Transforming Rehabilitation - a revolution in the way we manage offenders

Overview

‘Transforming Rehabilitation – a revolution in the way we manage offenders’ describes the Government’s proposals for reforming the delivery of offender services in the community to reduce reoffending rates whilst delivering improved value for money for the tax payer.

The proposals set out in the consultation paper include:

• opening the majority of probation services to competition, with contracts to be awarded to providers who can deliver efficient, high quality services and improve value for money;
• commissioning to be managed centrally, with specifications informed by local delivery requirements within 16 regional contract package areas, to generate economies of scale and deliver efficiencies, whilst responding to local needs;
• contract package areas to align closely with other public service boundaries, to support more integrated commissioning in the future;
• more scope for providers to innovate, with payment by results as an incentive to focus on rehabilitating offenders – we expect to see increased use of mentors and an emphasis on addressing offenders’ ‘life management’ issues;
• key functions to remain within the public sector, including the direct management of offenders who pose the highest risk of serious harm.
   

We have already consulted on the principles behind many of the proposals in the consultation paper through the ‘Punishment and Reform: effective probation services’ consultation. We now wish to undertake a shorter, focused consultation exercise, as although many of the underlying themes and issues are the same, our latest proposals contain some significant differences.

In Part B of the paper (‘Extending our reform programme’), we are seeking a wide range of views on further proposals which could support our reforms.

In Part C ‘(System specification questions’), we set out some detailed issues on which we particularly want the views of current practitioners, sentencers and potential providers, as we finalise the operational design of the new system.

Responses to this consultation should be submitted to us by 22 February 2013.