What makes a PS Plus Beneficiary?

All PS Plus Beneficiaries are offenders who need assistance in finding Education, Training or Employment on release. PS Plus will have worked with over 80,000 Beneficiaries, in 15 Probation Areas and 41 Prison Establishments by the end of the project. This includes over 1000 disabled Beneficiaries and nearly 14,000 Beneficiaries from Ethnic Minorities.

TThe largest group of PS Plus Beneficiaries, approximately 40%, as shown in Fig. 1 - Time Spent Unemployed before starting PS Plus, have been unemployed for less than 6 months before starting the project but more than 1 in 3 Beneficiaries have been unemployed for over 3 years before PS Plus intervention.

Before a Beneficiary starts the project, as assessment is carried out to identify the needs of the Beneficiary. Fig. 2 - The Needs Of PS Plus Beneficiaries shows that 95% of PS Plus Beneficiaries required assistance in finding employment and 90% required assistance in finding education or training. Nearly 50% of PS Plus 2 Beneficiaries required help with housing issues and nearly 50% required help with drug issues.

Fig. 3 - Release Areas shows the release counties of PS Plus Beneficiaries – either the intended release area, for Beneficiaries in Prison Establishments, or actual area for Beneficiaries on Probation.

The high density release counties in the North West, Midlands and South West correlate to the number of Establishments or Probation Areas where the PS Plus project is delivered. PS Plus is delivered in 14 Establishments and 2 Probation Areas in the North West, 14 Establishments and 4 Probation Area in the Midlands and 7 Establishments and 1 Probation Area in the South West.

The PS Plus project has not yet delivered to any Establishments or Probation Areas in Scotland or Wales – although there are many Beneficiaries who intend to live there on release.

PS Plus is currently working with over 2000 Beneficiaries in London Probation, which reflects the high density around London.

What have PS Plus Beneficiaries Achieved?

Since September 2002, PS Plus has arranged over 3000 jobs for beneficiaries, nearly 3700 education or training courses. Figure 1, below, shows the best outcome from each Beneficiary on leaving the project – as it is possible for a Beneficiary to gain employment, a training course, qualifications as well as soft outcomes.

Every Beneficiary on PS Plus receives guidance, advice, support and mentoring.

As well as this, over 30,000 Beneficiaries have achieved other outcomes whilst on the project (Fig. 4 - Beneficiaries With Outcomes). 9% (2661) of these Beneficiaries have full-time, part-time or self employment on release, while 2% (547) have voluntary employment. 11% of the Beneficiaries (3419) have an education or training course to start on release.

Whilst on the project, a further 28% (8555) of the Beneficiaries have gained at least one qualification and over half (16515) of the Beneficiaries have gained a “soft outcome”.

The qualifications gained so far by PS Plus Beneficiaries can been seen in Fig. 5 - Qualifications Gained from Passed Exams.

7344 NVQ’s levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been achieved by PS Plus Beneficiaries. 5129 Qualifications below NVQ level and 7121 other qualifications have also been gained.

PS Plus Beneficiaries have achieved qualifications in a variety of academic and vocational subjects. The courses include: Adult Literacy, Numeracy and various IT courses to vocational courses, such as Fork Lift Truck Driving Licence, Health and Safety and First Aid.

Soft outcomes (Fig. 6 - Soft Outcomes Gained) range from making the Beneficiary more employable to addressing accommodation, motivation and drugs/alcohol dependency issues. PS Plus:

• Arranged places on Government Programmes for 9312 Beneficiaries
  
  
• Arranged job, further education or government programme interviews for 6340 Beneficiaries
  
  
• Assists in the writing of a C.V. for 4885 Beneficiaries
  
  
• Addressed accommodation needs for 3166 Beneficiaries
  
  
• Found suitable work experience for 2028 Beneficiary
  
  
• Assisted 7256 Beneficiary in other ways, for example utilising the Beneficiary Access Fund.