'There's an appetite for self-employment education - but fear from prison staff to promote it'

Here, Andy Gullick, the CEO and founder of RIFT Social Enterprise and former Prison Governor, tells Reflective Practice about how self-employment should be a route out of disadvantage throughout the UK, including for people with convictions leaving prison.

“I think there are so many different barriers,” Mr Gullick shares as he considers the challenges facing people who want to find work as they move back into civilian life after a spell behind bars.

But one route that is not always championed is self-employment.

It’s what Mr Gullick and RIFT Social Enterprise do: offer specialist self-employment support for those who have been overlooked or face barriers to work.

Through using tailored training, tools and guidance, the organisation helps individuals – including those with convictions, care leavers, and long-term unemployed – build their independence and confidence, aiming to turn potential into an opportunity.

As a former Prison Governor at HMP Rye Hill, where he was Head of Reducing Reoffending and Community Engagement, Mr Gullick is only too aware of what is on offer to people with convictions when it comes to the process of reintegration. For many from this demographic, construction is the easiest route back into work, though it isn’t a pathway that is right for everyone taking those first steps back into society.

But he noted the “massive appetite for more self-employment education and training in prisons”.

“There is a kind of genuine fear and trepidation among prison staff to promote viable routes into employment,” Mr Gullick said. “They are worried it’s very technical, that all businesses fail within so many months of being established…

“What we found over the eight years of working with RIFT is there’s a huge appetite for it among the prisoners themselves.”

Research from the Centre for Entrepreneurs noted that a huge number of people with convictions – around 80 percent – are interested in starting their own business or becoming self-employed upon their release.

That desire, the centre found, came as a result of wishing for the cycle of reoffending to be broken and the recognition that criminal records pose significant barriers to traditional employment.

“One of the reasons why it’s so popular is that there is a lot of entrepreneurial talent in prisons,” Mr Gullick continued.

“The example I like to use is, if you imagine somebody who’s running a drugs racket on the outside, they’ve got to manage a team of people… got to be involved in types of distribution, the finances that are involved. There is so much entrepreneurial talent that goes untapped in prison.

“And if we can help, we can fine-tune that and then focus on a legitimate income that is going to reduce the risk of reoffending.”

Another hurdle facing some as they explore routes back into work is the possession of a criminal record, something that has to be declared to an employer, creating challenges.

Mr Gullick said certain stereotypes about people with convictions still exist, including concerns over past behaviours re-emerging when they join the workforce. Struggling to secure references and gaps in CVs are other obstacles that need to be navigated.

“There are a lot of really intelligent, really savvy entrepreneurs in prison that if that talent is harnessed in the right way, can make a real success of a career on the outside,” he continued.

“It should become a really mainstream employment pathway for a lot of people with convictions, but it isn’t, and it’s overlooked for those reasons… I think if you’ve got the right people in prisons who can see that and recognise it and harness it, we would be halfway there.”

He noted how in one prison he worked in, there had been a huge workshop which focused on carpentry, with the men working there creating birdboxes and planters which would be sold to the staff. The role helped them redevelop a routine – having to get up on time, get to work, interact with colleagues, smell and look nice and not alienate others.

They soon created a social enterprise, with the support of a university, to get the people with convictions in the workshop more interested in how to set up their own DIY or carpentry business upon release. Skills like how to invoice, to price products, to quote for a service were all taught, generating enthusiasm about what was possible in the next stages of their lives.

He continued: “And it was so successful, but we need people within the prison to have the forethought and creativity… not everybody in prison wants to be a construction worker.”

Other work the organisation is proud of includes the three-year funding it received to work with women in prison, offering them access to self-employment services.

The self-employment workbook that is also being offered is accessible to people with convictions across the prison service, a tool that’s designed to be completed by those serving a sentence without the need for additional support of prison staff.

“What we have found is that it gets people really excited and motivated about their business idea while in prison,” Mr Gullick added.

“So it starts in prison and maintains that motivation… we’re seeing this as quite a disruptive way of not relying on classroom-based education and awareness around self-employment.”

Find out more about RIFT Social Enterprise here.