Accredited programmes are intensive behavioural programmes to help individuals move away from their reasons for offending
We’re working with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to develop their digital services for prison and probation staff and help them better manage their intervention programmes nationwide
dxw is delivering an ongoing programme of work with the Ministry of Justice to develop their digital services for prison and probation staff and give people the best chance of not reoffending.
We shared previously how we created a national refer and monitor an intervention service to help probation practitioners find suitable interventions for people, refer them to the suppliers who run these programmes, and receive regular updates about their progress.
This service originally supported one particular type of intervention, commissioned rehabilitative services, which provide a holistic offer to meet frequently occurring rehabilitative needs. Since then, we’ve been working to bring a significant new intervention, accredited programmes, into the same service model.
Accredited Programmes are behavioural programmes which aim to change the thinking, attitudes and behaviours that might lead people in prison or on probation to reoffend.
The vision of the refer and monitor service is to support a range of different types of interventions. So an important part of this project was to address the specific needs of accredited programme staff in a way that aligns with the wider service.
Outcome
The service makes it easier to find information about available programmes and reduces the time spent on administering referrals, freeing up staff to focus on the people in their care. It has also improved the quality and availability of data about accredited programmes, supporting informed decision making at local, regional, and national level.
It is one of the first shared services for staff working to support people in custody and the community, aligned with the aim of the One HMPPS programme to bring together prison and probation strategies.
What we did
Working collaboratively
Building on our previous experience with the refer and monitor service, our multidisciplinary team was able to start with a good knowledge of HMPPS’ technical, architectural and design standards.
Working in a blended team alongside MoJ staff, we benefited hugely from their specialist knowledge and expertise. By collaborating with expert stakeholders across the Department, we were able to build our understanding of the opportunities and challenges in this space and they helped us to reach the operational staff who would ultimately use the service.
We took time to consider the refer and monitor service and accredited programme processes in the context of other products and services to support better decision making in the interests of users across the organisation.
Avoiding reinventing the wheel
Our work focussed initially on the programmes delivered for people in custody. The project was then expanded to include people on probation in the community. We wanted to see if the operating model we had developed for custody programmes might be a viable solution, so we carried out a short discovery and alpha.
We focused on learning more about the community setting, running discovery interviews with probation practitioners and programme teams and mapping the referral journey in different regions. We found lots of variation in delivery approaches across the regions. But the user pain points were consistent.
We did some prototyping and with more user feedback, we refined our designs and were able to articulate specific requirements around product features and data needs.
Having reviewed possible options for the future service, we mapped out an ideal “to-be” state. The designs created for the custody setting tested well overall, and we were able to make clear recommendations showing how to adapt them for use in the community. Saving time and money.
Looking sideways
We carried out an extensive review of parallel digital projects to establish further opportunities to share and re-use design patterns, data models and technologies. This opens up potential opportunities for flexible digital components and architecture which can be adapted for future needs.
By considering shared approaches, the digital teams involved also hope to achieve a consistent experience for staff, who often interact with several services in the course of their work.
As always, to ensure a smooth handover, we worked closely with our counterparts at MoJ, documenting our processes and decision making with a clear roadmap.