Having had their fingers burnt and been used as 'bid candy' in TR1, the MoJ are seeking to try and make amends this time round for the voluntary sector. This from the Clinks website:-
Last week the Ministry of Justice announced that, from June 2021, accredited programmes and unpaid work will be delivered by the National Probation Service. At the same time, they launched the Dynamic Framework and reiterated their commitment to the voluntary sector’s role in delivering rehabilitation and resettlement services which will be commissioned through this process. This blog gives further detail on our view on this announcement and the services that will be commissioned through the Dynamic Framework.
A unified probation system
Clinks welcomes the announcement on the basis that a simplified system that reduces complexity for people - and the need for contract management and monitoring - will mean a stronger focus on meeting people’s needs.
The previous model of contracting out accredited programmes and unpaid work through Probation Delivery Partners involved contract sizes that were too large for the vast majority of voluntary sector organisations to compete for, meaning they were either locked out or reduced to playing a much smaller role as supply chain partners – a model which under Transforming Rehabilitation has not proved a positive experience for the voluntary sector. A small number of voluntary organisations, however, had committed time and resource to participate in the Probation Delivery Partner competition and it is regrettable that this has been wasted. We also know that some of the larger organisations in the sector were exploring supply chain models that better involved and benefitted smaller organisations than those we’ve seen involved in the past and it is important that the learning from the development of these models is not lost.
The Dynamic Framework has been launched
In my last blog I outlined what the probation Dynamic Framework is and how organisations can qualify onto the framework in order to bid to deliver these services. The framework is now live for organisations to begin the process to qualify onto it.
In the announcement made last week, the Secretary of State reiterated commitment and recognition of the voluntary sector’s role in delivering rehabilitation and resettlement services, highlighting that our sector has “some of the best experience, innovation and skill to tackle these issues.”
More than £100 million a year will be available to procure services through the Dynamic Framework. On Friday, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published further market warming materials confirming the first services that organisations qualified onto the framework will be able to compete for.
As explained in my previous blog, the Dynamic Framework will be used over the next seven years to commission services that meet 14 different need categories (See my earlier blog for the details). The first of these to be commissioned will be those services that will be available from day one of the new model’s operation in June 2021. These are now confirmed as:
- Accommodation – commissioned in 12 contract lots, one in each National Probation Service area.
- Employment, Training and Education – commissioned in 12 contract lots, one in each National Probation Service area.
- Personal wellbeing – family and significant others, lifestyle and associates, social inclusion, and emotional wellbeing. Commissioned in 42 contract lots at Police and Crime Commissioner area level.
- A specific young adult cohort personal wellbeing contract commissioned in Wales.
- Women’s services – accommodation; employment, training and education; finance; benefits and debt; personal wellbeing; dependency and recovery. Commissioned in 42 contract lots at Police and Crime Commissioner area level.
A reduction in scope of day one contracts
Unfortunately, this is a reduced number of day one services which reflects the impact that Covid-19 has had on the ability to run the previously proposed competitions. Under previous plans, additional competitions for dependency and recovery, and finance, benefit and debt were to be run. These will now be commissioned by Regional Probation Directors in the same way as the other service categories that do not form part of day one services.
Unfortunately, this is a reduced number of day one services which reflects the impact that Covid-19 has had on the ability to run the previously proposed competitions. Under previous plans, additional competitions for dependency and recovery, and finance, benefit and debt were to be run. These will now be commissioned by Regional Probation Directors in the same way as the other service categories that do not form part of day one services.
Larger contracts and supply chain protections
All competitions were proposed to be commissioned at Police and Crime Commissioner level. The increase in contract size for accommodation, and employment, training and education services will present challenges to ensuring that small, local and specialist organisations are appropriately involved.
We are pleased to see a number of supply chain protections, which we have advocated for, published as part of the market warming materials. These protections include:
- Suppliers will be required to name key subcontractors and seek permission to switch or terminate key subcontractors in order to protect against organisations being used as ‘bid candy’
- There’s a preclusion against suppliers requiring sub-contractors to enter into exclusivity agreements
- Suppliers will be required to report annually on their supply chain to provide transparency and visibility, which was a key recommendation of our #trackTR research.
Small and specialist organisations
We are also pleased that HMPPS has been able to maintain Police and Crime Commissioner level contract lots for at least some of the service areas, including those where some of the smallest and most specialist organisations in the sector operate.
We are also pleased that HMPPS has been able to maintain Police and Crime Commissioner level contract lots for at least some of the service areas, including those where some of the smallest and most specialist organisations in the sector operate.
Throughout the development of this commissioning process, we advocated alongside the specialist women’s sector for a specific contract lot for women’s service and are pleased to see it remains.
