Restriction and Rehabilitation: Getting the Right ... - Ministry of Justice

8.7 This inspection found that the lack of ‘move on’ accommodation from approved
premises continued to be a major problem. Only 16 out of 25 cases in the sample
had appropriate move on accommodation. This caused frustration for staff and
resulted in offenders staying in approved premises longer than was necessary.
Accommodating offenders under the age of 25 continued to be another problem as
the available options were limited by the rules around housing benefit.
8.8 In 81% of cases examined in this inspection, sufficient work had been undertaken
to address accommodation when linked to offending. The degree of involvement
by probation trusts with the Supporting People Programme varied. Half of the
trusts were still finding it difficult to get all the local authorities signed up to their
plans.
8.9 Probation trusts needed to identify links between the priorities in the Local Area
Agreement and the Supporting People arrangements to ensure resource allocation
to offenders. In April 2010, the Supporting People budget will transfer to the Local
Authority Area Based Grant and only focus on the delivery of services prioritised
within the Local Area Agreement.
8.10 In Wales, local authorities had a duty to assess all offenders for accommodation
needs and the housing department in North Wales was said to have a good
understanding of the issues for offenders.
Practice example
North Wales Probation Area was training private property owners about MAPPA to
increase the range of private rented provision. In addition, joint working with NACRO
and the Roof project had proved successful in providing sexual offenders in local
authority housing with the necessary tenancy support. Good communication between
Denbighshire Housing, NACRO and the probation service ensured effective information
exchange to manage RoH.
8.11 Floating support projects, supporting MAPPA and the management of high RoH
offenders were available in most trusts. The projects provided offenders with
support to obtain and maintain independent housing and had the benefit of being
responsive to the individual needs of the offender. Other trusts had developed rent
deposit schemes to support moves into private rented accommodation. There was
good joint working with the police who checked the appropriateness of the
accommodation.
8.12 One hostel provided enhanced supervision for critical public protection cases, as
shown by the following example.
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