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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?

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.

Mark George QC uses twitter to sound off about the things that matter to him
Mark George is a Queen’s Counsel at Garden Court North Chambers, and specialises in civil liberties

Who should you follow on Twitter?
When should you follow someone on Twitter? When most of us start tweeting, we follow anyone and everyone. Anyone that crops up in our friends’ timeline and definitely anyone who follows us. After a while, though, it pays to start becoming a bit more discerning. There’s only so many people you can realistically follow. At least if you want to actually read what they Tweet. Some of my best virtual friends don’t follow me because I tweet too much for their taste.

Blogger Ollie Evans, @dietjustice, on how Twitter has grown up
Ollie Evans, @dietjustice, is the founder of Diet Justice, a popular online community originally launched as a

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.”
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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