The Government’s Strategy for reducing re-offending

Half of all crime is committed by people who have already been through the Criminal Justice system. This costs £11bn per year for ex-prisoners alone. Around 59 per cent of all adult offenders and about around 80 per cent of young offenders released from custody are re-convicted within two years of completing their sentence. Consequently, the Government has to be serious about reducing re-offending and has established three main priorities for achieving this. These are:

  1. Engaging employers through the Reducing Re-offending Corporate Alliance linked to the Skills strategy and the outcome of the Leitch Review of Skills
  2. Building on the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service and developing a Campus Model to include a package of rights and responsibilities to motivate and engage offenders (see the section on OLASS below)
  3. Reinforcing the emphasis on skills and jobs in prison and probation using unpaid work in the community, work opportunities in prisons, with a particular focus on developing the workforce to deliver this, and using the commissioning role of the Regional Offender Managers

Employment can make a difference in reducing the level of re-offending so the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is seeking to improve the employability of offenders by establishing direct links with employers aimed at increasing the numbers of offenders going into employment. NOMS is also working with specific sectors to understand the skill and recruitment needs of employers and address any concerns they may have about employing offenders. Taking a sector approach also enables links to be developed with small and medium size enterprises as well as large employers.

The first priority, which is essentially seeking the help of private industry, illustrates the government’s view that the criminal justice system cannot achieve the task alone. Indeed, in November 2005, Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland announced the Government was developing three ‘alliances’ to make a major contribution to reducing re-offending. These are:

  • Corporate Sector Alliance – developing a dialogue with businesses at all levels about how they can work with correctional agencies to improve the training and employability of offenders
  • Civic Alliance – working with Local Authorities and other public service deliverers to ensure that work to resettle and re-integrate offenders into communities is mainstreamed through local services
  • Faith and Voluntary and Community Sector Alliance – drawing on the expertise and ability of this sector to reach those disengaged or whose services are not catered for by main stream public sector organisations

National steering groups have been set up for the three alliances and Regional Reducing Re-offending Partnerships have been challenged with taking forward the development of these three alliances at a local and regional level. It is hoped that they, along with the prison service’s own provision, will be able to make significant contributions towards effective sentence planning that is linked to the seven pathways for reducing offending.