Iceland Foods is in talks with the Ministry of Justice over plans to introduce its ‘Second Chance’ prison leaver rehabilitation scheme to businesses across the country as way of helping to bring down the UK’s soaring prison population.
The supermarket’s head of rehabilitation Paul Cowley and executive chairman Richard Walker met with justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and prisons minister James Timpson on 10 October to present a “blueprint” of how Iceland has developed and grown its in-house scheme since it launched in 2022.
The Grocer understands ministers are keen to work with more businesses as a way of reducing reoffending rates and are set to present the Iceland blueprint to interested business leaders at a House of Lords event in late November.
Britain’s already overcrowded prisons have come under renewed spotlight under the new Labour government following a series of recent scandals over poor conditions inside. The uptick in convictions following the summer’s right-wing riots further increased pressure to reduce numbers.
Iceland is one of a number of food and drink businesses to run programmes dedicated to employing prison leavers. Others include Booths, Wagamama and Cook, which last week celebrated 10 years of its in-house Raw Talent scheme.
Timpson – of which James Timpson is CEO – also operates its own employment scheme for prison leavers.
Iceland’s is understood to be of particular interest due to the supermarket’s size and nationwide reach.
The supermarket has hired more than 300 prison leavers in the 18 months since the scheme launched, giving them roles across its stores, distribution network and the Piccolino restaurant chain it owns.
Iceland ramping up rehabilitation scheme
Iceland co-owners, the Walker and Dhaliwal families, have set the long-term target of having 10% of its organisation being made up of people from deprived backgrounds – be that prison leavers, caregivers or people who have grown up in lower-income households.
Cowley, who joined the business in 2022, told The Grocer in a separate interview last month that he was actively looking to recruit additional people to the Iceland head office team to help grow the programme.
“It’s a big target, ambitious therefore, but anything else would be slightly boring,” he said.
“We certainly have to have a serious talk about growing, because at the moment it’s just me and the HR team helping me.
Cowley typically visits four prisons a week to meet potential candidates, alongside a dedicated admin day each week. He designed Iceland’s Second Chance scheme in partnership with Iceland HR director Helen Tindle.
Iceland’s blueprint would be an “idiot’s guide” of what companies needed to know, and how to launch their own in-house rehabilitation schemes, based on Iceland’s own learnings, Cowley said.
“Some companies want to do it but don’t know how, others are scared,” Cowley said.
“This is an A-Z of how you do this stuff. It’s from when I was hired to where we are now, and where we want to go. It explains how we’re doing it, what’s needed, what you need to do as an organisation to do it properly.
“One of the statistics is that if you give people coming out of prison a proper job, then it reduces reoffending. That’s the bit we can do constantly, that’s the lane I want to stay in now,” Cowley said.
The Ministry of Justice and Iceland declined to comment further when contacted by The Grocer.
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