[mks_dropcap style=”squared”]J[/mks_dropcap]en Byrne, the Development Director for Justice at A4e, in the latest in a series of interviews about the MoJ’s probation reform programme: Transforming Rehabilitation. Jen sees TR as an opportunity for co-designing a new probation service with both service users and probation staff.
A4e sponsored the Probation Futures project undertaken by the Innovation Unit, a piece of action research which looked at how to balance risk management with promoting desistance.
Jen calls for transparency in commissioning and says there needs to be an honest approach which acknowledges that it will take some time for Tier 1 providers to fully engage small voluntary sector providers in new service models.
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4 Responses
Jen Byrne’s comments from around 5’50” onwards need translating. Roughly: slash and burn first, then invite the new settlers in. “Creating financial headroom”.
I would be very interested in where the “financial headroom” mentioned is going to come from. Will it be higher caseloads, lower salaries and poorer conditions of service?
Is the same A4E who are having issues with fraud and have yet to publish there 2012/2013 accounts yet? Not fit to run the work programme so why on earth let them near probation.
Their experience doesn’t qualify them to bid in my opinion – it is very different having a statutory responsibility to supervise and enforce court orders, than it is to provide services to people subject to court orders, such as prisoners.
I am aware of complaints about A4E’s inflexibility in working with others in prison and think such attitudes also disqualify them.