RR3 (Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group)

UNCLASSIFIED

RR3 (Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group)

Justice Policy GroupUpdate October 2012

This document was produced for the RR3 meeting held on 24 October. It is intended to give an update on some of the main issues that will be of direct interest to third sector organisations and it provides highlights, not an exhaustive account of all current and proposed developments in NOMS and MoJ. The majority of items have been included previously and brought up to date, some content on key topics remains unchanged (so it is actual déjà vu, not your imagination). Please let us know if there are areas of policy that you think should be routinely included in future.

NB: Circulation is not restricted and onward distribution is actively encouraged.

The report covers the following areas:

1.Competitions

2.NOMS Commissioning Strategy

3.Probation Review

4.Community Sentences Review

5.Payment by Results – pilots and strategy

6.Youth Justice

7.Women’s Justice

8.Offender Health

9.Working Prisons

10.Employment, Training and Education

11.Learning andSkills

12.Restorative Justice

13.Community Budgets

14.Integrated Offender Management

15.VCS access to effectiveness information- Data Lab

16.Troubled Families

17.Rehabilitation of Offenders Act changes – Amendments in the LASPO Act

18.Finance, Benefits and Debt

19.Skills for Effective Engagement and Development (SEEDS) - NEW

20.The Compact - NEW

21.New Ministers - NEW

22.Recent research

1.Competitions

The current round of prison competitions is progressing, withsevenprisons due to be competed for the first time, and one private sector prison subject to re-competition. The new Secretary of State and Minister have decided that they wish to review the prison competition programme personally before any decisions are made and announced. NOMS hopes to provide an update on the progress of the competition as soon as possible after Parliament returns in October. Following the conclusion of the current phase of prison competitions, there will be a further programme of prison reform, which will include driving efficiencies through competition.

We reported in July that thecompetition for community payback provision for Londonhad been completed with Serco awarded the contract to deliver Community Payback over a four year period. The aim is to make significant progress in competing further services during this Spending Review period (to 2015). We are working carefully through the issues raised by the consultation on probation reform which closed on 22 June. We are working to develop a strategy for introducing competition for the provision of community services as part of the wider reforms designed to reduce reoffending and protect the public. We will publish our plans as soon as possible.

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2.NOMS Commissioning Strategy

Commissioning Strategy Group have completed the process of contracting for NOMS funded research projects to identify and measure some of the intermediate outcomes that could be stepping stones to higher level outcomes linked to reduced reoffending. The projects explore the specific areas of mentoring, family, peer and intimate relationships.

Following the invitation to tender, bids from a number of experienced consortia of research and voluntary sector provider organisations were considered and contracts have been awarded to RAND and New Philanthropy Capital. The project is being contract managed by Jess Haskins in NOMS Commissioning Strategy Group. The final reports and a toolkit for use by providers seeking to measure the efficacy of their work through demonstration of having achieved intermediate outcomes will be produced by April 2014.

NOMS'Volunteering and Mentoring programme continues to progress well. Sova's review has so far mapped over 280 mentoring services for offenders across England and Wales. This information will support the development of the JustMentoring website, which will allow offenders to search for mentoring services in their local area.

The Service User Engagement projectsare in early stages of delivery at three prisons and a cluster of Probation Trusts in the East of England. These projects are designing and developing engagement toolkits for use across the prison and probation estate.

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3.Probation Review

Work is ongoing to determine what the package of reforms to probation services will look like. The Secretary of State is clear that rehabilitation will be a major theme of thedepartment'swork, and that is the context in which thenew Ministerial team is looking at probation reform.
The consultation, which closed in June,touched on some fundamental questions about the structure of the probation services, the role of the private sector and the scope for payment by results in rehabilitation which we want to work through carefully.

We have not yet settled on the timing for publication of the Government response. We said in our business plan we would aim to publish the response in November, and would hope that we can do so.

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4.Community Sentences review

Simultaneously with the Probation Review, the Government consulted on reforms to community sentences (Punishment and Reform: Effective Community Sentences) to ensure they are effective at both rehabilitating and punishing offenders.

Proposals included: adding a punitive element to every community order; exploring a new intensive community punishment order; allowing the courts to seize offenders’ assets as a stand alone punishment; using new technology to track the location of offenders; encouraging greater use of restorative justice; reviewing how we deal with breaches, and making fines and compensation orders more effective. The consultation closed on 22 June, and we are in the process of finalising the Government response, which will be published shortly. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to give more detail on the current shape of our proposals before then.

