{"id":44185,"date":"2022-10-18T12:05:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T12:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/?p=44185"},"modified":"2022-10-19T08:27:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T08:27:11","slug":"iceland-offender-recruitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/2022\/10\/18\/iceland-offender-recruitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland&#8217;s ex-offender recruitment scheme gets underway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\nIceland Foods is continuing its initiative in supporting prisoners and ex-offenders to find and secure employment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iceland.co.uk\/?&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=Iceland+%7C+Brand++%7C+Brand+Keyword+Incremental+Test&amp;utm_term=iceland&amp;utm_content=Brand+Keyword+Incremental+Test+%7C+%5Biceland%5D&amp;source=ppc&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwnbmaBhD-ARIsAGTPcfW9kNBP_NTiu1_GdMb6W39YHen0IE0XzJnGnXIt0WDKqI8oWtg2sDgaAh0XEALw_wcB&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The frozen goods retailer<\/a> appointed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/?p=44185&amp;preview=true\">Paul Cowley as its first-ever director of rehabilitation<\/a> back in August, a role which involves recruiting ex-offenders to work in Iceland&#8217;s stores and warehouses.<\/p>\n<p>As an ex-convict himself, Cowley founded the charity Caring for Ex-offenders in 2005 which has helped over 2,000 men and women to reintegrate back into society.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/subscribe-to-newsletter\/?utm_source=Article&amp;utm_medium=InStLink\"><strong>For the latest Iceland news directly into your inbox,<br \/>\nsign up to Grocery Gazette\u2019s free daily newsletter here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With recruitment already underway, Cowley has been interviewing men and women at prisons across the country for roles in Iceland stores, with many other prisons keen to get involved.<\/p>\n<p>The recruitment scheme will be working alongside the Prison Employment Lead \u2013 a person employed by the government in every prison to develop connections between prisoners and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>According to data from the Ministry of Justice, gaining meaningful employment following release from prison can cut rates of re-offending by 50%.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/ministry-of-justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The ministerial department<\/a> also found that\u00a0two-thirds of prisoners have not been in employment prior to imprisonment, and almost three-quarters have no paid employment upon release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people in our prison system are poorly educated and have a bad or non-existent employment record. This is not always their fault and the cumulative effect upon the families, dependents and their mental health can be life threatening,&#8221; Paul Cowley said.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;This initiative by Iceland Foods will present a prison leaver not only with the hope of a job, but the hope of a new life. I\u2019m excited to be working with an innovative team who care about the marginalised and have the practical means to tap into the locked-up potential in our prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland Foods said: \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to welcome Paul on board as director of rehabilitation to help us continue our \u2018doing it right\u2019 efforts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Helping give former prisoners meaningful employment is not only helpful to our business but will pass on wider societal benefits that have been proven time and again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iceland Foods is continuing its initiative in supporting prisoners and ex-offenders to find and secure employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":44189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,3934,3928],"tags":[11278,2256,11276,816,1106,11279,10494,11277,83,3858,9539],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44185"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44217,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44185\/revisions\/44217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}