PCA supports PBR in principle but current plans need significant refinements

Make Justice Work has today published ‘Just Results’, which is an in-depth report looking at the principles of using a Payment by Results in the delivery of offenders services.

The MJW report is a direct response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation document: Punishment and Reform: Effective Community Sentences.

Published in March 2012, the MOJ document revealed the Government was committed to applying the principles of Pay by Results to all providers of offender services by 2015.

John Wiseman, who leads on Competition and Commissioning for the Probation Chiefs’ Association, said: “It is clear the Government is determined to move ahead with Payment by Results and we are keen to work with them on how this model is developed.

“In principle we are not against PbR, however we question the Government’s proposal to have a single ‘binary’ measure for results.

“That is, success or failure should not simply be measured by whether or not someone reoffends. Credit should be given for less frequent and/or less serious offending.

“We also question whether probation trusts will be able to financially compete with the private sector, when competing for contracts.

“In addition, there is a fear private sector providers will ‘cherry pick’ and only invest in contracts where they will work with lower risk offenders and therefore will have a higher than average chance of success.

“Probation and the rehabilitation of offenders is a complex service, which needs to be delivered by skilled staff and its success measured by numerous factors.

“We ask that the Government fully evaluates all the PbR pilots they plan to run over the next four or five years, before applying these principles across probation.”

Read the full article on the Probation Chiefs Association website