Lincoln Prison CITB Health, Safety, and Environment (CSCS) Test Centre

Overview: 

CITB Health, Safety, and Environment test (commonly known as the CSCS test) centre at HMP Lincoln – the first ever testing centre in such an environment. 

Our Role:

The GSP has been working in Prisons throughout the country for some time under our contract with the MOJ. Initially delivering only the L 1 H&S in a Construction Environment course and preparation for the CITB Health, Safety, and Environment test so learners could take their test proper at a local testing centre upon release, we have extended our profile to deliver NDTG Demolition and Traffic Management courses. Due to volume of learners, we were delivering to at HMP Lincoln, we decided to approach CITB and Pearson Vue to enable us to open a testing centre within the Prison. Despite the reluctance on the part of CITB and Pearson Vue to discuss such at first which was mainly due to no other such centre existed in a similar environment, we persevered and eventually were given the “green Light” to open a testing centre, after some 18 months of deliberation, in the first week in November 2021. This allowed us to complete the whole “learner journey” in house with learners getting their CSCS card on release prior to starting the work opportunity we arranged for them with local employers.

Current Situation, Facts and Figures:

• Up to Feb 2025, we have taken over over 848 inmates spanning over 5yrs through their CITB Health, Safety, and Environment test (post attainment of the L 1 Award).
• 626 have come through the CITB PearsonVue test centre within HMP Lincoln
• Our first-time pass rate for inmates taking the test is 95% with those who failed at their first attempt being booked in for a re-sit and passing.
• Succesfully  delivered over 1000+ Lv1 Health and safety in construction environment training
• We feel that our excellent success rate is a direct product of the way we deliver process.
• The delivery profile is as follows:
• Learners are delivered the L 1 H&S in a Construction Environment course which is subject to review throughout the delivery process to ensure underpinning knowledge is embedded.
• Post attainment of the L 1 award, learners are then given a introduction to the variables of what they may need to address during their H&S&E test including Mock test and group testing utillising CITB's Simulated test questions.
• This is followed by the learners sitting simulated tests until they pass 3 in a row and then doing their Main test.
• Please refer to “Ryan’s story” on our website as he was the first learner to achieve. 

Concluding statement:

We consider that our excellent pass rate of the CITB Health, Safety & Environment test is atypical rather than typical in profile. The average commercial testing centre has a success rate of circa 60% of those passing first time. Although we are delivering within a controlled environment, the learners in any environment, do not the content of their test so, from our point of view, it comes down to preparation of those we engage with. It is our intention to open similar testing centres in other Prisons and we will update members on such in due course. 

CITB Joint Initiative Project

Funding Value £340,000

Overview - To enage with unemployed construction workers and bring them back into employment through retraining & upskilling 

Our Role:
To place 300 returning construction workers into a minimum of a 2 week work placement (Paid or Unpaid) 
150 returning construction workers to move on from work placement into Employment.
100 returning construction workers to achieve sustainable Employment or back into education or Training.

Working with our partner groups of the GSP  enabled us to deliver on our Outcomes early .Our structures we put in place enabled us to move 94% of those that we put into WorkPlacements to move into Employment. (Exceeding Outcome).
We achieved our 100 sustained employment Outcomes before end of contract. Continuation of tracking the returners saw the figure of 100 be exceeded . 

Final figures for all          Outcome VS Profile 
                                Outcome                    Profile
Work placements       300                            300
Job Starts                   282                            150
Sustained                   100                            100

Overview of contract 
What worked well
Diversity  , 91.6% Male  - 8.4% female
4.3% were ex offenders ,  with 100% progression into employment
Various Trades:  12.5 % into Plant , Dry Lining 9% , Management 1%
Engagement with supply chain
Industry led approach
Positive Case studies
Employer Incentive Fund
Strong Labour Market Intelligence (LMI)
Project Management and rigour

Emotional Intelligence Course

The GSP ran a 5 day E.I course in partnership with Tower Hamletts Leaving care team, SkillsMatch and the Workpath project.

6 young people attended and completed the course, examples of their course work can be seen below. Feedback from just one of the students below :

"Hi Stuart,

It has been a pleasure to be in this course and I've learnt a lot!!
Good luck and all the on your journey too.

Kind regards 
Nowshad "

BTEC Level 1 Certificate - Introduction to Construction Skills QCF

This course was run at the Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara Sikh centre in Bath Road Slough. A new centre that was opened by former PM David Cameron in 2015, it has multiple uses including both indoor and outdoor training facilities. The course, as stated above, was an introduction to Construction Skills with the awarding body being Pearson Edexcel. This course, in the main, is directed at younger learners (14 plus) but, in this instance, was delivered to older learners whose ages ranged from 35 through to 75. There was 7 male learners and 1 female learner on the course.

Course Overview

Being an introduction to Construction skills, it covered variables of skill set required to enter the Construction sector. These included: Brick and Block work; Plastering and Rendering skills; Basic Woodwork; Plumbing operations and Basic electrics. This was augmented with an understanding of H&S in the Construction sector.

Outcome

The course proved to be highly successful with all learners achieving a L 1 BTEC Certificate upon completion of such. All collated evidence from their endeavours were recorded in their own personal portfolios and went through both formative, and summative, assessment and verification processes.

Course in Health & Saftey and Decorative Occupations (TQUK Endorsed)

Arlington House in Camden is one of the largest homeless shelters in Europe with over 100 rooms for those who have disengaged, via variables of reasons, from society norm. It offers both physical and phycological help for all those who live there and, as part of  this agenda, the Green Skills Partnership were asked to engage with the tenants of the facility to give them some skill sets that would help them gain employment status upon completion.

Course Overview

This particular course was directed at the decorative sector but, unlike traditional course encompassed such deliberations as broken colour work, application of glazes and marbling. Traditional skill sets were also addressed that included preparing surfaces for decoration and the application of variables of paints to multiple surfaces. It also deliberated over fine detail techniques required when, for instance, painting glazed windows.

Outcome

All learners completed the course to a successful outcome and were awarded a certificate via the Green Skills Partnership and the associated awarding body TQUK. Feedback from the learners was very positive in content and, indeed, one learner on the course gained employment as the result of his acquisition of new skill sets (see letter of confirmation). The main aim of the course, apart from the practical side, was to give all those engaged a new focus and enhance their own perception of themselves as, after all, many felt there was no direction in their life.  We do not, in any way, say that we can change a person’s life chances through going onto one of our courses rather than say, “every little bit helps”