The Ministry of Justice has set out plans to ‘radically reform’ criminal justice, to punish offenders, protect the public and reduce reoffending and a return to “what the public wants from the criminal justice system: punishment and protection” But is this what the sector needs to “break the cycle of crime and reoffending”?
Key Questions to be addressed will include:
- Will Payment by Results (PbR) become just another way of implementing targets?
- Or just another ‘untested’ approach as the probation and HMP Leeds PbR pilots have been ‘paused’?
- Can PbR become an effective payment model for contractors, utilising taxpayer money more efficiently?
- Will PbR encourage an environment of innovation and a thriving marketplace of providers to be built?
- Will providers have the resources to invest?
- Can contractors wait that long to be paid? How long is ‘long’?
- Can the MoJ find the sweet spot between risk and reward that encourages competition?
- Could the voluntary sector afford to compete or even take part?
- How can ‘success’ be determined and who can claim that result when there may have been multiple interventions involved in achieving it?