The Evaluation of the Employment Pathfinder: lessons from phase I, and a survey for phase II RDS OLR 22/04

This report outlines the results of the National Probation Directorate’s Employment Pathfinder, which aimed to test interventions used to get offenders into work as a means of reducing re-offending. It involved partnership work between the Probation Service and the Employment Service (now JobCentre Plus) and had a cognitive-behavioural approach to employability issues.

Only 22 offenders from the two Pathfinder areas completed the programme. This was largely because: a) the Pathfinder was attached to general offending behaviour programmes, which had a low number of completors; b) as the programme did not count towards national targets, it was seen as low priority. Similarly, as the programme was not a court-ordered requirement, it was difficult to enforce attendance; c) one area was undergoing major re-structuring, which interrupted the operation of the programme. Thus, the sample was not large enough to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pathfinder.

Over two hundred different unemployed offenders were interviewed to increase knowledge about unemployed offenders and provide baseline data to inform phase II of the Employment Pathfinder (which commenced in April 2004). These interviews found that employment history, offending history, risk of reconviction, recent/current drug use, living arrangements and marital status influenced success in gaining employment. The report recommended exploring the use of running the programme as a 1:1 intervention as well as in groups and suggested more joined-up working with partnership agencies. The lessons learnt from the Pathfinder were incorporated into phase II and the interviews with unemployed offenders were influential in the design and targeting of phase II.