£200 million investment in rehab services to cut crime
Charities and companies which help rehabilitate offenders have been awarded around £200 million of Government funding to help cut crime in the new probation system.
- Services to provide specialist housing, employment and training support to reduce reoffending
- Multi-million-pound contracts awarded to more than 25 organisations
- Providers to work with Probation Service to rehabilitate offenders and cut crime
By tackling the drivers of crime and getting offenders’ lives back on track, these services will help to prevent thousands of people becoming victims each year and save some of the £18 billion annual cost of repeat offending.
The move is one of the improvements being made to the Probation Service next month as responsibility for supervising low- and medium-risk offenders comes back under public sector control. The delivery of unpaid work in community sentences and behavioural change programmes are also being brought back in-house.
Prisons and Probation Minister Alex Chalk said:
"Tackling things like homelessness, unemployment and illiteracy is vital to our drive to cut crime but these issues cannot be solved by our brilliant probation staff alone. The expertise and support of charities and companies like those we are funding today plays a crucial role in helping offenders to rehabilitate and lead a crime-free life."Almost £46 million has been awarded to charities which provide wraparound support to women in the criminal justice system, acknowledging the complex array of issues female offenders particularly face. Organisations including The Nelson Trust, Women in Prison, and a partnership between the St Giles Trust and the Wise Group will work with vulnerable women to help them get their lives back on track. This significant investment provides long-term support to women’s centres and other dedicated services for women serving community sentences or leaving prison.
Prison leavers are around 50 per cent more likely to reoffend if released with nowhere to stay so over £33 million will be shared by charities helping the homeless, including St Mungo’s, Shelter and NACRO. Their work will help get offenders off the streets into stable accommodation and work alongside the Probation Service’s new temporary accommodation service.
A further £33 million has been awarded to companies such as Seetec, Maximus and Ingeus which provide offenders with skills training and employment support. With their expertise in helping people find work they will partner with probation staff and the New Futures Network in the Prison Service to support offenders into jobs.
Up to £118 million has been awarded to organisations which work with offenders to address personal issues, including Catch 22, The Forward Trust and The Growth Company. This ranges from support accessing mental health services to help with managing complex family relationships.
The funding has been awarded through a new process designed to make it easier for charities and other third-sector organisations to access funding from Government and around two-thirds of the funding has been awarded to registered charities. In addition, many lead organisations are using the specialist skills of smaller organisations to help deliver services, with another 50 organisations, mostly in the voluntary sector, in their supply chains.
Notes to Editors
Women’s and personal support services have been procured at Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) level, while each provider for Education, Training and Employment services will work across one of the twelve probation regions in England and Wales. Accommodation services will also be provided at a regional level except in Wales where they have been procured at PCC level.
For the first time, the Probation Service is jointly commissioning the full range of rehabilitative services in Greater Manchester with the region’s Combined Authority from July 2021. In London, women’s services will be commissioned jointly with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) by providing funding to MOPAC’s existing providers for an extension and expansion of the current service. A new commissioning process will be undertaken for services from 2022.
Full list of contracts awarded according to region
Please note, the figures given are for the standard term of the contracts which are 2 years and 9 months, unless specified (see each contract below). Note Women’s services contracts are for 3 years and 9 months. For Accommodation and Education, Training and Employment services these are predicted values.
East Midlands
Women’s Services
Lincolnshire Action Trust - £544,992 (Lincolnshire)
Changing Lives - £1,240,656 (Leicestershire)
Nottingham Women’s Centre - £1,831,193 (Nottinghamshire)
Women’s Work Derbyshire - £1,509,887 (Derbyshire)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
The Forward Trust - £998,975 (Lincolnshire)
Ingeus - £6,021,064 (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire)
Accommodation
Nacro - £2,963,412
Education, Training and Employment
Ingeus - £2,913,656
East of England
Women’s Services
Advance - £2,128,122 (Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire)
St Giles Wise (SGW) - £2,177,655 (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) (Northamptonshire – until June 2023)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Nacro - £3,054,280 (Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire)
The Forward Trust - £4,374,002 (Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Essex)
Accommodation
Seetec - £2,883,298
Education, Training and Employment
Seetec - £2,729,155
Kent, Surrey and Sussex
Women’s Services
Advance - £1,317,735 (Kent)
Brighton Women’s Centre - £1,167,285 (Sussex)
Women in Prison - £588,630 (Surrey)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
The Forward Trust - £2,557,318 (Sussex, Surrey)
Seetec - £2,135,134 (Kent)
Accommodation
Seetec - £1,977,871
Education, Training and Employment
Seetec - £1,903,774
London
Women’s Services
In London, women’s services will be commissioned jointly with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) from mid-2022 with the Probation Service providing funding to MOPAC’s existing providers until then.
