Wales Office Minister congratulates Wales Probation Trust on selection for ground-breaking trial
Wales Office Minister David Jones** **has today welcomed the announcement that the Wales Probation Trust will play its part in trialling a revolutionary…
Wales Office Minister David Jones** **has today welcomed the announcement that the Wales Probation Trust will play its part in trialling a revolutionary approach to managing offenders on community sentences.
The Wales Probation Trust has been chosen alongside Staffordshire & West Midlands to trial the programme with an aim to reduce reoffending rates in the UK. The approach is being taken as part of the UK government’s world-leading Payment by Results (PbR) programme.
Mr Jones said:
“I am very pleased that the Wales Probation Trust has been selected to drive forward such an important programme.
“They now have a unique opportunity to play an important part in re-shaping the criminal justice system. By building long and lasting relationships with our partners in the private, public and third sectors, we can harness the enthusiasm and exciting ideas that they have to help us to make significant reductions in the rates of reoffending by those serving community sentences.”
The Trusts will build partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors to help deliver frontline services across their communities for up to 2000 offenders. They will now be working closely with the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to finalise the exact details of their approach.
The four-year pilots, beginning in 2013, will allow the government to test how current public sector providers can engage with the PbR approach with the aim of applying the principles of PbR to all providers by 2015.
The pilots will test a new risk transfer model, where the Trusts form an innovative commercial partnership with an external provider to deliver services. This new delivery organisation will be rewarded if it achieves a reduction in reoffending, and will bear the risk of non-payment should it fail to meet its targets
By focusing on outcomes, the schemes will encourage providers to target their efforts where they can achieve the greatest success and encourage professional discretion in the management of offenders.