iii]
Employers have a vital role to play in supporting young offenders to turn their lives around. Nicola Inge, Campaign Manager said: “As a group, young people already face serious barriers to work due to a lack of work experience and limited professional networks[iv]. When you combine that with recruitment practices that use the tick box to filter out candidates with convictions, finding a job can feel like an insurmountable challenge for a young job-seeker.”
In a snapshot survey carried out by BITC and Milton Keynes College at Glen Parva Young Offenders Institution, ‘having a criminal conviction’ was the most commonly cited barrier to work, highlighted by 63% of young offenders who took part. The survey also revealed that many of the prisoners felt they had learnt new skills in prison which might improve their chances of getting a job.
Nicola Inge continues “Young people in custody are being given the opportunity to gain qualifications and work experience through programmes like those run by Milton Keynes College at YOI Glen Parva. It’s very disappointing to think that this training might be going to waste because of recruitment practices that block candidates with a criminal record.
Employment is proven to reduce re-offending by up to 50%[v]. By removing the tick box from job application forms and giving young offenders a chance to find work, employers can play a vital role in keeping young people out of prison, and gain access to a large and diverse talent pool.”
Kathryn Wildman, Lead Recruiter at Ban the Box employer, Virgin Trains says: Kathryn Wildman, Lead Recruiter at Virgin Trains says: “Here at Virgin Trains we’ve been hiring ex-offenders for several years and we haven’t looked back. In that time, no one has re-offended. We have always believed in hiring the best person for the job, no matter where they come from and the added benefit here is that society benefits too. As a business we are tapping into a source of motivated young people that many other companies might overlook, which is a shame for both the employers and potential new employees.”
Sources
[i]House of Commons Library, Prison Population statistics, Briefing paper number SN/SG/04334, 4th July 2016
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04334/SN04334.pdf
[ii] Ministry of Justice, Proven re-offending statistics quarterly bulletin, October 2013 to September 2014
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/541187/proven-reoffending-2014-q3.pdf
[iii] Old Enough to know better? A briefing on young adults in the criminal justice system, January 2012, Prison Reform Trust
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/OldEnoughToKnowBetter.pdf
[iv] Barriers to youth employment, Key findings from Business in the Community’s Youth Survey, supported by City & Guilds, November 2015.
http://futureproof.bitc.org.uk/sites/default/files/BITC%20-%20Youth%20Survey%202015%20-%20key%20findings_1.pdf
[v] The UK government’s own Social Exclusion Unit reported that ‘employment reduces the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half’, in its report ‘Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners’ (2002) http://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty/downloads/keyofficialdocuments/Reducing%20Reoffending.pdf
[vi] The Civil Service will Ban the Box for approximately 380,000 roles (97% of roles across the Civil Service).