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Catch 22 - £12,501,519
Accommodation
St Mungo - £4,882,708
Education, Training and Employment
Maximus - £4,999,117
North East
Women’s Services
Changing Lives - £4,253,089 (Cleveland, Northumbria)
St Giles Wise (SGW) - £866,581 (Durham)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Ingeus - £3,032,996 (Northumbria)
St Giles Wise (SGW) - £3,177,664 (Durham, Cleveland)
Accommodation
Thirteen Housing Group - £2,740,568
Education, Training and Employment
Ingeus - £2,903,359
North West
Women’s Services
Lancashire Women - £1,791,947 (Lancashire)
PSS UK - £3,050,765 (Cheshire, Merseyside)
Women’s Community Matters - £319,435 (Cumbria – until June 2023) (Subject to contract)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
The Growth Company - £5,732,481 (Lancashire, Merseyside) (Cumbria – until June 2023)
Seetec - £2,108,173 (Cheshire)
Accommodation
Seetec - £2,988,646
Education, Training and Employment
Maximus - £3,151,152
South Central
Women’s Services
Advance - £2,111,499 (Hampshire) (Thames Valley – until June 2023)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Catch 22 - £4,091,542 (Hampshire, Thames Valley)
Accommodation
Ingeus - £1,828,763
Education, Training and Employment
Ingeus - £1,889,412
South West
Women’s Services
Nelson Trust - £2,897,254 (Avon & Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire)
The Women’s Centre Cornwall - £1,765,668 (Devon & Cornwall, Dorset)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Catch 22 - £5,706,872 (Avon & Somerset, Dorset) (Wiltshire, Devon & Cornwall, Gloucestershire – all until June 2023)
Accommodation
Seetec - £2,852,365
Education, Training and Employment
Seetec - £2,624,658
Wales
Women’s Services
The Nelson Trust - £1,992,162 (Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, South Wales – all until June 2023)
PSS UK - £432,225 (North Wales – until June 2023)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships (Young Adults and 26+)
St Giles Wise (SGW) - £6,011,313 (Dyfed-Powys, Gwent – all until June 2023) (South Wales, North Wales)
Accommodation
Forward Trust - £2,006,168 (Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, South Wales)
Nacro - £633,425 (North Wales)
Education, Training and Employment
Maximus - £2,440,833
West Midlands
Women’s Services
Changing Lives - £6,095,524 (West Midlands, Warwickshire)(Staffordshire – until June 2023)
Willowdene - £1,014,080 (West Mercia)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Catch 22 - £1,639,494 (West Mercia)
Ingeus - £8,324,204 (Staffordshire, West Midlands) (Warwickshire – until June 2023)
Accommodation
Nacro - £3,823,196
Education, Training and Employment
Maximus - £4,147,256
Yorkshire & The Humber
Women’s Services
Changing Lives - £1,835,581 (South Yorkshire)
St Giles Wise (SGW) - £1,072,461 (North Yorkshire)
Together Women - £4,604,673 (Humberside, West Yorkshire)
Support services for issues including mental health, family and relationships
Foundation - £1,246,789 (North Yorkshire)
Ingeus - £6,671,666 (Humberside, West Yorkshire)
The Growth Company - £2,593, 567 (South Yorkshire)
Accommodation
Shelter - £4,068,990
Education, Training and Employment
The Growth Company - £4,134,343
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester Combined Authority – For the first time, the Probation Service is jointly commissioning the full range of rehabilitative services in Greater Manchester with the region’s Combined Authority from July 2021.
And we pay again for another spin of the Gov/MOJs centralisation roundabout, leaving the practitioners as passengers in the farce rather than partners in creating something better in association with their local courts, councils, and whole communities. The baby is thrown out with the bathwater from a tub that took about a century to fill.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_Inc.
ReplyDeleteMaximus Inc., trademarked as MAXIMUS, is an American outsourcing company that provides business process services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Maximus focuses on administering government-sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health care reform, welfare-to-work, Medicare, child support enforcement, and other government programs. The company is based in Reston, Virginia, has 34,300 employees and a reported annual revenue of $3.46 billion in fiscal year 2020.
DeleteClinks Thinks
ReplyDelete"With their long history of providing crucial specialist and local support to help people in the criminal justice system turn their lives around, it's time voluntary organisations were recognised as truly valued partners to deliver probation services. But, many are again being shut out or given a back seat.
