About us

About Blue SkyBlue Sky Development & Regeneration is a not-for-profit company established by the charity Groundwork Thames Valley. It was set up to give paid work to people coming out of prison, to enable them to move successfully into long-term employment.

Blue Sky’s mission is to help break the cycle of re-offending and achieve long-term benefits for society.

A proper job with a proper company

  • Blue Sky is a social enterprise, registered as both a company limited by guarantee and a charity
  • Blue Sky employs solely ex-offenders in grounds maintenance and related work
  • Our employees work in teams of 4-6 people with one supervisor
  • Each team supervisor is also an ex-offender; he/she acts as a mentor and leads by example
  • Blue Sky provides a skilled workforce in an employment sector where demand is high
  • Currently Blue Sky’s commercial contracts meet approximately 60% of its running costs

Read more about Blue Sky in this recent independent evaluation report: (PDF document)

England and Wales release 90,000 prisoners each year; 60% of prisoners re-offend within 2 years.            Re-offending costs England and Wales £12 billion each year.            Employment reduces re-offending by 33-50% but 75% of ex-offenders have no job on release.

Source: “Reducing Re-Offending by Ex-Prisoners” produced by the Social Exclusion Unit in 2002.