AWARD WINNER 2024-25

Initial Recommendation

This nomination followed an initial recommendation from Nicola Youngman, Industrial Manager

Harjit, known to all as Gill, has always had a phenomenal work ethic and a willingness to help change lives of his prisoners.  Gill strives towards offering life changing opportunities for some of the most challenging and violent offenders in Brinsford.  He offers them hope for the future by teaching them vital life skills as well as employability skills, all while maintaining the Tree Nursery which is one of only 9 within the prison estates and growing the first ever produce in the greenhouses here at Brinsford.  He is showing the young adults how to grow their own and continues to explain and support the sustainability ethos of the community within the establishment.  He allows his young adults to use their initiative while they learn from their mistakes to achieve the correct outcome, many of the young adults I have spoken to explain that they have never been trusted or supported like this before and how this has had such a strong influence on them and this is all due to Gill’s desire to make a difference and promote decency.

Gill has single handedly set up our tree nursery and maintained the area, supported by IRCPE, here at Brinsford.  This is part of the DEFRA project where we are growing tens of thousands of trees, in only 9 prison estates, to support HMPPS sustainability plan.  Here at Brinsford we continue to grow around 10,000 saplings all at different stages of development and we had our first yield ready to be planted throughout the Ministry of Justice sites.

Gill explains to the prisoners exactly why we need to grow and plant trees as well as teaching them how to nurture something from seed to saplings.  These skills are starting to have very positive impressions on our young men where they are able to understand that these skills are transferable into life upon release.

This year Gill and the establishment entered the Windlesham trophy for the first time since 2014, he totally left the design to his young adults and they had so much fun designing the area and learnt so much from the process, they identified the employability skills and functional skills they learnt and used throughout the competition.  They are waiting to hear the outcome from the judging, this year’s theme was ‘HOT’ and they decided to do this on ‘Climate Change’ as it is a hot topic in the news.  The judges were very impressed!

Gill always has a smile on his face and a willingness to help others, it is his enthusiasm for wanting to help change lives that shines through.  He sets clear goals for his work party by explaining the Intent – Why are we doing this task, Implementation – How are we going to complete the task and Impact – What are we going to gain from it.

Gill’s attitude and interpersonal skills have ensured that the prisoners have a reason to get up in the morning and a real hope for the future, they are keen to attend his work party and this is evidenced by his attendance figures.  I have spoken to his work party and they cannot speak highly enough about Gill and how his simple yet effective ideas have changed their perception of work and learning.

Gill believes that every prisoner has the ability to succeed and has worked with some very difficult offenders and due to Gill never giving up on those challenging individuals they have gone onto completing qualifications in education and then onto employment upon release.

Supporting Documentation

Sign Off

Gill is one of our amazing Instructors at Brinsford.  He stands out as he genuinely believes in what he does, he is calm and has the most incredible patience.  The way in which he nurtures his work party is parallel to the plants and trees they grow.  He will bring out the best in the young people building their confidence and knowledge by explaining every piece of work with careful precision.  Gill has shown initiative by introducing both reading and writing through peer support.  He has introduced this in a gentle way aligned to the job in hand, subtle yet very powerful.  I am thrilled that Gill has been recognised for his dedication to working with young people.  He really is one in a million.

Amanda Hughes

Governor, HMP & YOI Brinsford