After our campaigning to remove barriers for the sector, the majority of delivery partners for resettlement and rehabilitation services will be voluntary sector organisations and approximately two thirds of the total contract value has gone to the voluntary sector. We are pleased that the government has recognised the knowledge and expertise in our sector which has emerged as the main partner in the delivery of rehabilitation and resettlement services.
Our influencing work also led to the creation of a contract lot for specialist services to meet the unique needs of women in contact with the criminal justice system, which has been won entirely by voluntary sector organisations, the vast majority of whom are specialist women’s centres.
Still, a limited few in the voluntary sector are involved – and these are mainly larger organisations. There are only 23 voluntary sector lead providers (out of a total 26 across, 110 contracts). The investment in women’s services doesn't fully fund everything these organisations do or need. The process was so complex that organisations chose not to or were unable to get involved. There are no Welsh organisations leading delivery in Wales, and low involvement in supply chains of very small and local organisations, those led by and focused on racially minoritised people, and Welsh organisations.
Looking to the future, we’d like to see this built upon so there’s opportunities for people to access the vibrancy and wide diversity of services our sector offers.
The government and probation service should go further and reduce the complexity of the commissioning process, use grants as their default funding mechanism and work in partnership to co-design and co-commission services to ensure probation can draw upon the breadth of expertise from small, local and specialist voluntary organisations for the benefit of people in prison, under probation supervision and the communities they live in or will return to.”
In 1967 Voluntary Societies were taken out of the front-line of discharged and serving prisoner support when HM UK Parliament created umpteen Probation AND AFTER-CARE SERVICES in England and Wales. By 1973 - what was termed THROUGHCARE was an implicit part of the duties laid upon those probation and after-care services and their probation officers.
DeleteHowever those services were never resourced sufficently to provide a comprehensive service to all that wanted it - let alone all that needed it. So valuable work continued to be done by many societies, some who had existed from before the 1907 Probation of Offenders Act as part of the patchwork of support available.
In 2014, it was all to be refocused with contracts and such like - Home Office defecit funding had been abolished long before - it was all going to be so much better the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Ministers of Justice told us and were never seriously challenged in the media or parliament, except by a very few parliamentarians.
I recall Mr Grayling saying that instead of a prisoner being released with only £46.00 s/he would also get an individual mentor who would visit before release - arrange advance Job Centre Appointments and if necessary accommodation and even escort them from one of the 30 special discharge prisons to their new accommodation. (Pre release Employment Exchange Visits by Employment Exchange staff had been part of the routine when I worked in a Borstal in 1981/2 - why was it stopped and not always available to every prisoner?)
I read today on Twitter the Discharge Allowance is at last to be increased to £76.00. It was about £41.00 when I last worked in a prison in 2002 and as a seconded probation officer part of my duty was to recommend to the governor when s/he should authorise payment of a slightly higher rate, but only for those who would be homeless on discharge.
It is blindingly obvious that central commissioning of "services" from global corporates achieves nothing other that lining the pockets of shareholders and Suits. Speaking as one with her boots on the ground, the most useful and productive partnerships are with local landlords, a network of onside local government agency workers, local surgeries. This could all be developed into some commissioning, but
ReplyDeleteThis stuff should be built from the ground up, not the top down.
Pearly Gates
Completely agree Pg . Local devolved budgeting suiting rent guarantee schemes always saw tricky difficult offenders into and at the least mid term bed breakfast guest houses. The other bolt on training employment are all locally defined by collaborative and historic partners in shared interest. The monies are there to sweeten the CRCs and in no time at all they will ultimately fail then be told to fuck off. We can do it properly and better without them . Need some able leadership before changes can take place. The current clan have too much corruption by involvement with crc .
DeleteCouldn't agree more. Apparently, people on probation don't need housing, they need "housing advice" from the likes if shelter and St mango...they get "housing advice" already ar the housing office, they get "employment advice" at the jobcentre...all these contracts do is split the delivery of probation and weaken what we ourselves provide, reducing our ability to engage appropriately with the person. If we ploughed these millions of pounds into working with social landlords who actually provide housing at affordable rents, rather than advice workers who scrapple around trying to find private tenancies with landlords who are only there for profit, we'd have a much more effective and long term sustainable solution.
DeleteMan down the pub tells me that in my area the 6 current accommodation workers are being slashed to 1 under the new contract and will hold 'group' sessions instead of 1-2-1's. Not sure how that will provide the same level of service, or cover any diversity or vulnerability issues.
ReplyDelete