Fran Findlater

Case Study

How would you like to be described?

I was most flattered when someone called me a disrupter – but otherwise colourfully and creatively caring – an unlikely Founder of a Prison Charity.

How would you describe what you do?

I work with a great team to try to change the lives of people leaving prison but also explore innovation and new trends that people leaving prison can benefit from – ultimately I want to be sure that we can help them to be the best they can be and give them opportunities to get into work that they might not otherwise have.

What is your greatest achievement?

Always striving out on my own – from writing a book – building a house, selling my business to a large corporate – I felt rather brilliant, there were 3 of us and it was hard work to get there – but we did and then starting the charity – a real surprise – not what I thought I would be doing. It started as a decorating charity employing people who left prison. The first participant from 8 years ago now runs it. Then there are loads of other achievements – entirely down to them – every guy who doesn’t go back to prison –Ali, Dabz, Abdul - my favourite thing is walking through Brixton and voices coming from the background shouting Fran and people telling me what they’re doing now.

What was the cause or ’trigger for this journey of making the world a better place through being useful and kind? And how old were you? When did you realise you could make a difference?

Lots of things. My family were very involved in the Ruth Ellis case – she was the last woman to be hanged in the UK. Over the years it became part of my family history – I think it may have been subliminally affected and I talked about it at London Fashion Week . She was found guilty in 20 minutes because of the way she looked (brassy blonde nightclub hostess in 1954), and she was hanged within 3 weeks. I realise now that I had always been aware of injustice in the criminal justice system.

Selling my business gave me the ability to do something I cared about. When I started recruiting in HMP I saw there was some great talent in there and I spent hours interviewing, trying to convince them that although they made thousands of pounds being drug dealers, they’d enjoy painting and decorating more - It was a tough sell, but the ones that got it loved not having 3 phones and worrying about whether the dealer the police or a client was on one of them. Once the social enterprise was in action and we were employing people from prison, others started asking if we could decorate their offices and houses. I agreed so long as they understood the employees. backgrounds. They said ‘if it was ok with me it was ok with them’ and I realised how endorsement transformed people’s views.

Was it something your parents are/would have been proud of and encouraged?

I think they’d probably be amazed – my mother was a journalist and buried in editing women’s pages of The Mail and then magazines. My father built racing cars so they might just find it rather strange - but my Aunt would be delighted, she latterly worked in hospitals so had the ethos – she also made silent movies in her early life.

Who or what were your early influences?

I’ve had quite a few:

• My mother the fashion editor for glamour and style – I used to hide in her office and write dummy magazines and my early career was copywriting

• My grandmother, the seamstress for telling me to wear only natural fabrics – something even more relevant now

• My Aunt who had fought against her family trying to prevent her following her dream – she was a silent movie star and wanted to be an Olympic fencer

• My first business partner who showed me how to build a business

When I entered the world of prisons, I met some amazing people – philanthropists and people who genuinely cared about people

What were you doing at 16?
Nothing epic – I was at boarding school - but I do remember when I slid down a rope out of my bedroom window!

What advice would you give your 16 year old self and other young people

Things will often fall into place providing you’re determined to do something – I was a late starter but they did fall into place – I think all the old sayings like ‘believe in yourself’, ‘don’t let obstacles stand in your way’, but above all ‘be curious and do something that stirs you’ – actually sometimes you won’t believe in yourself but the ‘idea’ will overtake you and you’ll realise the unexpected is possible,

What has been the most difficult challenge on the way and how did you overcome it?

The great thing about starting when you know nothing about what you’re doing and have a firm belief that you are doing the right thing is that you overcome the obstacles because you don’t notice them.

But when you start something new – it’s all down to you – and occasionally you feel quite lonely – it all sits on your shoulders and that can be quite a challenge. Of course choosing to work in prisons was always going to be a challenge, but it’s the other bits that can get to you. What I would always say – and I’m a panicker – just have good people around you that can help get you to get out of scrapes.

What do you think are the changes we need to see in the world and how can being U&K help solve those things?

I personally want to see people have a CHOICE about their lives – a chance to change them if they want to and I see our role as giving them the tools to do that. We need to see social mobility – when we started we said ‘give a man a job and see him in a different light’ and everything we do is about giving people dignity and hope. these are the changes that I hope I can do something about but aside from those I think we need to start with the smallest things, I tell people to take responsibility for themselves and the way they behave - talking to someone homeless on the street, buy someone a coffee, open doors, smile, use your voice to make the change you want to see. I always think you can see change with people and things around you, be positive in difficult times and try to find ways through challenge.

How are you useful and kind to yourself - what helps and hinders?

I’m not remotely kind to myself – I feel hideously guilty if I don’t work and there is always too much to do and nothing is good enough for me – also if I stand still there are amazing new ideas waiting round the corner. Lockdown has given us all time to think and luckily my husband makes sure I stop occasionally. I am slowly learning to say no. I relax by gardening and I have a collection of paintings I love to do things with. We built our own house in Oxfordshire 10 years ago and as well as that being a great challenge, it now gives me great pleasure doing things to it.

How are you both useful and kind to others (the easy ones and those who are more difficult to be U&K to)?

I am told that my biggest problem is that I tend to be far too kind, which is why I have staff who can be tougher with people which is far more useful. Having spent some of my working life being unconcerned by charity, later in life I now veer completely the other way. I believe the best of people until they show themselves differently. But how am I useful? – I love trying to put people together, to find solutions to things – to people’s desire to achieve things, often with the prisoners it is helping them realise their dreams of starting new businesses or simply changing their lives. I want to explore new challenges – if someone says something isn’t possible I will absolutely want to do it. I like being a catalyst and genuinely full of ideas to challenge the norm.

What is your biggest challenge in the future?

There are so many! Covid has created its own challenge, but ultimately ours are typical of an organisation going from small to growing larger and the things that arise around that – how do we stay true to ourselves, how do we not stand still and find different ways to be innovative and creative whilst scaling up so we can do more in more prisons and for more people? Keeping our beneficiaries at the heart of everything we do is our key concern.

What do you wish you had done differently?

I wish when I had started the charity I had bought a building and renovated it with our decorating team and done construction training on site. That would have given us an investment from the beginning.