We are big fans of entrepreneurship. It can offer opportunities standard employment cannot, especially for many non-typical demographics. We sat down with David Morgan from Entrepreneurs Unlocked to find out how his social enterprise is helping people discover a productive life beyond prison to slash spiralling reoffending rates.

David said: “The vision for Entrepreneurs Unlocked is to change futures through entrepreneurship. We primarily work with people in prison and on probation in the north west to utilise their skills and talent so they can earn a living as a self-employed person.”

David has working in prison education since 2011, latterly as national lead on enterprise and self-employment with a large scale provider in 25 prisons, before deciding to make the leap to become a social entrepreneur himself with Entrepreneurs Unlocked in 2019.

The catalyst was a trip to America in 2018.

“I spent a month looking at best practice entrepreneur programs in an American environment. They had some very challenging reoffending rates, high incarceration rates.

“But there were some pockets of really fantastic programmes in prisons and the community where reoffending rates were less than 10% compared to an average of 50%. I spent a month traveling from New York to Washington, to Nebraska, California, Carolina, and it was almost like an epiphany.

“The only way I could get that done is to do it myself so, I made the leap. Within two weeks, I set up the social enterprise and started getting work through my contacts.”

Self-employment is also an appealing and practical option for some prison leavers who might struggle to find work in conventional businesses.

“There are still some prejudices in the labour market, companies not wanting to take on a person with convictions. I’m finding many prison leavers are neurodiverse but do they have entrepreneurial skills. They don’t work and think in the way someone who might work for somebody else does, in terms of their working hours, work patterns or creativity.

“Working for themselves has that freedom to work part time if they’ve got caring responsibilities or are in training.

“And quite a few former prisoners maybe don’t want to be told what to do anymore, they have that freedom to make their own choices.

“The people we work with are creative – what we call ‘the disruptors’ – but they’ve had a poor experience at school because the way they learn and think. They were sort of excluded, which resulted in low levels of literacy and numeracy but are really clever in other areas: they might be good with their hands, good with the way they speak to people, but wouldn’t be able to go for a job that looked for academic qualifications and experience.

Entrepreneurs Unlocked goes to talk to people in prisons or on probation to open their eyes to the possibility of self-employment to earn an income upon release.

“We give them the highs and the lows. It may not be as easy as they think, but it could still be right for them. About 20% of the people say not for me. Others ran businesses before but did not trade legally. If they want to know more, we run programmes talking about tax, insurance and marketing and sales and then help them get training.

“In the next 12 months, we looking to offer more practical support – workshops in the community, business start-up incubators – in Bolton and Salford.”

Around a fifth of the work Entrepreneurs Unlocked carries out is post release with the ability for former prisoners able to get referred through the Probation Service to continue that support to set up, get trading and earning an income which in turn reduces the risk of them reoffending.

Reoffending costs the UK economy £18bn a year, around 30-35% reoffend within a year rising to 60-65% for shorter sentences. Less that 25% of people who get released are in work.

In its first year, Entrepreneurs Unlocked helped 100 people. This year it has supported over 350 through talks, accessing learning programmes, and one-to-one coaching sessions.

Around a quarter of people David has worked with on probation have set up their own business or found work through renewed confidence with programme has given them after they realise self-employment isn’t for them. And crucially, the reoffending rates are less that 20%.

While the majority of Entrepreneurs Unlocked’s clients choose to become sole traders, some choose to work for the good of the community.

David said: “A small percentage look at starting CICs themselves. They experienced a gap in services for health care, drug and alcohol addiction, or homelessness, and want to give back, maybe solve the problem that they came across.

“Generally, the trades and practical businesses are very popular: carpentry, painting and decorating, landscape gardening, catering, personal training and online businesses.

“Often, they have the idea and the skills but they don’t necessarily have the knowledge to put it all together in a plan. It’s about trying to develop a positive peer network and I can connect them to like-minded individuals within my networks.

“The people we help frequently say: ‘If we had known this stuff, then we probably wouldn’t have done the things we’ve done. We didn’t realise there was support out there’.”

Mark* was a prolific offender for the majority of his life. He was charged with importing class A drugs and was sentenced to 16 years in custody.

­­­­­­He was interested in running his own bespoke furniture business but lacked motivation and was lost to what his next steps would be.

He was referred to Entrepreneurs Unlocked for tailored self-employment support.

David said: “Working in partnership with his case manager, we met every two weeks in which we completed work on his business plan, created logos, created business cards, obtained his UTR number, created social media pages, and went through how to complete invoices/ submit his yearly self-assessment.

“He has now started his own business as a bespoke furniture maker and flooring sander; he remains hopeful that this will be a long-term career and now feels more confident navigating life while being self-employed.”

Entrepreneurs Unlocked is helping former criminals go – and stay – straight.

David summed it up: “We recognise that people in prison or on probation need to have a positive outcome. And we say, who would you rather live next to: someone who is going to commit more crime, create more victims of crime and cost the country money or next to an entrepreneur and business owner?”

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*We have changed his name to protect his anonymity