Official Statistics

Annex 2 - Community Accommodation Service - statistical guidance

Published 30 July 2026

Applies to England and Wales

1. Community Accommodation Service

1.1 Community Accommodation Service Tier 1 (CAS1)

Community Accommodation Service Tier 1 (CAS1) provides temporary residential accommodation within Approved Premises (AP), with intensive supervision and structure to support individuals leaving custody who are assessed as posing a higher risk of serious harm.

The core purpose of CAS1 is to protect the public by addressing and managing the complex needs and behaviours of residents within a rehabilitation and recovery-focused environment. In female AP, this support is specifically designed to meet the needs of women in the criminal justice system.

1.2 Community Accommodation Service Tier 2 (CAS2)

Community Accommodation Service Tier 2 (CAS2) is a contracted service which provides short-term accommodation for those who have no suitable accommodation and may otherwise be held in custody. The service is available for those on bail, home detention curfew, on licence and at risk of recall due to loss of accommodation, and by discretion to those to be released as homeless at conditional release date.

CAS2 was previously known as the Bail Accommodation and Support Service (BASS).

CAS2 provides up to 2 hours of support per week to each resident; provision of CCTV in all female properties and several other properties; provision of Wi-Fi in all sites with the issue of a basic smartphone to all residents and has introduced wheelchair accessible bed spaces in some areas.

The CAS2 contract was previously supplied by Stonham, part of Home Group, from June 2010 until 17 June 2018. Nacro supplied the BASS contract from 18 June 2018 to October 2022 and commenced delivery of the replacement CAS2 service from October 2022.

1.3 Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3)

Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) was launched on 19 July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ basic accommodation for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness.

The service was initially launched in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; Kent, Surrey and Sussex; and East of England). Delivery of CAS3 in Wales, through grant funding arrangements with Welsh Local Authorities, commenced in June 2022, and mobilisation of the service in the remaining six probation regions in England commenced in May 2023, with full national coverage from December 2023.

2. Data quality

As cases for each Community Accommodation Service (CAS) are extracted from a live digital service, in a minority of cases, retrospective changes to referral and placement dates may be made for cases in previously published performance years. Figures for previous performance years are taken from the previous year’s published figures, rather than being changed to match minor internal variations in referral and placement numbers.

2.1 Change to Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) digital service

For CAS3, 2021/22 is reported as a partial performance year from July 2021 onwards, as the CAS3 service did not exist prior to this point.

From December 2023 all probation regions used a new digital service to make referrals and manage CAS3 bookings.  Prior to this, all CAS3 referrals and bookings were managed through manual processes.

The new digital service now enables probation practitioners and regional probation Homelessness Prevention Teams (HPTs) to access an online platform through which they make CAS3 referrals and manage bookings. The platform pulls through data directly from the HMPPS case management system (nDelius), improving the efficiency of the service and data quality. Referrals are completed by probation practitioners via the digital service and submitted to regional HPTs who assess the referrals, make bookings, and manage the bookings in the digital service.

All referrals and bookings in England are now managed through the digital service. Due to operational differences, Wales continues to use the manual system for referrals, but subsequent bookings are managed by HPTs on the digital service. 

The CAS3 data from the digital service are merged, updated and quality assured monthly.

3. Definitions and processes

3.1 Placements

Community Accommodation Service (CAS) placement volumes count eligible referrals that have a recorded start date, meaning that the person on probation has begun their CAS placement, and has physically moved into a CAS property.

It is possible during any given year for a prisoner to receive more than one CAS placement, both within each tier and across tiers. Where an individual has been through the CAS service multiple times they will be counted once for each placement.

The relevant performance year for each case is based on the recorded start date of the placement.

3.2 Move-on outcomes

Move-on outcomes have been provided for Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) by outcome category. The relevant performance year for each case is based on the recorded end date of the placement. For a given performance year, the number of placements and the number of outcomes will differ, as individuals can have a placement recorded in one performance year, and an outcome recorded in the subsequent performance year.

4.  Sex and gender recording

4.1 Community Accommodation Service Tier 1 (CAS1)

Sex breakdowns for CAS1 residents are calculated based on the recorded sex of residents as populated directly from the nDelius case management system.

