Barista Training and Employment Program for Prison Leavers in South London

Reed in Partnership is a national provider of government services, with 26 years' experience of supporting participants through delivery of employment, skills, health and justice contracts. In this time, we have supported 300,000 people into employment. Being part of the family-owned Reed Group, we also have access to an extensive employer network. Our mission is to positively transform people and their communities.

We support individuals, their families and the places they live to prosper - often under challenging circumstances. With our help, people start working, improve their health, develop their skills and fulfil their potential.

Reed in Partnership deliver HMPPS Creating Future Opportunities Evolution programme in South London: a single, integrated service that supports prison leavers as they transition from custody to community life. Our Community Hubs in Lewisham and Croydon offer co-designed, person-centred support to ex-offenders, helping them rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.

We are seeking to enhance our Community Hub provision through barista training provision to deliver end-to-end training and employment pathways in our Lewisham and Croydon premises. Initially, this will be a 12-month programme to support 132 service users to gain practical skills, confidence, and access to sustainable employment in the hospitality sector.

We invite Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from organisations with a proven track record in delivering inclusive, impactful barista training and employment services. Applicants must demonstrate experience and capability in the following: On-site face to face barista training - Including supervision and practical delivery at our hubs.

End-to-end delivery of training and employment pathways - Including training, CV writing, interview preparation, soft skills development, employment placement and casework support to move into, sustain and progress in work as a barista or other hospitality roles.

Successful experience working with and delivering outcomes for this client group - Applicants must have an understanding of inclusive and appropriate hiring practices for individuals with convictions and effective mechanisms for informing programme design/delivery through consulting those with lived experience of the criminal justice system.

Workplace safeguarding policies - Robust procedures to ensure safety and wellbeing. How to respond to this invitation: Please complete and submit this EOI: https://forms.office.com/e/M6uu39FP0m by the 12th August 2025, 6pm. Contact partner.network@reed.com should you have questions.

For information on how we score our EOIs and work with partners, visit https://reedinpartnership.co.uk/partners/ This EOI does not constitute an offer to work with your organisation but is the first stage in our selection process. For organisations successful at EOI stage, we will undertake further due diligence and commercial pricing analysis to make our final selection of partners.