Rehabilitation of Offenders Act - would anyone in HR give me their anonymous opinion on it?

[LadyBlaBlah]

I am working with some long term unemployed folk and it clear there is a lot of discrimination against offenders getting a second chance.

Is there anyone who works in HR / recruitment who would tell me a bit about the attitudes that exist towards offenders when recruiting?

Do you ever give people a chance basically? Or are there too many people applying for jobs so as not to bother with those who have a criminal record?

Anything you think about the act / your company's attitude to offenders etc etc would be most helpful

It all about what job they apply for, what the offence was and how long ago. I've recruited a warden with prostitution cautions but wouldn't take one with a violent or theft offence. Have employed a murderer for a semi-skilled job after he explained the nature of the murder & invited me to look at references to confirm what he said. Both recuits worked out well.

However these were both a few years ago. As you say, today there are far more applicants for jobs. I wouldn't go out of my way to employ an ex-offender but equally I wouldn't immediately forget their application; but they would have to be outstanding against other candidates and be totally honest with me.

I would never take on someone on with a recent conviction/ caution for anything involving violence.

Thanks for that.

I do wonder whether there should be some second chance schemes set up, some of these people are just stuck forever despite their best intentions and rehabilitation

I actually write reports recommending whether we employee people with a criminal record or not (off the back of their CRB). It really depends on what the job is and what the convictions are. I work for the local authoriity so we have a wide range of jobs. I will check if the person declared the conviction on their application form. Then we interview them usually to ask about the circumstances. There are no hard and fast rules really.

Most convictions I come across tend to be minor, driving type offences or shoplifting and they do not tend to be a problem. I also base the decision on when the offence took place and if there is any pattern.

I have recommended we don't employee people a couple of times only really and deal with hundreds of CRB checks. One was for a racially motivated crime in a public facing role. The other was a long criminal record over a significant period of time.

As you would expect we have a policy on the recruitment of offenders and give people the opportunity to discuss their convictions openly in either the interview or afterwards if it doesn't come to light until later. I doubt very much it would affect the interviewers decision but it must depend upon the circumstances to some degree. The decision is made in conjunction with HR.