The Young Foundation is currently spending time with workless residents in Hodge Hill, Birmingham, to better understand their lives and experiences.

Today I’m in the city to spend the day with Adrian*, a 25 year old who has been looking for work for over a year. Adrian rents a run-down two bedroom terraced house in Washwood Heath. I knock on the door and he invites me in for a cup of tea. Adrian apologies for the state of the kitchen as he fishes the teabags out of the mugs with a fork. “The toilet fell through the ceiling,” he explains, indicating to a patched-up hole above us. “The whole place is falling apart.”

Adrian grew up outside Birmingham and had a troubled childhood. He was bullied at school and left when he was 16 with a “couple of Ds and a C at GCSE.” Adrian explained that he had fallen out with his mother and had been kicked out of home. “I was living in a broken old car. It’s kind of hard revising with no roof over your head.” In the nine years since leaving school Adrian has been in and out of work more times than he can remember. His first job was in a McDonald’s when he was 16. He has worked in offices, warehouses and call centres, doing everything from data entry, landscape gardening, to caring for people with learning difficulties.

Adrian is desperate to find a job at the moment. The mother of his son is threatening to withdraw access until he starts paying child support. “She’s told me that if I didn’t get a job then I couldn’t see my son. Every time I get knocked backed at a job interview I have to tell her. Every time. It gets hard. I just want to make my son proud.”

We finish our tea and head off to the local Job Centre Plus. As we walk Adrian complains that he is always walking. His Mum lives four miles away, his son four miles in the other direction and there is rarely money for bus fare. He pokes his finger through bottom of his shoe, showing me the wedges of sole that have  been worn away trudging around the city.

Adrian changes as we approach the Job Centre. The cocky, bubbly, funny young man I had spent the morning with is gone. He loses his confidence. He looks around anxiously and keeps his head down, avoiding eye contact. Everyone else is the same. The atmosphere is uncomfortable, bordering on threatening. Adrian tries to find a touch-screen monitor that works. After his third attempt, he starts to scan through the local job opportunities, “Account manager? Needs experience, I can’t do that. Printer? Can’t do that. Care taker? Needs experience, can’t do that. Team leader? I don’t even understand the job description, can’t do that. Cleaning? Not enough hours and I need to drive, can’t do that. Radiographers? Who the hell in this place is a qualified Radiographer? Security? Can’t do that, I’ve got a criminal record.”

Eventually, Adrian finds several jobs which he thinks he might be eligible for. He prints off the details and we walk to another employment support office where he can apply online.  As he goes through the web-based forms, Adrian is forced to declare his criminal record – damage to property and resisting arrest when he was younger. As soon as he enters these details, the screen tells him that there are no vacancies. This happens with all three jobs he tries to apply for. Adrian shakes his head, “A stupid mistake when I was younger. That’s all it was, a stupid mistake. And now I’m screwed for life because of it.”

On my way home that evening, I reflected on my notes from the day. Adrian’s experiences chime with many of the other life stories we have encountered during this project: poor quality housing, low levels of education stemming from bad experiences at school, the struggle to get by on benefits, the desperate desire to find a job, not just for the money but for the sense of personal pride and dignity. But beyond these similarities, what struck me most was the way that Adrian’s criminal record blocked him from even getting through an application form. There is a vast amount of evidence showing the importance of employment in reducing reoffending rates. Despite this knowledge, there is very little support offered to ex-offenders to find work. One of the ideas we are suggesting is  to develop ‘Deployers’ which support ex-offenders into employment prior to and after release and supports them and the employers in ensuring sustainable outcomes. To find out more, please have a look at our new publication ‘Turning the Corner’ which is available to download from our website.


For more on our worklessness project click here.