Social care, welfare and religion

Blue Sky

Reducing reoffending through employment

Blue Sky has a distinctive USP - to work there you need a criminal record. Established as a social enterprise offering a “proper job with a proper company”, it aimed to win commercial work against private sector competition. Starting with two grounds maintenance contracts it has since diversified into areas such as recycling.

Although having a job has the greatest single impact on reducing re-offending, three quarters of all prisoners are released to unemployment. The Blue Sky model provides a blueprint for how local authority commissioning can be used to generate social benefit at no extra cost. Blue Sky estimates that it is creating jobs at a net cost of £4,000 per head, when the cost to society of each ex-offender who re-offends is upward of £250,000.

Praised by the judges as “very impressive” Blue Sky founder and chief executive Mick May summarises its success with some compelling statistics. “Over the five years since it was set up, we have employed nearly 300 ex-offenders - that's greater than the entire inmate population of some of Britain's prisons. And of these, less than 15 per cent have re-offended, a quarter of the national average.”

Tony Williams is 35 years old and has worked for Blue Sky since 2005. Until the age of 30 he was involved in a wide range of offences to support his drug habit. “Blue Sky has helped change my life. It’s the only thing that ever worked for me. I’ve been on other programmes, but they haven’t worked.”

Mick May
Chief executive
Blue Sky Development and Regeneration
The Colne Valley Park Centre
Denham Court Drive
Denham
Uxbridge
UB9 5PG
01895 839 848
www.blueskydevelopment.co.uk
Reg no: 1118372

Broadway

Moving homeless people into private rented accommodation

Broadway helps vulnerable people obtain and stay in accommodation and to live successful, independent lives. The private rented sector is increasingly seen as a solution to the shortage of social housing for single homeless people. This shortage places more pressure on short and medium-stay accommodation, which in turn reduces the capacity to accommodate other people in need. 

Research demonstrated that there was a sizeable group of formerly homeless people with low support needs. Recognising that this was a costly use of public funds, Broadway launched Real Lettings in October 2005.  Private landlords with one-bed and studio properties can access Broadway’s property management experience and their properties are then used to re-house single people that have experienced homelessness.

Susan Fallis, assistant director of services, says that Real Lettings currently houses 156 people in the private rented sector and aims to increase this to 500 within three years. “We have successfully challenged the views of clients, referring agents and landlords, making the private rented sector a positive and attractive move-on option.”

Praised by the judges as “imaginative and sensible” with “lots of good learning”, most importantly Real Lettings helps Broadway work towards its vision that every person finds and keeps a home. Some 93 per cent of Real Lettings tenants have sustained or had positive moves from their tenancies.

One Real Lettings tenant, David, says: “I don't know where I would have ended up without Real Lettings. I finally feel safe and secure, and am enjoying transforming the garden into somewhere where I can just sit and relax.” 

Miss Holly Watson
Governance co-ordinator
15 Half Moon Court
Bartholomew Close
London
EC1A 7HF
020 7710 0584
www.broadwaylondon.org
Reg no: 274403

Cricklewood Homeless Concern

Putting homelessness at the heart of the community

CHC works proactively with the local north London community to enable homeless people to positively change their lives, through the delivery of specialist services in a community resource centre setting.  It has challenged the view that homeless people are a group apart, dependent and lacking capacity to improve their situation.  

By providing expertise and resources while local people actively work towards creating a more inclusive and healthier place to live, CHC has trebled outcomes as a result of a new approach to supporting vulnerable people. Key elements of this include personal responsibility, full engagement with services, customers taking the lead in their recovery and staff committed to high-quality customer service, all within a culture of mutual respect and expectation of success.  

As a result, CHC has successfully housed 221 people, while 78 have been linked to mental health services and 109 have been referred to and accessed GP services.

The judges highlighted CHC’s “profound honesty” and Danny Maher, CHC’s chief executive says the project has repositioned homelessness at the heart of the community. “We are a place of positive change, a concept which applies to everyone involved with CHC. We don’t just expect homeless people to aspire to better things, we also expect it of our staff, volunteers, trustees, partners and our local residents.” He identifies the key lesson as continually striving for a better way to support homeless people to move away permanently and sustainably from homelessness and its associated problems. “Don’t be afraid to buck convention and the traditional ways of doing things.”

Mr Danny Maher
Chief executive
60 Ashford Road
Cricklewood
London
NW2 6TU
020 8208 8591
www.chc.org.uk
Reg no: 1097475

Reprieve

Providing a new start for released prisoners

Reprieve is a legal action charity founded by human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, which uses the law to enforce human rights for prisoners.

It has long been at the forefront of the battle to close the illegal prison in Guantánamo Bay, which has housed nearly 800 prisoners since January 2002. Reprieve has represented more than 80 of these, of which over 50 are now free. But it became clear that securing release did not mean the end of difficulties for the men. They faced challenges of trauma, reintegration and stigma. Therefore Reprieve sought UN funding for the Life After Guantánamo support (LAG) project.

As well as working to get cleared prisoners released from Guantánamo to Europe, LAG has had a significant impact on the lives of those released. Since August 2009, 44 men have been referred to the LAG team. Some 27 of them have been released from Guantánamo, and the LAG team has been directly involved in facilitating a range of medical, legal, social and financial support. The other 17 remain trapped in Guantánamo because they cannot return to their countries of origin, through fear of torture and persecution, despite having been cleared for release, sometimes for years. The LAG team has been advocating for the release of these men and calling on European and other governments to offer them refuge, as well as building support structures for the men within possible host countries so they are not isolated and forgotten on release.

LAG has also been active in assisting the resettlement of 11 men in Chad, Slovakia, France, Spain, Georgia, France, and Albania and has offered indirect support in a number of other European countries. This work involves travelling to the countries of resettlement and working with local partners to build supplementary support systems for the former prisoners to aid their integration. Laura Stebbing, resource development manager, says: “After suffering years of abuse and unlawful imprisonment, LAG has helped to give these men a new start in life.”

Miss Laura Stebbing
Resource development manager
P O Box 52742
London
EC4P 4WS
020 7427 1087
www.reprieve.org.uk
Reg no: 1114900

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