Payment by Results | Russell Webster

How is the justice data lab doing?

The purpose of the Justice Data Lab was to make it possible for small voluntary organisations to find out if their work with offenders made a difference to reoffending rates. It was launched as part of the Transforming Rehabilitation project as a way of government, commissioners and Prime providers having a way of comparing the impact of different providers delivering a range of interventions. Despite the strong publicity surrounding the launch of the Data Lab,

16th October 2013

Latest on Transforming Rehabilitation Payment Mechanism

The Ministry of Justice responds to criticisms of its proposed payment mechanism for the new Transforming rehabilitation contracts and appears to be willing to make substantial changes. However, there will be no details until the “Invitation to Negotiate” stage of the procurement process…

10th October 2013

Latest probation reducing reoffending rates

The latest MoJ reoffending rates show that probation trusts continue to reduce reoffending even under the pressure of the proposed wholescale changes under the government’s Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. This overall good progress does, however, conceal a considerable variation between trusts.

27th August 2013

Paying for the wrong results?

The MoJ published their initial payment mechanism for the Transforming Rehabilitation contracts back on 3rd June and asked for feedback. They are currently developing a final version which should be published before the procurement process starts – scheduled for 23rd August. Last week, the Social Market Foundation published a paper by its director Ian Mulheirn which analysed the payment mechanism in forensic detail and came up with the devastating conclusion that : The payment mechanism encourages providers to cut spending on services and allow reoffending to drift marginally upwards.

13th August 2013

The risky business of Social Impact Bonds

Will SIBs become a mainstream way of funding public services? My take on new Social Market Foundation report. “Effective transfer of financial accountability is the holy grail of public service reform” The main mechanism for this has been payment by results with which Social Impact Bonds are closely associated. Social Impact Bonds and PbR appear to be a good fit:

6th August 2013

What can Transforming Rehabilitation learn from the Work Programme?

Once again, the intensely party political shaping of public policy makes for uncomfortable results. It takes a politician with the drive and uncompromising approach of Chris Grayling to effect change within a five year cycle. But there is not sufficient time to establish a properly thought-through model which has a decent chance of delivering improved public services. In some ways Transforming Rehabilitation crystallises this problem – the payment by results pilots were cancelled in order to focus on a rapid roll-out of a completely untested model.

1st August 2013

What is the state of the reducing reoffending market?

The IfG makes two very critical findings of the current commissioning of reducing reoffending services. Firstly, local commissioning is ineffective in most areas. Seondly, neither NOMS nor Probation Trusts has a systematic way of knowing whether commissioned services are effective.

26th July 2013

Justice Secretary says Transforming Rehabilitation is a real opportunity for the voluntary sector

Will we see a real mixed economy with genuine local partnerships which include probation mutuals and voluntary sector providers of all sizes?
Or will a small number of large private providers win most of the reducing reoffending contracts by their ability to discount on price?
We should know the answer by the end of 2014.

24th July 2013

Making public service markets work

The Institute of Government recently published a fascinating report on how government is currently failing to ensure that the third of public services currently delivered by independent providers offer a good service. This is the first of a short series of posts on the report’s findings. Railways, Tagging of offenders, Housing for asylum seekers, Olympics Security – what do these four have in common? They’ve all been the subject of recent major investigations…

23rd July 2013

Payment by Results: Any day you can get 2 for 1 is a good day

If you buy my new ebook “The 10 Commandments of Payment by Results”, ALL THE PROCEEDS go to the Howard League for Penal Reform. Go on, treat yourself.

22nd July 2013

What do the drug recovery pilots teach us about payment by results?

The drug recovery PbR pilots have plenty to teach those thinking about reducing reoffending contracts. Hasty implementation, data analysis and reputational management issues look to be common across both sectors.

18th July 2013

Keep up-to-date with drugs and crime

The latest research, policy, practice and opinion on our criminal justice and drug & alcohol treatment systems

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