AMONG organisations sub-contracted by the 18 firms which run the Work Programme for the Government is charity Blue Sky, which provides employment for people with criminal records.

Ministers hope such voluntary community groups will bring specialist knowledge of hard-to-reach groups to work to complement people placed in conventional private firms.

In Oxford, Mohamed Ameen, 32, and Paul Strong, 36, are in the programme doing garden work, including a stint this week in the city’s Florence Park.

Mr Strong – who came out of prison in May after two years and eight months for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply – started this month.

He said: “It keeps you out of trouble and gets you back to work. It puts you back on the straight and narrow. It is a good thing.”

Oxford supervisor David Collier said: “Everyone starts as an amateur and they work their way up. You see them progress. It keeps them out of trouble.”

Director Steve Finn said 62 per cent of its 65 UK employees were still working after six months.

He said: “We only get a reward because we keep them for six months. “Some of these guys haven’t worked for a long time, some are in the work programme because they don’t want to work. I get them and say ‘here’s the ball, run with it’.”