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5.Payment by Results (PbR) pilots programme and strategy

NOMS has been engaged in overseeing a pilot programme to test the concept of payment by results in different parts of the justice system. In addition to the pilots already underway, two Employment and Reoffending pilots began on 17 September. These pilots have been co-commissioned by the MoJ and DWP, and are testing the integration of a reoffending outcome into the Work Programme in two areas – Wales, and Coventry, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the Marches. Under these pilots, the Work Programme providers will be rewarded for their success at reducing reoffending as well as for delivering employment outcomes.

Although not considered part of the payment by results pilot programme, an alternative incentivisation model was formally introduced at HMP High Down on 1 October. This approach involves the public sector prison aiming to reduce reoffending rates, by investing funding released through efficiency savings in rehabilitative services and the introduction of a desistence regime within the prison. Investment to support this model will be continued if the annual success threshold for reduced reoffending is met.

Further payment by results pilots have been under development, including ‘innovation’ pilots based on proposals put forward by providers. Work to introduce these pilots is temporarily on hold whilst we confirm with Ministers their plans for the wider adoption of payment by results across the justice system. Each of the planned pilots will then be reviewed against the implementation strategy to support a decision about whether to proceed with bringing them into operation.

The pilots that are already in operation – including the Social Impact Bond and the private prison pilot at HMP Doncaster – are not affected by this current pause in activity. They havemoved beyond development into service delivery andare already providingus with learning about thepracticalities of delivering services underpayment by resultscontractsand howthese fit with front line services. We are working closely with the pilots and learning more as they proceed. There will also be published results and independent evaluationsthat will help us extractfurtherlearning, including evidence about what works to reduce reoffending.We will consider the optionswhen the wider reform agenda and PbR strategy has been settled.

Overview of pilots in operation

Payment by Results implementation strategy

We are continuing to developplans for implementing PbR at scale, drawing from current learning from the pilot programme in regard to market appetite, the commissioning process and the way providers have gone about running PbR schemes. We will be looking at the full range of roll-out opportunities for PbR approaches- in custody, the community and jointly with other Government departments.

We remain keen to hear about the VCS experience of PbR in particular, as key providers of the outcome focussed interventions we are seeking to implement. We are aware the PbR can pose particular challenges for smaller organisations, and would welcome further thoughts on the best ways these can be met. We are considering how we can engage the market of prime and VCS providers most effectively, and will of course inform this group of any plans for discussion events.

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1. Youth Justice

Restraint:We recently announced a new system of restraint that has been approved for use in under-18 Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres – Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint (MMPR). The rollout programme and training in MMPR is currently underway. (see link: The Independent Restraint Advisory Panel (successor to the Restraint Advisory Board) is now working with the Department for Education (DfE) to assess the restraint systems used in Secure Children’s Homes, following on from their work on MMPR.

Youth Secure Estate Strategy: On 26 March 2011, the Development Plan for the under-18 secure estate was published covering the remainder of the current spending review period until 2015. The Development Plans included a commitment to develop a longer term strategy for the under 18 secure estate beyond the spending review period. The Ministry of Justice are leading on the longer term strategy, working closely with the Youth Justice Board. The work is at an early stage and we are just completing the first phase of project scoping and start-up.

Out of Court Disposals: The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act received Royal Assent on 1st May 2012. This includes provisions reforming youth out-of-court disposals to rationalise the number of disposals, reduce bureaucracy and increase flexibility and professional discretion. This includes repealing juvenile penalty notices for disorder, reprimands and final warnings. The Act introduces a new youth caution that can be used flexibly without following the prescribed escalating system of reprimand, warning and then prosecution and can be used following a conviction if appropriate. This will be complemented by the existing Youth Conditional Caution which the Act streamlines by allowing their use following a conviction and by removing the requirement that every case must be considered by a prosecutor. These reforms will be underpinned by the creation of an overarching framework document for both adult and youth disposals to support effective decision-making and public and practitioner understanding.

Devolution on Remand Budgets: The provisions in the LASPO Act 2012 seek to reduce thelevel of remands to youth detention accommodationin two ways.First,under provisions in the LASPO Act 2012 (due to commencein the autumn of 2012) an under-18 year old must have a real prospect of receiving a custodial sentence upon conviction before they may be remanded to youth detention accommodation, unless they are charged with a violent or sexual offence or one where an adult would receive a custodial sentence of 14 years or more.

Second, in April 2013 local authorities will be given greater financial responsibility for remands to youth detention accommodation to incentivise effective oversight and practice by youth offending teams andtherefore also bring about a reduction in the levelof such remands. This is a complicated area requiring careful planning and proposals will be finalised following the completion of ongoing discussions with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Welsh Government and local government representatives.

