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Probation Posts

All the latest news: TR/Reunification Policy Practice Innovation Inspections

Here you can find more than 750 posts tracking every major development in probation since 2011. You can trace the rise and fall of Transforming Rehabilitation, see the latest performance figures and explore new practice developments. If you’re looking for something in particular, try the search box below.

The 5th Commandment of Payment by Results: Thou shall not pay for deadweight

Payment by results is about driving improvement, so no self-respecting PBR scheme will pay for results that will happen anyway, known in the jargon is “deadweight”. The proportion of deadweight in a PbR funded initiative varies markedly across different spheres of operation. Despite all the adverse publicity about reoffending rates which has accompanied the debate about the Rehabilitation Revolution, 65.8% of those supervised in the community and 53.1% of those released from prison do NOT re-offend in the first year. However, when we look at the Work Programme…

27th June 2013

Don’t write off probation in the rehabilitation revolution

There have been better times to be a probation officer. It’s not the easiest job in the world at the best of times and, like every other public service, probation trusts have had to implement year-on-year financial cuts for the last few years. But 2013 is the toughest year yet. 70% of probation’s work is being outsourced and a wide range of large private and voluntary sector organisations are seeking to take over the work. Recently the MoJ has acknowledged that probation trusts could spin out public service mutuals and bid for their “own” work.

24th June 2013

How are the reducing reoffending prison payment by results pilots doing?

Yesterday the MoJ published interim reconviction figures from the reducing reoffending PbR pilots at Peterborough and Doncaster prisons. The final results for just the first year’s cohort from these pilots won’t be available until 2014 but the MoJ have decided to publish these interim results because of the “high level of public interest” which has been created because the new reducing reoffending contracts will be let on a PbR basis. The results aren’t especially promising…

13th June 2013

Straw Man: The Ministry of Justice’s payment by results mechanism

The Ministry of Justice procurement team yesterday published its proposed payment mechanism for the new reducing reoffending contracts and invited feedback. There are three elements to the payment mechanism: Fee for service; Payment by results and Penalties for underperformance.

4th June 2013

Who is going to lead the rehabilitation revolution?

I just got back from an interesting roundtable discussion on payment by results and re-offending convened by IPPR. I cam away with two main thoughts. Is there really no alternative to the MoJ’s cumbersome cohort approach to calculating PbR? And who is going to provide on the ground leadership for the rehabilitation revolution in a centrally commissioned model with a much reduced probation service?

3rd June 2013

Crossing the probation Rubicon

The publication of the MoJ’s response to Transforming Rehabilitation last Thursday 9 May has made it almost certain that the plans to overhaul the reducing reoffending system will take place.
By bringing the timeline even further forward, the Secretary of State has built in 6 months’ slippage before next general election.
Even if the Labour Party wins the next election, there is no sign that @SadiqKhan would undo the changes.

13th May 2013

The Transforming Rehabilitation Timeline

Timeline for the government’s “Transforming Rehabilitation” project which involves the most radical change ever to, and significant privatisation of, the probation service and new focus on short term prisoners.

9th May 2013

Probation Service Mutuals must get through the phoney war

The dramatic changes proposed for the probation service have yet to receive any detailed planning. Indeed, we still don’t know how many probation trust areas there will be, how many Contract Package Areas and the nature of the relationship between the future statutory probation service with its responsibility for risk and the new providers who will be delivering interventions to reduce re-offending. We are expecting some answers to these questions in the middle of May but …

29th April 2013

Keep up with the future of probation

Transforming Rehabilitation The Ministry of Justice under Chris Grayling is planning the most radical changes to the probation service in its history. The changes include: The

14th March 2013

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