Ipswich Building Society chief executive Richard Norrington has made his first prison visit as part of the society’s efforts to improve “financial literacy”.

Mr Norrington, who took up his post at the end of last year, went to HMP and YOI Hollesley Bay to deliver a session from the society’s Money Management programme to help prisoners preparing for resettlement in the community.

HMP Hollesley Bay, near Woodbridge, is a category D adult male prison with a focus on reducing re-offending. Mr Norrington was accompanied on the visit by the society’s financial education assistant, Stacey Bunn, and member assistant, Chloe Lock.

Members of the Ipswich Building Society team regularly visit HMP & YOI Hollesley Bay, HMP Warren Hill and HMP Highpoint to deliver Money Management sessions which have been created in collaboration with the prisons’ reducing re-offending teams.

The sessions are focused on skills relating to making better informed decisions about finances. Prisoners are taught essential financial terms, about different methods of payment and how to work out tax and budget their spending.

Mr Norrington said: “Money Management has an important role to play in the whole resettlement experience faced by prisoners, helping to reduce the risk of reoffending by teaching basic financial literacy and life skills.

“A large part of being a mutual for Ipswich Building Society is about the community links we maintain, giving something back to our heartland area, in Suffolk and beyond, and this is why financial education remains a key part of what we do.”