4.2 Community Accommodation Service Tier 2 (CAS2)

Sex breakdowns for CAS2 residents are calculated based on the recorded sex of residents as populated directly from the NOMIS case management system.

4.3 Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3)

Due to differences in recording CAS3 data are broken down by gender rather than sex. Gender breakdowns for CAS3 residents are calculated based on the recorded gender of residents in the CAS3 case management system.

Prior to the introduction of the CAS3 digital service, a CAS3 resident’s gender identity was manually inputted into a CAS3 referral form by a probation practitioner. These data would either be sourced from the person on probation’s nDelius record, or if the probation practitioner believed the data were not up to date, they would ask the person on probation to confirm their gender identity and submit this on the CAS3 referral.

Since the introduction of the CAS3 digital service, all gender identity data are automatically populated onto the CAS3 referral information directly from nDelius. Where gender identity data are missing for a referral, sex data has been used as a proxy.

Across both manual and digital systems, all cases recorded as either Male or Transgender Male are aggregated as “Male”, and all cases recorded as Female or Transgender Female are aggregated as “Female”.

Due to small case numbers, cases recorded as non-binary, transgender with no specific gender identity recorded and blank cases are aggregated as “Other”.

Recording of gender within the CAS3 service may differ from recording within other official statistics, due to differences in categorisation and recording point. The recording and aggregation method used for gender recording in CAS3 will be kept under review and may be subject to changes in future publications.

5. CAS3 accommodation outcomes recording

Figures count accommodation move-on outcomes at the end of a CAS3 stay. CAS3 move-on outcomes data is added to the CAS3 resident’s nDelius record at the end of their stay. Outcome options include:

Settled accommodation

(i) Any accommodation that provides a permanent, independent housing solution, including:

• As a householder or house owner
• Rental accommodation (tenant) – private or social rental
• Living with friends and family (settled) – the individual can reside in that home and is able to return to that home
• Living with a friend with a bedroom available for the individual’s use and access to domestic facilities
• A caravan or boat that is viewed by the individual as their permanent home

(ii) Supported Housing - regardless of the duration or residency

(iii) Long-term residential healthcare

Transient accommodation

(i) Accommodation that is not intended to be used for more than 13 consecutive weeks. This can be any type of accommodation but is unlikely to provide a long-term solution to a housing need. For example, this may include, but is not limited to:

• Tenancies available for less than 13 weeks
• B&Bs
• Hostels
• Crisis houses
• Staying with friends/ family on a temporary basis

(ii) The individual has moved onto CAS1 or CAS2 accommodation.

Homelessness

• The individual does not have any accommodation that they are entitled to occupy, or they have accommodation they are entitled to occupy but they cannot be reasonably expected to occupy it for any reason.
  Either:
• The individual occupies a property with no legal authority or permission to do so, such as squatting
• The individual may reside in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites

Rough sleeping

(i) The individual does not have any accommodation they are entitled to occupy, or they have accommodation they are entitled to occupy but they cannot be reasonably expected to occupy it for any reason.

(ii) The individual sleeps in open air (such as on the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or encampments) or in other places not designed for occupation (such as stairwells, barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats or stations).

Recalled

• The individual has been recalled to prison for breaching licence conditions.
• The individual is unlawfully at large.

Prison

• The individual is subject to a further custodial event, separate to recall.
• The individual is being held at an immigration detention centre.

Pending

• The individual has completed their CAS3 stay but the outcome status has not yet been updated.

Unknown / blank

 The accommodation status is unknown, either because:

• The individual is awaiting assessment
• No status is recorded
• There are errors in the record

Some outcomes have been grouped into overarching categories. These include:

• “Homelessness” and “Rough sleeping” - combined into single category termed “Homeless / Rough sleeping”.
• “Recalled” and “Prison” - combined into a single category termed “Recalled / Further custody”.
• “Unknown” and missing data grouped as “Unknown / Blank”.

Figures for those whose outcome is “deceased” have not been included in the overall figures as this is not classed as an accommodation outcome.