Impact Newsletter - February 2023

Our social impact in 2022

We’re proud to have supported more than 277,000 people with employment, skills, health, and wellbeing services in 2022, including helping more than 50,000 people back into work.

Thank you to all our customers and for everyone who has helped make a positive difference to so many lives. Find out more about our social impact on our website and read the stories that inspire all of team Ingeus and what we do.

2022 was a busy year and our mission to enable better lives, combined with our commitment to continuous improvement, meant striving to deliver even more social impact than in 2021!

Ingeus celebrates the hard work of employees on the Justice programmes

In Leicester, we hosted a “Lived Experience” event to celebrate and acknowledge the contribution made by those who help deliver our justice programmes, and heard first-hand the personal journeys of those with lived experience.

Ben Humphris, Ingeus Service User Involvement Lead, opened the event talking passionately about the Ingeus

Academy and the commitment to those who access our services.

Guest speakers shared powerful stories about the bravery it took to turn their lives around and how they achieved this through working for an organisation that believes in them. Others highlighted how important it was to have an opportunity where they could use their past experiences to support others, like themselves, in their lives. The event also provided an opportunity for people on probation to feedback on the impact they felt on being supported by someone they could relate to on their rehabilitation journey.

The day was a huge success with those in attendance feeling inspired and proud to work alongside such remarkable colleagues.

A stepping stone to success

If you’ve never worked before, getting a foot on the career ladder can be a real challenge. This can be disheartening, but there is a way to bridge the gap. Becoming a volunteer can boost your confidence and self-esteem as you learn new skills and notch up that all-important work experience for your CV.

Single mum Pranom, 45, had many obstacles in her path when she was referred to the Restart Scheme, delivered by Ingeus, for help to find a job. Pranom had never worked before and was struggling with the language barrier, having recently moved to England. On top of that, she was experiencing health problems that affected her day-to-day life.

Now Pranom, of Cheetham Hill, is getting a taste of the working world after becoming a volunteer for a charity shop. While the Restart Scheme was set up to help people find paid work, Pranom needed a steppingstone to improve her confidence and communication skills and prepare her for a future career.

Pranom admits to feeling apprehensive before her first appointment with Ingeus. She says: “I was a single parent living with my

son and had health problems like depression, which I still have. At the time, I felt nervous and wasn’t comfortable going, as that’s what I’m usually like when first going to a place that I don’t know.”

Restart Advisor Abigail worked to reassure Pranom and signposted her to local arts and crafts clubs to help her keep busy and make new friends. As the language barrier was holding Pranom back from finding a job, Abigail helped her to apply for

an English-speaking course at an adult learning centre. Understanding the benefits of volunteering, Abigail arranged for Pranom to attend an interview for a voluntary role at a charity shop – and it proved to be the perfect fit.

“Abigail helped me find activities to keep me busy and help relieve my stress,” says Pranom. “She helped me with applying to an ESOL course and she also organised the interview with the charity shop. She really supported me and was great.”

I feel comfortable there and I enjoy volunteering. My son is very proud and happy, he knows that I am making a difference.”

Pranom

Pranom is now thoroughly enjoying her role at the charity shop and has grown in confidence. She says: “My role involves tidying and organising the store, communicating with customers and helping them. I feel comfortable there and I enjoy volunteering. My son is very proud and happy, he knows that I am making a difference.”

Filming new NCS content

Our team have been hard at work filming new content to promote all the fun and valuable skills available at National Citizen Service (NCS)!

Youth Engagement Advisors were on hand in their colourful branded hoodies to take centre stage and dazzle their audience with all things NCS.

Thank you to our partners, YHA England and Wales, and Entrust Education, for providing the space to film.

Who’s excited to see the finished project?

Showcasing our work during Student Volunteering Week

Student Volunteering Week ran from 13th-19th February, and is an initiative designed by the Student Volunteering Network to appreciate the impact young people’s generosity has and highlight the activities that have been taking place.

We took the opportunity, through a short video, to showcase young people’s volunteering, by compiling all the amazing activities our National Citizen Service (NCS) teens have been getting up to recently as they change the world!

Their volunteering activities include renovating public gardens, fancy dress walks, clean-up campaigns, sponsored sleeps, craft sessions, raffles, quizzes, face painting, donating to refugee and homeless charities, volunteering at animal shelters and loads more!

Our NCS teens even have ‘action days’ where they dedicate a whole day to making a positive difference in their local communities.

Keep an eye on our YouTube channel to stay up to date with all the incredible efforts NCS teens embark on.

Did you know that volunteering is great way for you to feel good about yourself and make a difference in someone’s life or to your community?

What it means to be a Disability Confident

Leader

We attended the Flexpo Live Inclusive Workplace Event on 21st and 22nd February and had the opportunity to share what it means to be a Disability Confident Leader.

Ingeus has been a Disability Confident Leader for 6 years and have Disability Confident Champions that promote the scheme both internally and externally. From empowering our own workforce and supporting thousands of disabled and disadvantaged people into work each year, to mentoring other employers to become Disability

Confident so that they can recruit and retain talent people, we walk the talk when it comes to unlocking the potential of people with disabilities.

