Team’s award for giving offenders their big break

An Oldham team which supports thousands of offenders and ex-offenders move into training and work has been highly commended at a national award ceremony.

Work Solutions received the commendation at the Regeneration and Renewal Awards for its pioneering projects with offenders.

The not-for-profit organisation performed strongly against some of the most well known regeneration agencies in the country in the “award for tackling worklessness” category at the ceremony in London last week.

The team works from probation service offices and prisons across Greater Manchester helping more than 7,000 offenders every year, including more than 200 in Oldham last year.

Work Solutions’s operations manager Dave McDonald said: “If we are serious about helping everyone back into work, then we have to help offenders take those important steps towards employment and away from crime.

“The fact that we’ve helped so many into work this year is proof of our results.

“I am very proud that this work has been recognised on a national level.”

In choosing the winning entry, judges were told about Work Solutions’s innovative “thinking skills for the workplace” scheme, trialled in Oldham, which has supported more than 100 offenders with anger management and communication issues.

It is believed to be the first time such a scheme has been delivered outside a prison in the UK.

Another project gets offenders employed on a construction enterprise scheme.