Back in 2008 when I was a permanent secretary in the civil service, my then secretary of state, John Denham announced to great applause that I had just recruited the first civil service modern apprentice – a young woman called Marzena Bujalska.
It turned out to be a defining moment more generally as employers realised the government was serious about apprenticeships, with a “do as we do, not just as we say” approach.
I am delighted that Marzena has since thrived and is now a departmental team leader. Thousands of other apprentices have also been given great chances through civil service careers. Each subsequent government has set out to turbo charge apprenticeship policy and the civil service has benefitted immeasurably from an increased diversity of talent.
But employing that first apprentice was not easy. The civil service’s own rules militated against it, because an untrained apprentice would never win an open competition against more qualified candidates. There was deep scepticism within the system, and there were no HR processes to make it happen, for example to target potential apprentice recruits and then support them through their training into permanent roles. But political will and persistent leadership fixed that, and through the efforts of Marzena and other early pioneers, that scepticism has been overturned.
Ten years on, as chair of the civil service commission, I now challenge the civil service to do the same for the employment of offenders as we did for apprentices in 2008.
Employing people with a criminal record is one of our top four priorities. The ministers and departments that I have spoken to so far are supportive and the regional civil service in the north-west of England is keen to pilot it, and relevant civil society organisations think it’s a great idea, so I am hopeful.
The prize is enormous given the long term stubborn refusal for reoffending rates to fall significantly. I believe a chance at employment within the civil service could be pivotal. Every offender employed by the civil service will have a chance to turn their life around; they in turn will help other offenders get employment and much needed support. The civil service will become more broadly representative of the society it serves and other employers will, we hope, follow this lead.
I know from experience that if employment of apprentices was hard to crack, then this will be so much harder, both for the individual offender, for whom there are so many obstacles and frustrations, and for the system at large.
Full implementation of the Ban the Box programme, which asks employers to remove the criminal record disclosure tick box from their job application forms will help greatly but we will need more to be done.
The commission is committed to allowing offenders to apply for jobs through an exception route, as is now normal for apprentices. But it will also take political will, strong civil service leadership prepared to knock down those many obstacles, some bravery from security and HR officials when undertaking pre-employment checks on those with criminal records, and collective courage to stay the course when not every situation works out.
The Ministry of Justice and its wider offender management system has a critical role to play, and I am convinced they will, but this involves many, if not all, civil service departments. In my experience they will need to think big, start small, learn lessons and then scale up, just as we did 10 years ago. If together we can do that, we can unlock not just the prison doors when an offender seeks rehabilitation.
From my time in No 10 in 2004 and in all my subsequent civil service roles I have seen the crucial importance of employment to offenders seeking a second chance. The civil service has an opportunity to make a real difference here and I am delighted to be able to be a champion for it.
Ian Watmore is the first civil service commissioner and chairs the civil service commission, the statutory body with responsibility for appointment on merit to the civil service.
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