Reducing reoffending and easing the pressure on prisons
By identifying and implementing common service transactions, we’ve created the foundations to keep improving and joining up services across the Probation Service
Over the past 5 years we’ve worked in partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to deliver digital services that support probation staff in reducing the chance of someone reoffending and ending up back in prison.
This has been a long term programme of work. Along the way, we’ve built up a deep understanding of how the system works today, and how we can keep on improving it for the better.
In a few days, Marianne and Adam will share our vision for the future. Today I’m going to write about the work we’ve done so far.
The role of probation staff
Staff working across Probation are integral to the Justice System. In the course of their work, they interact with people across HMPPS to support rehabilitation following a conviction. Whether that person is entering the community following a custodial sentence or serving a community based sentence.
There are a wide range of services that probation staff could call on to help any given person. That might mean, for example, providing appropriate education or supporting them with finding accommodation so they aren’t homeless on release.
For probation staff, the job can be rewarding but challenging. We know that reducing the administrative burden directly supports the Probation Service to provide better support to those who need it most.
The digital services we’ve built over the last 5 years have supported the provision of different interventions and accommodation, reducing time spent on admin and providing clearer routes to access support.
Connecting people with the right support
MoJ’s aims to reduce recidivism not only support those individuals currently serving a sentence, it also contributes to the delivery of public protection. There are many reasons that lead people to re-offend, so it’s vital to connect those individuals with the right kind of help.
Data shows, for example, that prison leavers who are homeless are 50% more likely to reoffend. Among the services we’ve helped transform are Community Accommodation Services (CAS for short). These help staff working across HMPPS to find suitable accommodation for people leaving prison and have a huge impact on people released, and in turn on the communities they’re released to.
The delivery of CAS is supported by multiple operational teams that facilitate access to different types of accommodation based on the needs of the individual.
We have identified common transactions that take place across the service to provide a more efficient and joined up experience for staff working in probation. These transactions range from submitting applications to matching a person to appropriate accommodation.
Using digital to reduce time spent on paper-based processes and provide the right information at the right time, means probation staff can spend more time supporting people which in turn leads to better outcomes.
By identifying and implementing common service transactions, we’ve created the foundations to keep improving and joining up services across the Probation Service.
Transforming legacy services
There’s a lot of legacy technology in government that has evolved over the years. As we work with government to help them transition away from legacy services like those in MoJ, it’s important we use this as a lever for service transformation and avoid shifting existing problems into new architecture.
It’s challenging to unpick systems that have been in operation for years and often support a wide range of services integral to operational activities. But we need to do this if we’re going to take advantage of advanced tech in government, improve how people work and the impact that has on end users.
When transforming a service, the first step is to identify what exists today so teams know how to move towards a future state vision.
In approaching transformation of existing products and services towards a new digital solution, we should be looking for opportunities to replace time consuming paper-based processes, extract and improve tasks conducted in legacy systems and identify any touchpoints with existing services that need to be maintained to enable continuity with operational delivery.
New systems should support individuals today, be clear and simple for teams to use and reduce reliance on institutional memory. They should also be flexible enough that they can continue to evolve to meet future needs, be that new policy or wider service integration.
‘Better services’ vs a whole-service approach
While we know we’ve built better individual services to support staff working in probation, we think there’s scope for genuine whole-service transformation.
With the new blueprint for modern digital government, there’s an opportunity to think holistically about how to reduce reoffending. Looking together at all the policy options across organisational boundaries and how interconnected services are built and operated.
We’ll share our vision for what that might look like in the next post.