However, we continue to be very concerned that there is no day one service being commissioned for black, Asian and minority ethnic people and believe that this is not in line with HMPPS’s commitment to implement the Lammy Review in both spirit and letter.
However, we continue to be very concerned that there is no day one service being commissioned for black, Asian and minority ethnic people and believe that this is not in line with HMPPS’s commitment to implement the Lammy Review in both spirit and letter.
Use of grants
In the future, commissioners will be able to commission services through the Dynamic Framework using both grants and contracts, but day one services are likely to be commissioned through contracts.
We have strongly advocated that a greater use of grants across the whole commissioning process would reduce complexity and enable a greater number of day one services to be commissioned in the challenging context of Covid-19.
We will continue to work with HMPPS to highlight how grants can best be used by probation commissioners now and in the future.
Conclusion
We have been pleased to work very closely with the probation review team in the development of the dynamic framework and to support them to engage with the sector including through the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group’s Special interest group on probation and more widely, and look forward to this continuing. Covid19 has presented challenging issues for both HMPPS and the voluntary sector who’s capacity to engage in commissioning processes has been significantly reduced and we will continue to work with HMPPS to make recommendations for how the ongoing commissioning of services can best be done within this context.
"We have been pleased to work very closely with the probation review team in the development of the dynamic framework and to support them to engage with the sector including through the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group’s Special interest group on probation"
ReplyDeleteBevause...
"More than £100 million a year will be available to procure services through the Dynamic Framework."
This is where it all falls down for me. Its wholly focused around Money.
So much time & effort & resource is being wasted on contracts, chain of supply, commissioning, blah blah blah.
Reminds me of olden times cartoons with characters' eyes spinning like fruit machines until the Jackpot symbols appear just before they walk under a bus or off a cliff or into a trap...
Agree with you but under the old 5per cent of the budget requirement the management just fiddeled the arrangements and gave small beer money to tame contract non delivery friends of the service and nothing additional was achieved. The old lot did it to the new lot. Simply put senior management bent the rules so much it opened the door to tr.
DeleteAgreed - in essence it was a number of self-important Trust chiefs who started acting like they were CEOs, encouraged by NOMS, while the lickspittle management teams used Trust monies to fund their ambition via MBAs.
DeleteExactly I should have said now u remind me.
DeleteTR3 is powered by... "CFO3 - Financed by European Social Fund (ESF) monies, the Co-Financing Organisation (CFO) has delivered services to offenders in custody and the community since January 2010. Services are delivered via. contracted prime providers and sub-providers. The current programme (CFO3) is now underway and will run to August 2023"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.co-financing.org/
Announced in Jan 2020 but now re-packaged under the Dynamic Framework:
Plans to provide funding to help prisoners reintegrate into society have been announced on the government website, giving those interested in applying a chance to understand what is expected of them before the buyer starts accepting formal applications. The CFO Resettlement Hub Model provides a safe space for prisoners to receive support for reintegration and to develop a wealth of professional skills that will help them secure on-going employment.
Participants inducted into one of these resettlement programmes will be able to access tailored support, interact with role models and peers, consider educational opportunities as well as those in employment and training, and help them build the necessary skills to avoid further offending. Interacting and engaging with offenders can be challenging for practitioners, and in respect of this, Resettlement Hubs will provide a varied programme of sports, crafts, media and arts activities that utilise non-formal ways of learning and will appeal to a group that has often had bad experiences at school and with more traditional forms of education.
The Hubs will be available in community locations across England and each Hub will aim to become a key component of its local community. Participants may have been in custody or have served community sentences – both are eligible. Funding allocation will focus on individuals who most need support and who are unlikely to successfully reintegrate and avoid reoffending if they are offered other services.
Budget allocation is as follows, from a total of £54m:Rehabilitation signpost
East of England - £3,312,500
East Midlands - £3,312,500
London - £6,625,000
North East - £3,312,500
North West - £9,937,500
South East - £3,312,500
South West - £3,312,500
Yorkshire - £9,937,500
Veterans - £1,000,000 (Veterans in custody scheme will initially run at one prison in the North East)
NOTE: interesting to see that Brexit Britain is using European Social Fund money to pay for this.
Everyone & their dog are chasing the money:
Delete"HMPPS funding available for ‘Activity Hubs’
HMPPS’s European Social Fund (ESF) Co-Financing Organisation has published a draft specification setting out the delivery requirements for a number of new Activity Hubs designed to provide safe and supportive spaces for people in the criminal justice system.
Contract values range from £3.3m to £9.9m with the exception of a pilot veterans’ hub which is worth £1m.
Contracts will run from 4th January 2021 until August 2023. Bids are invited from 30th March.
