Payment by Results | Russell Webster

The Ten Commandments of Payment by Results

It’s getting increasingly difficult to have a productive debate about payment by results. For many people, PbR is merely shorthand for the privatisation or even a backdoor way of funneling public funds into multinational companies. For others, it is a potentially exciting approach to commissioning public services which can drive innovation and improved performance. But whether you love PbR or hate it, the main reason why it’s difficult to have a meaningful discussion is the lack of any evidence base. This post is my take on 10 critical success factors for PbR.

11th 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

Shock, Horror! Payment by results works

Payment by results has been getting a fairly consistent bad press recently with concerns about the funding mechanism’s use in the Work Programme, Drug Recovery pilots and worries about how it will work for the new reducing reoffending contracts.
So it was refreshing for me to see an example of a successful (albeit smallscale) example of PbR at last week’s No Offence (@NoOffenceCiC) conference. West Yorkshire succeeded in driving down their youth custody rate by a third through a PbR approach.

29th May 2013

Will cross-sector reducing reoffending partnerships work?

Is the MoJ getting serious about a diverse supply chain? Conscious of the criticism of the performance of large private sector “Primes” in the Work

24th May 2013

The lessons from justice reinvestment

Earlier this week, the MoJ published the findings from the first evaluation of the justice reinvestment project conducted by Kevin Wong and his colleagues from Sheffield Hallam University. The pilot operates a payment by results approach which means that if the pilot areas succeed in reducing demand on criminal justice services (by 5% for adults and 10% for young offenders), they receive additional funds generated by the savings to invest in further reducing re-offending initiatives.

17th May 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

Payment by results across public services

Sitra, the housing support training and consultancy organisation, produced a short but interesting report this week which compared payment by results across public services and

10th 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

Will the MoJ data lab do us justice?

The new MoJ data lab promises small voluntary organisations access to information about their effectiveness – for free. It could be invaluable for organisations looking to win reducing re-offending contracts under the new payment by results framework. But how will it work in practice?

8th April 2013

The value of nothing

Jane Mansour international payment by results expert argues that much of the current debate about the Work Programme and the justice re-offending commissioning confuses cost with value. Chris Grayling has described many of his reforms in both employment and justice as “delivering value for money for the taxpayer”. It is difficult, however, to find evidence of the consideration of ‘value’ in recent and planned changes. Instead, as discussions about public services become increasingly polarised, cost and value are conflated. The nuance of what those terms mean and how they are measured is lost.

5th April 2013

Payment by results – the devil really is in the detail

PbR is simple in theory…

Payment by results is quite a straightforward concept. Its chief attraction lies in its ability to incentivise providers to deliver exactly what a commissioner wants. For example, any PbR contract concerned with reducing reoffending should ensure that organisations receive the biggest payments when they succeed in getting prolific offenders to give up crime. This saves the commissioner – the Ministry of Justice – and the country money and is to the benefit of everyone in society.
However, getting the contract right in practice is proving rather more challenging – indeed, I’ve yet to go to a PbR event where at least one speaker hasn’t said: “The devil is in the detail.”

26th March 2013

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