Latest Blog Posts

Whether to use payment by results? (NAO 2)
Are the NAO’s features a copper-bottomed guarantee of an effective PbR scheme? Or are you more in agreement with me that the attraction of PbR is the chance to move away from the straight-jacket of contemporary procurement and stimulate fresh approaches, under-written by the knowledge that if a provider fails, the commissioner doesn’t have to pay?

Prison and probation annual report
National Offender Management Service has published its annual report and accounts for 2014/15. What does it tell us?

New Justice Secretary sets out his stall
An intriguing first speech from new Justice Secretary Michael Gove sets out a vision of “one nation justice policy.” The tone and content were so striking that the Guardian was moved to write an editorial sub-titled: “hope at last for penal reform?”

20 million Europeans smoke cannabis
The most recent EMCDDA estimate suggests that almost 1% Europeans use cannabis daily or almost daily (defined as 20 days or more per month). Since 2008, cannabis use is the main reason that Europeans enter drug treatment for the first time. Over this time, the number of first-time cannabis clients has risen markedly and cannabis users represent around half a more of all service users entering drug treatment in Cyprus, Denmark, France, Hungary and the Netherlands.

NHS and probation reforms threaten offender health
Professor Brooker concludes with a plea that both the National Probation Service and the new private Community Rehabilitation Companies should be equipping their staff with training to at least recognise mental health disorders and to take some action in attempting to connect probationers to existing services.

Government co-ordination of payment by results (NAO 1)
PbR schemes are typically targeted at intractable, multi-faceted social problems with the hope that an outcome-focused approach will encourage innovation and more holistic responses. If government departments cannot even co-ordinate their commissioning around PbR, it will be very difficult for providers to design and deliver new solutions.
Employ Russell
Russell has over 20 years’ experience as a researcher and consultant specialising in substance misuse and crime.
Prison, probation, police, substance misuse, commissioning & payment by results.
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