We’re delighted to share our 2023 Annual Report. With thanks to Serena Brown and Venetia Menzies for the photography, our Chair, Duncan Shrubsole, and CEO, Sian Williams.
Switchback’s Annual report 2023
A message from our Chair of Trustees, Duncan Shrubsole and our CEO, Sian Williams.
A criminal justice system in crisis
In March 2023, the UK prison population reached 99% of safe capacity, marking an unprecedented level of overcrowding. The continued underresourcing of both the prison and probation services prevented people serving a prison sentence from accessing the effective support needed to build a stable life on release. It’s striking that HM Inspectorate of Prisons failed to rate a single prison as “good” in 2022-23 for their work on rehabilitation and release planning. The unpredictability of early releases, intended to reduce overcrowding, also made it harder to plan timely support for housing and other essential needs. And when people were released, it was into an acutely challenging economic environment of a national housing crisis and rising living costs with minimal access to support or guidance.
Doing resettlement differently
Amongst the political and media noise surrounding this perfect storm, Switchback has continued to offer the consistent, reliable support that makes it possible for young men to live life differently after prison. 2023 was our busiest year yet, with 69 young men engaging as Switchback Trainees on our intensive twelve week mentoring programme. Despite all the challenges they faced, almost half of 2023’s cohort who completed the programme a year ago have already secured permanent work or long term training, giving them vital economic stability and a sense of belonging and purpose. At Switchback we want everyone leaving prison to receive the most appropriate support, and in this report you will learn more about our pilots to expand our reach. Alongside our intensive programme, we also worked with another 755 young men before or after release, ranging from coaching them to create their own resettlement plan, introducing them to relevant support services, or working with them to write a CV or apply for housing, training or work. And for the first time we accepted a government grant to be a Probation referral partner and are already seeing significantly greater engagement from probation officers and more referrals.
The power of including lived experience in policymaking
The impact data in this report clearly shows the power of providing consistent through-the-gate support, but it is the Trainees themselves who are the most persuasive advocates of the need for change. In June 2023, Switchback Experts by Experience (EbE) made a visible impact on the Minister for Prisons and Probation as they shared their experience and views about the benefit to Trainees and our society of our transformational post-release wraparound support and a phased introduction to work. In the year leading up to the General Election, we worked with our EbE Board to develop our costed National Resettlement Framework to share our proposals with the main political parties. Our evidence showed how investing in resettlement support services like Switchback’s can save the taxpayer significant sums, both through reducing the cost of an unnecessarily large prison estate and through supporting people leaving prison to make a positive contribution to society. At the time of writing this report, we are encouraged by the new Government’s early comments about the scale of the challenge and the need for systemic, sustainable solutions that prioritise effective resettlement. We particularly welcome the appointment of James Timpson as the Minister for Prisons, as it demonstrates a clear understanding of the need for sector expert involvement when tackling a problem of this scale. We look forward to working with him and the Ministry of Justice team in their renewed focus on tackling the crisis in our prisons.
Looking forward – scaling our impact in 2024 and beyond
We entered 2024 with a refreshed Board and Leadership Team, who together bring valuable skills and expertise and make us more representative both of the men we work alongside and of modern London. Our collective challenge in developing our next strategic plan is to consider how we can best scale our impact so that even more men can access the support they need to build a stable, rewarding life after prison. Alongside growing our team of highly skilled Switchback Mentors so we can directly support more men in London, we also want to build our capacity to share our person-centred, relational model with others working in this field. That includes employers who want to hire people leaving prison but struggle to know how to do that well. That’s why we are renewing our focus on sharing our model and insight, including developing a business model that enables sustainable sharing. If you’re interested in how we can help you offer transformational support to people leaving prison, we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you
Finally, as always, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to all our supporters and partners for your invaluable contribution to this work, encompassing everything from encouragement to funding, from practical guidance and advice to opportunities for Trainees, and much more besides. Your unwavering generosity and belief in our mission and model are what enable us to help even more men leaving prison to build a stable and rewarding life they can be proud of. As we enter a new chapter under a new Government, we feel increasingly hopeful that lasting systemic change towards effective resettlement policy and practice might be possible. We invite you to join us and the Switchback EbE Board as we continue our work to reshape the UK’s resettlement landscape and flip the script about living life differently on release.
Sian Williams, CEO
Duncan Shrubsole, Chair of Trustees
