Despite an expressed intention from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for the probation commissioning process to be open to all voluntary organisations - the commissioning of day one services favoured larger, well-resourced organisations and disadvantaged smaller, local and specialist ones.
Using evidence gathered from our survey of 241 voluntary organisations and 8 interviews in May-June 2021, we've launched our report on the voluntary sector's experience of the probation reform programme during the commissioning of day one services.
Our report finds that the commissioning process was complex, cumbersome and bureaucratic and the financial costs of working to be involved were significant. Organisations also found it challenging to receive support from HM Prison and Probation Service when they had difficulties.
Many small, specialist organisations were unable to engage with the commissioning process due to the financial thresholds that needed to be reached being too high; the geographical footprint of contracts too large; and the information required during the process being disproportionate.
We recommend that in order to encourage and facilitate the engagement of small, specialist organisations in commissioning processes to ensure true diversity of providers, grants should be the default funding option for voluntary sector organisations.
The report makes nine recommendations aimed at supporting future commissioning processes and engagement with voluntary sector organisations delivering rehabilitation and resettlement services. We continue to work constructively with the MoJ and HMPPS to explore how they can implement our recommendations and ensure the voluntary sector are meaningfully involved. At the report's launch event Jim Barton, Senior Responsible Officer for Probation Reform, HMPPS outlined the work currently underway to respond to our findings. See highlights from the event here
Read in full here
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