Successful, Impactful Practice
- An employment programme running across several prisons which has enabled nearly 600 job starts.
- Various interventions achieving good service user outcomes, including a programme combining work experience with practical and personal support for prison leavers and people on community sentences, and creative interventions in prisons and in probation services.
- Pre and post release support programmes successfully reducing reoffending rates.
- Diversion work with women in police custody suites, which is successfully reducing the number of women in the ‘revolving door’.
- Organisations working with statutory agencies and police-led projects have enhanced support for hard-to-reach individuals.
- Many organisations stress the importance of person-centred and trauma-informed care, leading to more effective service provision.
- Partnership work between voluntary organisations and statutory agencies, providing case managers to help guide people to different services.
- A programme with staff and men participating together in a prison awarded urgent notification status.
- Setting up the first women’s centre in a county.
- Problem-solving courts.
The 180 Project is a unique full time resettlement programme that incorporates functional fitness, group therapy, education and life skills. Currently at HMP Lancaster Farms, men on the programme live together supporting each other within a culture of health, well-being, emotional growth and accountability. Men learn how to train, talk, and transform together.
A facilitator described the impact of the programme:
Men are not reoffending, some of these men have been in and out of prison for 20, 30 years. We have men who would consider themselves hardened criminals, others who have been habitual drug users, they're stopping doing what they're doing. Men are turning their lives around and staying out of prison.
On release men are supported into the 180 Community Program in Blackburn with Darwen (Lancashire). For men needing extra wrap around support there is a 180 housing offer. Alternatively for men residing in other areas they are supported into their local Functional Fitness Community. They become surrounded by new positive influences, allowing them to continue their 180 journey.
CCA aims to build an inclusive community where individuals leaving prison or serving non-custodial sentences can make a fresh start, contributing to a healthier society for all. Each year, over 2,000 people receive assistance from community chaplaincies across the UK, highlighting the CCA's extensive reach and commitment. They support a network of local Community Chaplaincies across the UK, providing operational assistance and representing members at a national level.
The CCA's member organisations offer holistic, person-centred support, addressing the complex needs of former prisoners to facilitate successful reintegration. This approach not only aids in individual rehabilitation but also contributes to a healthier society by reducing recidivism and promoting public safety.
Funding for this work is currently mainly through charitable trusts.
Find out more about the Community Chaplaincy Association here
An independent evaluation of the RFYL programme found it had a significant impact on prisoner rehabilitation through Physically Active Learning (PAL) and endurance-based activities. Operating at HMP Wymott, HMP Manchester, and HMP Hindley, RFYL aims to improve mental, physical, and emotional well-being. At HMP Wymott, elderly and vulnerable prisoners reported reduced isolation, better mental health, and stronger social connections. Many had previously struggled with inactivity and felt that RFYL restored a sense of purpose. In contrast, at HMP Manchester, where high-security restrictions limit opportunities for exercise and engagement, RFYL was transformative. Prisoners who typically spent up to 23 hours a day in their cells noted increased motivation, improved relationships with staff, and a greater sense of trust. The programme’s team-based approach fostered camaraderie, helping prisoners develop emotional resilience and coping strategies.
RFYL has demonstrated strong engagement, with an 81% graduation rate across six prison wings and 51 out of 63 participants completing the programme. Nine former participants have taken on mentorship roles, reinforcing peer-led rehabilitation. The programme's flexibility allows it to be adapted to different prison populations, addressing literacy and mental health barriers. However, challenges such as staff shortages, operational restrictions, and scepticism among prisoners due to past programme cancellations have impacted participation. Despite these hurdles, RFYL has been widely praised by prisoners, staff, and governors for improving prison culture and reducing conflict. To sustain its success, future efforts should focus on institutional support, staff training, and enhanced data collection to measure long-term benefits.
During 2024, PET funded 1,540 courses for people in prison, a 15% increase on 2023. Its most popular courses were its Level 2 NEBOSH HSE Award in Managing Risks and Risk Assessment course, Level 3 NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety course, and Level 2 IOSH Managing Safely course.
Business start-up, creative writing, and drug and alcohol counselling were also in the top 10. In addition, PET provided information, advice, and guidance on 3,507 occasions during 2024, supporting learners to choose the right course for them, to apply, and to successfully complete it.
PET also launched a new secure website for people in prison, accessible across the prison estate, and a series of digital courses available on the prison Virtual Campus. The organisation also published a major briefing making recommendations on prison education to the new government and a research report on young women’s experiences of education in prison, as well as contributing a report on prison education to the Clinks online evidence library.
Hear Me Out has worked in almost every immigration detention centre in the UK, often for 5-10 years continuously, and are the only arts organisation with that specialism. They run music programmes for adults and children held at asylum hotels and barracks, using a mix of group work and intensive work with individuals, supporting their creative development through mentoring, shadowing, and skills coaching. Group participants in turn support projects and decision making on fundraising, recruitment, and communications as experts by experience artists, committee members, and trustees. Wrapped around all this is a package of holistic practical and emotional support.
Hear Me Out have long experience of engaging marginalised groups in the wider community with music created by people in detention, and of two-way collaborations between them. These projects build reciprocal support and solidarity in the tense climate created by the hostile environment, and raise awareness, and change attitudes. They support two bands of musicians who have spent time in detention or asylum hotels, working to bring their creative output and back stories to a much bigger public audience.
Beating Time’s Inside Job programme runs in several prisons and has enabled over 600 job starts to date for people post-prison. The programme is co-created and delivered with and by people with lived experience of prison, providing credible support that understands real need.
An individual taking part in the programme receives, practical employment support before they leave prison from the trained peer-worker team (several have gone on to join the charity on release including the programme’s co-creator and lead), monthly access to invested employers who interview in prison, and dedicated through-the-gate help with barrier removal and job placement from a community team member. By using a familiar peer-based model in prisons supported by a community hub, Beating Time has been able to start scaling the model, on its own and in collaboration with other community-based organisations in the sector.
LandWorks is a specialist charity based in Devon that aims to provide a supported route into employment and the community for people leaving prison or serving community sentences and at risk of going to prison. It provides intensive long-term placements at its specialist site that combine real work experience and training alongside comprehensive practical and personal support – all followed up with ongoing support and advice after placements end. In 2024, it continued to provide its services, working closely with local probation services, delivering 45 placements on site and providing ongoing contact and support with over 120 of its ‘graduates’. LandWorks managed to maintain a very low one-year reoffending rate, and over 90% of its graduates who are available to work were in employment.
During the year, LandWorks was delighted to win the “Overall Award for Excellence” at the Civil Society Media’s Charity Awards 2024. It described this as brilliant recognition for its staff, supporters, and partners and felt like a huge endorsement of the approach it is taking to reducing reoffending and helping people to change their lives.
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