After decades of putting offenders behind bars, a former police chief is establishing a business to help them find jobs. Deputy Business Editor Dan Jenkins reports.

AS CHIEF Constable of Northumbria Police, Crispian Strachan enjoyed a hard-earned reputation as a tough crimefighter.

Only weeks after hanging up his uniform, he is back working with offenders, this time aiming to help them join mainstream society.

"The plan was to spend six months in the garden," he said, with a wry smile.

"But plans like that don't work out when you can see there is something else worth doing."

He has signed up as director of public sector development with Outsource Specialists Ltd (OSL), a new company based in the deprived Newcastle ward of Benwell.

The firm hopes to become a jobs broker, finding public sector vacancies for people with minor convictions or drink and drug problems, to help them become good citizens.

The potential market is enormous - Sir Peter Gershon's Government report on improving efficiency in the public sector recommended that up to 15 per cent of all public roles should be filled by what he called people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Mr Strachan said: "The Prison Service is working hard to provide life skills and employment for a lot of people whose only real crime is illiteracy.

"If they can be pulled back into society through jobs, there is an obligation to all to help and we will lead with our chin on this."

The work will include manual and semi-skilled labour on tasks such as cleaning public buildings, handyman contracts and landscape gardening.

By moving offenders into jobs, the scheme should decrease the tax burden by helping to cut re-offending rates and taking the long-term unemployed off benefits.

Mr Strachan, who spent 32 years in the police, said: "We think that would be good, not only for the individual, but also for society in the long run.

"We don't want to eat the fat off these organisations. We want to improve people's lives, and working with the public sector should be a good way of doing that."

The company has already signed up various support agencies as partners, so clients can access skills training, plus drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres in Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

The Gershon Review also offers other opportunities for private companies such as OSL to win more public sector business.

Sir Peter's report called for more efficient use of resources to free up bodies for front-line services.

The Government has already imposed a target of budget savings of 2.5 per cent per year for all departments, through efficiency drives.

OSL plans to set up a delivery service for internal mail for bodies such as the police and local authorities. It is in talks with three police forces over a document delivery scheme that aims to free up PCs and patrol cars.

Mr Strachan said: "Travelling between Teesside and County Durham at any one time there will be police vehicles, health service vehicles and maybe an education vehicle, all going back and forth, delivering correspondence. Individually, using a document delivery service might not figure in their plans, but by signing them all up together, the costs become more attractive."

OSL's managing director, Robert Starling, is also in talks with a large, unnamed, county police force, about providing security services for police stations.

At present, if an alarm goes off on police premises, a squad car has to respond, taking it away from front-line duties.

"They are taking a car and a police officer off the road to do what is effectively a housekeeping job," said Mr Strachan.

The firm was established in January, initially with a goal of providing total people management solutions for small to medium sized businesses.

This works by OSL taking on responsibility for a firm's HR, finance, training and recruitment, taking paperwork off the owner-manager and leaving him or her free to concentrate on developing their business.

The company will also provide facility management services, such as contract cleaning.

Mr Starling said: "We are trying to fill a niche left by the larger outsourcing specialists.

"Because of their size and scope, they are not able to offer these services to SMEs. It is particularly relevant in the North-East, because there are so many SMEs here.

"The UK tends to follow the States. Forty-nine per cent of US businesses embrace outsourcing, but in the UK, it is only at ten per cent.

"We have to educate people about what an effective management tool it can be, because it releases core resources to the front-line of the business.

"It is not about head count reduction, it is about harnessing resources where they are needed in a business, to make it more competitive."

For further details, visit the website, www.outsource.us. com