Nacro's response to Breaking the Cycle Green Paper

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Breaking the Cycle: Nacro’s response | 10necessitates a widening of the market so that new players and new cross-sector collaborationshave an opportunity to show what can be done to reduce crime, the fear of crime andreoffending in local communities.Q9How can we incentivise and support the growth of integrated offendermanagement (IOM) approaches?Nacro supports the principles encapsulated by IOM and believes that lessons learned fromthese approaches should be taken forward in new approaches to offender management,irrespective of who provides these services. These approaches must be supported by:• joined-up information systems using the latest technological advances• a clear articulation of what can be achieved through IOM in a way that the public will understand.Success is also highly dependent on the willingness of communities to engage, and the extentto which voluntary organisations are embedded as service delivery partners. Participation byvoluntary organisations requires a coherent commissioning framework and greater opportunitiesfor participation. Whilst there are other factors which affect the rate of reoffending (eg, changesin the macro economy and changes in the age of the local population) the centrality of integratedsystems of offender management is a critical component.Some practical measures that could be taken forward include the following:• Targeting early intervention approaches to address the needs of those most at risk ofoffending, using integrated multi-agency approaches to prevent crime and antisocialbehaviour to coincide with better enforcement measures.• Providing financial rewards (by way of savings produced through a reduction in the use of custodybeing made available for reinvestment in local services) for local authorities that successfullyuse early intervention to achieve reductions in demand on the criminal justice system.• Increased use of pilots – predicated on locality-based commissioning and payment byresults – where their objectives join up the reduction of crime, fear of crime and reoffending.• Providing holistic services for vulnerable women which bring together provision in relation todomestic and sexual violence with support to address mental health, drug and alcohol misuseissues to bring about positive benefits for children (which in turn reduces their risk of offending).• Targeting groups currently under-served by specialist support, particularly young adultoffenders (aged 18 to 24) and enabling approaches currently reserved for those under 18 tobe trialled, with payment-by-results incentives built in.Q10 How can we ensure that providers from the voluntary and community sectorcan be equal partners in the delivery of this integrated approach?Over the last decade there have been numerous government initiatives to encourage greaterparticipation by the voluntary sector in the delivery of services to reduce reoffending. Many
Breaking the Cycle: Nacro’s response | 11of these have failed and, in this context, the aim of voluntary and community sector (VCS)organisations being equal partners is somewhat ambitious.The Treasury’s Cross-Cutting Review on The Role of the Voluntary and Community Sector inPublic Service Delivery (September 2002) made recommendations to increase the provision ofpublic services by the VCS. A National Audit Office report in June 2005 showed that, despitegovernment commitment, there had been only a modest increase in the level of servicesdelivered by the VCS, although most of the recommendations from the review had beenimplemented and the problems preventing progress were well known.In order to address this, the then government agreed in January 2006 to adopt measuresthat would ensure a step-change in VCS engagement in the delivery of public services. Keydepartments – including Health, Education and Skills, Trade and Industry and Work andPensions were required to participate in a cross-departmental initiative. The Home Office hada key role to play, as set out in the NOMS’ Action Plan for Working with the Voluntary Sector.These steps included:• issuing guidance to probation areas on key areas of service for delivery by the VCS• setting a target of 10% outsourcing by probation areas to the VCS and private sector• assisting probation areas to prepare for operation in a mixed market in preparation for theintroduction of full contestability• identifying exemplar projects which could be applied at a national level• the funding of pilot programmes through the Change Up initiative, exploring ways of utilisingmainstream voluntary sector infrastructure to support VCS organisations working withoffenders.As the new commissioning landscape develops, government and VCS organisations mustmake a compelling case which fully outlines the unique contribution the charity sector makes(and could make even better if given more opportunity to take part) in the delivery of offendermanagement. Only some local and community groups currently have the resources to competein a world of competitive tenders and payment by results but without these groups, it isimpossible to reach the harder to help and help the harder to reach.It is crucial that, particularly in the transition to payment by results, government works closelywith the charity sector to secure the type of leadership required to ensure that charities do notdrown in the maelstrom created by local public sector spending cuts, and that they can findthe investment they need for growth as they gear up to take part in managing larger volumes ofoffenders. This includes helping to identify and enrol investors who may be attracted to investin programmes which reduce reoffending and make communities safer and feel safer.Amidst all the debate around the need for all service specifications to require partnership bidswhich include VCS agencies as key delivery partners, the most important point to recognise isthat it will not be possible to reduce reoffending without involving the VCS. It therefore makesgood business sense to support the sector during this period of transition and to invest inbuilding the sector’s capacity where it embraces the notion of payment by results.
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Nacro's response to Breaking the Cycle Green Paper

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