Looking at employment - Nacro

Safer Society FEATURE Intermediate Labour Markets and Safer CommunitiesPhoto:Mark Harveyrepresents a significant cost. However, they do produceconsiderably better job outcomes than other programmes – 63%of Wise Group employees, for example, successfully find jobs.Direct cost comparisons with other government programmes,however, can be misleading. The work that ILMs do can producesurpluses that can be reinvested and other outcomes ofconsiderable benefit to local communities. It is also important toremember that the pooling and repackaging of different sourcesof funding can produce considerable added value in terms of thestrategic outcomes achieved.The relevance of ILMsto crime preventionA 1995 report by the Crime and Social Policy Committee,established by NACRO, considered the relationship betweenunemployment and crime and concluded that ‘unemploymentplays a vital part in generating circumstances in which crime canflourish and in undermining attempts to reduce crime.Conversely having a decent job or the prospect of one can be amajor factor in helping to steer individuals away from crime’(NACRO, 1995). It also emphasised the general importance ofmaximising employment not only as a desirable end in itself butbecause ‘it would have major benefits in reducing crime andwould greatly facilitate crime prevention efforts’.Significantly, the NACRO report also identified that ‘the issue ofwhere additional jobs will come from needs to be addressedmore comprehensively, not just as a means of reducingunemployment but also for the wider aim of crime preventionand to combat the marginalisation of certain sectors of society.’Much has happened to promote this approach since that reportwas written.Improving the employability of long-term unemployed peoplethrough Welfare to Work policies, an emphasis on lifelonglearning and measures to combat social exclusion are among thehighest priorities of the current Government. Local authoritiesand the police have now been required to developcomprehensive crime and disorder strategies. The opportunityhas therefore now been presented to link measures to combatunemployment with the development of crime and disorderstrategies at a local level.Preventing and reducing crimeand promoting community safetyMany of the measures that are likely to be included in localcrime and disorder strategies will require the creation ofadditional jobs. The recent Home Office research study‘Reducing Offending’ lists a range of evidence-based examplesof good practice across the crime prevention spectrum (HomeOffice, 1997). Situational crime prevention measures, forexample, such as target hardening, controlling access to crimetargets, city guards, attendants, rapid repair and graffiti cleaningwill require people to do them. ILMs have a role in providingrelevant services and products.Effective measures to prevent criminality by engaging withchildren, family and friends and schools will require additionalpeople to provide various types of support. Targetedemployment-related measures for ex-offenders, includingvocational training and literacy programmes to help reducereconviction rates, will need people to deliver them and supportindividuals through them. Some ILMs indeed do some of thiswork already but to date the development of this type of projecthas not been linked strategically to crime prevention strategies.There is some funding available specifically to develop andimplement local crime and disorder strategies but there isNACRO SAFER SOCIETY MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1999 18