Grant Neems, Director of Employer Services at Ingeus and champion of the Disability Confident scheme, tells us more in the full video which you can find on our YouTube channel.

Justice employee reaches 1000th enrolment milestone

Ingeus employee, Daren Ramsdale, has been working on the Justice divisions’ CF03 contract from the start 2015 in the East Midlands, and has just recently passed his 1000th enrolment milestone!

Darren’s job is not an easy one, and it sees him supporting many participants, with very complex needs, in preparation for their release to the community. Darren understands that an individual approach needs to be delivered to ensure the participant’s specific needs. This has led to Darren delivering 730 training sessions and 900 specialist supportive measures. His specialist approach is invaluable for the prisoners struggling with mental health, substance misuse and a range of other complex needs. Due to Darren’s huge success, HMP Ranby see CF03 as an essential service implemented by Ingeus.

Ambitious Aidan is one bright spark! Ingeus IT expert goes the extra mile

Aidan Quilty’s career path may have taken an unexpected direction – but he’s in his element now. After gaining a distinction in his City & Guilds electrician’s course, Aidan thought his future was all mapped out. Finding an apprenticeship, however, was “like playing lucky dip”

He spent three years as a production operative with a manufacturing company while searching for an electrician’s apprenticeship. A brief stint with the IT team generated the spark of an idea that would change the course of Aidan’s career.

“I’ve always liked computing –I enjoy being able to use my brain to troubleshoot and work things out,” says the 29-year-old father-of-three from Birmingham. “In my past job on the production line, I was doing the same thing every day and I got bored. I was always tired because I was working shifts. My partner was having a baby at the time, and I knew I needed to make a career switch.”

Aidan completed two apprenticeships as an IT technician and IT support officer, working at his old secondary school. This was followed by a brief spell with the NHS in Dorchester before Aidan and his family returned to Birmingham.

“When I came back, I had lots of interviews, but the Ingeus manager really sold it to me,” says Aidan. “She said there are ample opportunities for growth and development. I knew the job had potential.”

Aidan joined Ingeus as a first-line IT service desk analyst in July 2021 and pulled out all the stops. Within six

weeks he successfully applied for a second-line analyst role. He became a desktop support engineer, and a year later, was promoted to his current role of IT technical lead engineer.

“It’s a big team and I thought there’s going to be competition and a lot of people wanting to get to the next level. I made sure I was doing additional work to prove myself. I took on a hardware role, sending laptops to new starters. It felt natural to get involved with everything. If you just do the job you’re paid to do, you’re not going to stand out.”

Aidan took several courses on LinkedIn to gain extra skills and is also making use of training opportunities offered by Ingeus. “There’s a lot of support here and courses are readily available,” Aidan says. “I’m doing an ITIL course, funded by the business. There’s lots of internal training covering IT and data protection. I’m also doing a Microsoft Azure admin certification.”

So, what does a typical day look like for Aidan, as technical lead for both the first and second-line service desk? He says: “I work with the team leaders and service delivery manager. I start early and check the services are up and running. We have a general meeting about the issues, looking at the workflow and seeing where

we need to prioritise and spend our efforts. It’s quite complex because there are a lot of different contracts Ingeus delivers. I like the challenge, it’s not straightforward. It’s a good team and you’re always learning new skills.” Aidan enjoys solving problems to make life easier for his colleagues, especially new starters getting used to Ingeus technology. He says: “My work ethic is to try to improve the process of how we do things, instead of just fixing something that’s a recurring problem. I try to eradicate the problem altogether.”

For Aidan, IT is a career passion: “You’ve got to be willing to put the extra effort in to learn because IT changes so quickly,” he says. “If you just do it because you want a job, you will struggle to go far.”

It’s a rewarding career and a far cry from those days at the factory, when Aidan often found himself watching the clock. He says: “Since I came into IT, I’ve never had a day where it’s dragging or I think ‘get me out of here’. It goes too quickly if anything!”

Getting to know you...

Mike Collins, Operations Head of Integration for Restart Scheme

Central and West London

This month, we’re putting Mike Collins in the spotlight, to hear about his as Head of Integration for Restart Scheme Central and West London.

Mike says: “I lead a team of Integration Leads and Partnerships Managers in London, linking in with external stakeholders to represent Ingeus in key forums as well as open doors to our participants with expert organisations outside of our own delivery.

I love the variety of the role – literally no day or meeting is the same – as well as the ability to work across 14 of our Restart Scheme offices in London.

It can be hard to negotiate the external landscape, but I have an amazing team that go the extra mile in being the face of Ingeus.”

We asked Mike a range of life’s essentials this or that questions:

Summer or winter?

Summer, so long as it’s not raining

Chocolate or sweets? Probably Chocolates

Night or morning?

Night – my best work is done in the evenings!

City or countryside? City

Cats or dogs?

Cats – I have a 3-year-old tabby called Benji

Dressed up or casual?

Dressed up

Phone calls or emails? Both have different pros (and cons) – probably Emails though

Books or films?

Books

Night out or night in?

Night out, so long as I get 8 hours sleep

Holidays or home comforts? Holidays, the more the merrier