Who we are

“A proper job with a proper company”

Blue Sky Development and Regeneration is a social enterprise that employs ex-offenders and offers them a proper job in grounds maintenance and related areas.

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

What we are

Blue Sky is a social enterprise, a registered charity and a business reliant on commercial income. Our chosen sector of work is grounds maintenance where we act as sub-contractors to local authorities and their maintenance providers. The more our order book grows, the more jobs we can offer.

Where we are

Our blue uniforms can be seen in the parks and open spaces of Slough, Hounslow, Gloucester, Oxford, Wakefield, Manchester, NW England, the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Ealing and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. In partnership with the Groundwork Federation, we expect to develop into other areas in future.

Our purpose

Our purpose is to get ex-offenders into permanent jobs. We do this because employment has the single greatest impact on an individual’s likelihood of re-offending. And re-offending costs England and Wales over £11bn each year*. All too often, a young person emerges from a short time in prison to a life sentence of unemployment. Neither the financial nor the social costs of this are acceptable.

The results

Most Blue Sky employees have made good use of this opportunity to make a fresh start. More than half of those who successfully complete their Blue Sky contract have moved on to long term employment. You can read some of their stories here.

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