By Richard Johnstone | 6 February 2014
The Ministry of Justice has begun formal contract talks with potential private and third sector providers of rehabilitation services as it prepares to introduce payment-by-result contracts to cut reoffending rates.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced today that discussions had begun with the 30 bidders for contracts, which will be awarded on a regional basis in 21 lots across England and Wales.
Under the government’s reforms, every offender released from prison receives at least 12 months supervision and rehabilitation in the community in a bid to stop them returning to crime as part of a nationwide resettlement service.
Providers of this service will be paid based on their ability to stop former prisoners reoffending, and will work closely with a wide range of partners to do so, including the police, local authorities, the Youth Justice Board and Youth Offending Teams.
The use of payment-by-results deals in the sector has been criticised since it was first announced by Grayling in October 2012. However, he said today the reform would address the ‘glaring gap’ in provision that means 50,000 short sentenced prisoners are released every year with no support.
Action was needed to tackle ‘stubbornly high reoffending rates’, he added. ‘By bringing together the skills of a much wider range of organisations – who can make greater use of methods like mentoring to turn offenders’ lives around – we can at long last begin to crack our sky-high reoffending rates.
‘This unacceptable problem has dogged successive governments for decades and our plans will finally allow us to tackle it.’
Successful bidders will be given detailed targets setting out the reductions in reoffending they will be required to achieve in order to be paid in full, the MoJ said.
An updated operating model for the reforms will also be published shortly explaining how the new system will work on the ground, including the number of regions and contracts, as well as how providers will be inspected.
