PC Sonya Hill MBE talks to PBC Today ahead of the CPA Annual Conference, and explains the importance of a scheme that involves the rehabilitation of young offenders through training and the forging of business partnerships…
The CPA (Construction Pant-hire Association) annual conference is taking place on 4th November at Wyboston Lakes, St Neots Cambridgeshire. Amongst the many subjects on the conference agenda is the ‘rehabilitation of young offenders through training’ and how the scheme is assisting the participants to secure employment within the construction sector by forging partnerships with blue chip contractors, including Amey plc and Bam Construction.
PC Sonya Hill MBE, a full-time Prince’s Trust coordinator for the West Midlands Police champions this initiative, known as the ‘Prince’s Trust Team Programme’ PC Hill’s sterling efforts in facilitating this programme were recognised last year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and she was honoured with an MBE. PC Hill, a police officer with 30-years of service under her belt explains the importance of this scheme and forging business partnerships.
PC Hill knew nothing about the construction industry until the recent media attention drew her to the skills shortage crisis within the sector. Construction accounts for 2.6 million jobs in the UK and in the next five-years it is predicted, by the CITB, that 224,000 new construction jobs will be created. It was these figures that prompted PC Hill to meet with the CITB to discuss ways of incorporating the young offenders training programme into construction companies and address the skills deficit.
The West Midlands Police have worked in partnership with the Prince’s Trust since 2006. The Trust is a youth charity that helps young people progress to positive outcomes. The Prince’s Trust Team Programme (Team) is a 12-week youth engagement programme aimed at getting 16-25 year olds back into employment or education through personal development and mentoring. Team also offers work experience and the opportunity to gain qualifications and practical skills.
The young people also engage in community projects such as fund-raising activities and working alongside community groups such as helping the elderly and assisting the homeless – this gives the participants a sense of worth by putting something back into their local communities. They also embark on a residential week which encourages team work.
All of this is supported by helping them with CV writing, mock interviews and job applications. More than 70% of unemployed participants go on to jobs, training or education within three months of completing the programme.
PC Hill said:
“The Trust work in partnership with four colleges within the West Midlands Police (WMP) geographical area. The WMP is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of the Team programme and we refer to the colleges we work with as Delivery Partners. We run the programme from within police stations across 10 local Policing Units (LPUs). Working with the youths are PC’s and PCSO’s (Police Community Police Officers), who are WMP employees. We (WMP) are completely unique in that the West Midlands Police is the only police service in the country to open up the doors of their police stations to this engagement force wide in its 10 areas.”
PC Hill continued: “Although we (WMP) work in partnership with the Prince’s Trust – the extended partnership we have with businesses for work placement is between WMP and businesses. The Trust Team is just the vehicle facilitating that engagement as ultimately when we have worked with an individual for 12-weeks eight hours a day, we as staff are in a better position to identify their readiness for work and progression.”
The WMP utilise the Team programme as an offender management/youth engagement vehicle and focuses on offenders and ex-offenders in addition to those considered on the cusp of offending. We also engage with vulnerable young people – but we do have to be careful when we mix a team. Other target key groups for recruitment are those in or leaving care, education underachievers and the long term unemployed. PC Hill said:
“To maximise the greatest chance of success with the programme it’s essential that an appropriate mix of young people are recruited to attend these 12-week programmes. As such, a team made up entirely of offenders would not be appropriate.
“Our successes help reduce demand for services that is essential with the budget cuts we are currently experiencing – with a further £130m of cuts expected over the next four-years.
“Team members take part in work placements with a view to preparing them for work. At present there is a huge drive for staff to create business partnerships to help facilitate employment/apprenticeship opportunities. This drive has enjoyed many a success with opportunities opening up in many areas of work, and most recently within the construction sector.
These partnerships have a huge impact on the success of Team with many positive progression routes being secured via the employment diversion pathway. These successes also help to increase the number of referrals which enables Team leaders to be more selective, and therefore improves retention of the young people to the end of the 12-week programme.”
In addition to helping Team and those taking part, business partnerships allow many different organisations to work together ‘for the good of the country’, which as we know is suffering a huge skills shortage. The Team programme is going some way to fill this gap by supporting young people who may have slipped through the net and getting them into work. There’s a big difference between education and intelligence.
PC Hill continued:
“By developing partnerships and identifying potential opportunities our aim is to maximise success by making the most disaffected young people become positive role models for other young people and in becoming positive contributing members of local communities. Where we have business partnership engaged with specific team areas, we have a participant retention rate between 80 – 90% with a re-offending rate of 31% which gives us a 69% success rate. If you bear in mind the offender footprint is 77% we can evidence the fact that we have a greater success rate with a tougher client group when we have those business partnerships”.
Business partnerships with Hawk Plant, Amey plc and BAM Construction are currently underway and being developed to continue with this work. The WMP is also working with organisations including CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) and CPA to bring achievable solutions to the skills shortage within the construction sector. PC Hill concluded:
“It’s not just large companies we want to engage with – we are encouraging SME’s (small medium enterprises) to participate. By realising their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Footprint and committing to the CITB’s FIR (Be Fair Frame Work) and the CITB’s Go Construct campaign – together with the Prince’s Trust Team Programme, we have the potential to fill some of the thousands of construction vacancies with previously undiscovered talent – everyone deserves a break and a second chance to realise their potential.
“Other police services are interested and as some of these businesses are national and even global, there is a real opportunity to share this best practice nationally. Companies like Amey have already communicated this desire.” ■
To register for the CPA conference visit www.cpa.uk.net and follow the CPA on Twitter .
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PC Sonya Hill MBE
Prince’s Trust coordinator
West Midlands Police
Tel: 07747 476426