This is being brought to the attention of organisations engaging in activity such as arts and crafts, sports and general community project work who may also be interested in this opportunity.
Find out more on Bravo, the Ministry of Justice’s Procurement Portal here, or email MoJCommercialReset@justice.gov.uk"
Just love this website:
Deletehttps://www.tenders4u.co.uk/tender/details/cfo-activity-hubs-2021-2023,328144
Tenders4U provide a market leading tender notification system unlike any other
Tenders4U is your number one source of tenders in the UK
(the 4U replaces EU in the ring of yellow stars!)
And while they scrabble for the cash...
ReplyDelete"At least another 130,000 people worldwide have died during the coronavirus pandemic on top of 440,000 officially recorded deaths from the virus, according to BBC research.
A review of preliminary mortality data from 27 countries shows that in many places the number of overall deaths during the pandemic has been higher than normal, even when accounting for the virus.
These so-called "excess deaths", the number of deaths above the average, suggest the human impact of the pandemic far exceeds the official figures reported by governments around the world."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-53073046
Probation has always had links with the third sector.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately now, the third sector suffers from the same problems as most of our organisations, be it schools, probation or anything in between.
Those on the shop floor do the work and generally do so with a social welfare ethic. They're focused on people.
Those employed at the top are interested in pounds and have a financial ethos. Often the two ends conflict with each other.
Sadly its those at the upper end that makes the decisions and sign off on contracts.
I find it distasteful when the opportunities of collaboration with probation services is expressed primarily in terms of financial gain, and not about social impact. It smells of oppertuinism rather the opertuity.
I worry a little too about the contracts that they'll be bidding for. Accommodation? I'm not sure where that may come from. I may be wrong, but the only accommodation I'm aware of that comes from the third sector is generally that which also offers support, whether it's independent living, HMOs or hostels. They're all types of very expensive accommodation, and providing accommodation that's very expensive can impact negatively on the ability to obtain and sustain employment.
What I really don't want to see happen is everything becoming signposted with each contractor referring people to each others services to achieve outcomes they can sign off on and get paid for whilst the individual on the 'circuit' gets little benefit.
Time will tell I guess.
'Getafix
I fear you misunderstand the accommodation offer getafix. They won't actually be providing beds with roofs over them. They'll be providing the same pointless advice the pointless through the gate service does with no reference to risk whatsoever.
DeleteApproved Premises no longer come under Public Protection but rather the Directorate of Reducing Reoffending, Partnerships and Accommodation.
DeleteSo it looks like Cummings' chums can't cut the mustard after all:
ReplyDelete"the Faculty contract — providing “strategic support to the NHSX AI Lab” — has a value in excess of £1M (including VAT), and an earlier commencement date (February 3), with an expiry date of August 3."
Presumably they've been paid that in any event (nice!), but...
BBC - "In a major U-turn, the UK is ditching the way its current coronavirus-tracing app works and shifting to a model based on technology provided by Apple and Google.
The move comes the day after the BBC revealed that a former Apple executive, Simon Thompson, was taking charge of the late-running project.
The Apple-Google design has been promoted as being more privacy-focused. However, it means epidemiologists will have access to less data. And questions remain about whether any smartphone-based system reliant on Bluetooth signals will be accurate enough to be useful.
The UK follows Germany, Italy and Denmark among others in switching from a so-called "centralised" approach to a "decentralised" one.
The government is expected to confirm the news shortly.
Baroness Dido Harding - who heads up the wider Test and Trace programme - is expected to make clear that the Apple-Google version will not represent a silver bullet given that it has its own limitations.
The NHS has been testing both systems against each other, over the course of the past month.
The centralised version trialled on the Isle of Wight worked well at assessing the distance between two users, but was poor at recognising Apple's iPhones.
By contrast, the Apple-Google model logged iPhones but its distance calculations were weaker. In some instances, it could not differentiate between a phone in a user's pocket 1m (3.3ft) away and a phone in a user's hand 3m (9.8ft) away."
Guardian - "The mobile phone contact-tracing app to tell people they may have been exposed to Covid-19, once a central part of the government’s response to the pandemic, will not be ready before the winter, a health minister has said. Lord Bethell of Romford, the minister responsible for the smartphone app, said that it was not a priority for the government at the moment."
I had missed this in May:
Computer World - "Just as UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick revealed to the media that the government would not rule out the possibility of adapting the app or creating a radically different one if appropriate, official details of work on a second app have been released... Contractual documents show Zuhlke Engineering receiving an official start date of 6 May to supply a managed delivery team to support and run proximity mobile application and services for the UK worth £3.8m over 6 months."
The lies, the emptying of the public purse, the deceptions, the incompetence - the list is seemingly endless under this shower of utterly shameless charlatans.