Finally, the LASPO Act 2012 extends "looked after child status" to all young people remanded to youth detention accommodation. Conferring looked after child status on vulnerable children will place a duty on the authority responsible for their care to assess their needs, co-ordinate services on their behalf and maintain a link with their home communities.

Education Provision: Work is progressing with Department for Education to consider future education provision in Young Offender Institutions when the existing education contracts end in July 2014. We also continue to work with DfE to identify ways in which current and developing education policy, such as the raising of the participation age, can contribute to preventing youth offending.

Youth Justice Board: Since November 2011, the MoJ and the YJB have been workingto develop closer working methods which enable Ministers to be more regularly involved in the YJB’s business, building on work started at the time of the Review of the YJB in 2009, chaired by Dame Sue Street.The MoJ and the YJB are working together to ensure that they continue to carry out their statutory and non-statutory work to contribute to the key youth justice outcomes as effectively and efficiently as possible.Our focus now is on how the YJB can continue to reduce the number of first time entrants, as well as reducing the numbersof young people reoffending and the numbers of children and young people in custody.

Ministers meet frequently with the Chair and Chief Executive of the YJB to communicate their priorities for the strategicdirection of the youth justice system and listen to the YJB’s advice on the operation and provision of services of that system. Recent meetings have focussed on the ongoing use of the secure estate, and ministers have taken advice from the YJB on the National Standards for Youth Justice and revised Standards have been issued that reflect Government priorities as well as operational expertise.

Ministers have reviewed the YJB’s corporate plan for 2012-15 to ensure it reflects MoJ’s wider strategic aims and a new framework agreement governing the relationship between the MoJ and the YJB is in preparation and will be in place by the end of July.

Ministers have been closely involved in reviewing the composition of the YJBBoard and recruitment of newBoard members this year, which the Secretary of State is responsible for appointing in the autumn.

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7.Women’s justice

Key issues to note this quarter:

• Following the recent Cabinet re-shuffle, Helen Grant MP is now the minister responsible for female offenders, including the women’s prison estate. She will combine this role with her responsibilities for equalities in the Government Equalities Office.

• The Ministry of Justice remains on course to publish on its website, bythe end of 2012, a short document setting out the Government’s strategic priorities for female offenders. This will be a living document, updated at regular intervals. Helen Grant will maintain oversight of this document.

• For 2013/14 additional fundingwill be added to the NOMS community budget on top of the core Probation Trust budget to enable Trusts to continue to commission enhanced community services for women.The funding will not be ring-fenced to specific centres, providers or Trusts, but will continue to be earmarked for the delivery of female specific interventions.

• These services will form part of the Trusts’ offer to NOMS in response to the relevant commissioning intention during the next commissioning round. Trusts will be asked to set out what provision they will have, its funding, and how it is planned to be delivered. Senior Commissioning Managers and Senior Community Managers will, for their geographical areas (Trust clusters) allocate the money across the Trusts to maximise the provision.

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8.Offender Health

Substance Misuse Initiatives

Addressing substance misuse is a major part of rehabilitation of offenders. Drug users are responsible for between 1/3 - 1/2 of acquisitive crime, and alcohol is a factor in 44% of violent crime[1].

Alongside existing work to deliver a range of treatment and rehabilitation services, as well as work to restrict supply of illegal drugs, we are currently working acrossdepartments and with the private and voluntary sectors totest a number of new initiatives, all of which are part of the MoJ Business Plan. These are aimed at:

1. Shifting from maintenance to recovery (becoming drug free) - includes piloting Drug Recovery Wings (where addicted offenders are supported to achieve recovery) and drug free environments (for those wishing to stay away from drugs, whilst not necessarily being addicted)in prisons.

1. Identifying needs as early as possible to support effective intervention and doing more to address treatment needs during sentence - includes developing and evaluating liaison and diversion services and improving the provision of treatment during community sentences and as an alternative to custody (see below).

1. Developing alcohol pathways and outcomes in four prisons. Mapping types of interventions, from initial screening to pre/post release work, for all levels of dependency, onto outcomes to inform future commissioning decisions

1. Incentivising what works by paying for results in recovery and reduced reoffending currently piloting eight local payment by results (PbR) recovery schemes which include reduced reoffending as an outcome, as well as encouraging other areas to commission treatment services on a PbR basis.

Liaison and Diversion: Prison is not the most appropriate place to house low-risk individuals with mental health issues. We are working with the Department of Health (DH), the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service to deliver the Government’s commitment to diverting young and adult offenders with mental health problems from the criminal justice system at the earliest opportunity, where appropriate.