Recommendation 2

HM Government Acknowledged

The impact of Covid-19 required HMPPS to put temporary changes to the delivery of services in place, which were necessary to ensure the safety of service users and staff, as well as to ensure the stability of suppliers and to continue service delivery. These changes were set out in various Exceptional Delivery Models (EDMs). For CRCs, this was achieved through enacting Cabinet Office guidance set out within Public Procurement Notice PPN02/20 and PPN04/20, to continue payment to suppliers so they are better able to cope with the crisis and resume normal service delivery to fulfil their contractual obligations when the pandemic is over. Our application of Cabinet Office guidance included ensuring that CRCs maintained continuity in meeting their contractual payment obligations to their supply chain providers, who include various third sector and other organisations who provide services to service users. This ensured that that charities and other organisations who provide probation services on contract with the CRCs were able to remain active and be in the best possible position for recovery to resume the provision of services again. The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS have issued further regular guidance to CRCs since March 2020 based on the Exceptional Delivery Models (EDMs) that have defined the service and delivery requirements for the CRC suppliers at each stage of the Covid-19 restrictions that maximised service delivery within the confinements of the pandemic and social distancing guidelines. While a number of mostly group activities were reduced, including the temporary suspension of unpaid work placements and accredited programmes, supervision of offenders in the community continued, with resources focused on managing the high risk and very high risk of harm offenders. Offender management practices were adjusted in line with the Government’s social distancing policy and lockdown restrictions, and the majority of offenders were supervised remotely via telephone, or video conference facilities. Where technology was used to supervise, the frequency of such contact was doubled. At the start of lockdown, contractual changes were put in place to ensure that each CRC supplied a detailed EDM highlighting their approach to offender management. Each EDM was subject to a robust level of scrutiny by a Gold Command structure introduced within the Probation service. This required sign off at Director (SCS2) level for implementation of any changes to EDMs. CRC delivery under the EDMs is assured and monitored closely by the regional HMPPS Contract Management Teams (CMT) who undertake compliance monitoring activity against the CRC contracts, alongside thematic audit and assurance activity conducted by the HMPPS Operational and System Assurance Group (OSAG) to ensure contracted services continue to be delivered. Whilst initial findings from EDM assurance identified an inconsistent approach in some areas across the CRCs, resulting in varied compliance with the EDM requirements, CMTs and OSAG have worked with CRCs to respond quickly to these initial challenges. As a result, minimum standards of delivery were designed and implemented, which have brought alignment across key areas such as offender contact and risk management. Additional assurance activities were put in place to monitor this and reported to the HMPPS SLT to ensure service delivery is continued as safely as possible. The HMPPS Probation Reform Programme provides important context to the recovery approach being applied by HMPPS and CRC contract management. HMPPS need to ensure that as pre-Covid-19 contracted services are recommenced as we move towards recovery, the transition to the new model services from June 2021 is factored into this progress. CRC recovery strategies are therefore in line with the HMPPS Roadmap to Recovery, which is now progressing away from the financial relief that was in place at the peak of the pandemic, towards restoring services and business-as-usual conditions as far as is practicable with social distancing measures. HMPPS have put in place various systems to monitor and manage the recovery of the different areas of probation, including developing a comprehensive recovery dashboard to measure key milestones, such as Unpaid Work (UPW) delivery, and increased use of face to face supervision. These systems are being governed by: • A Director of Recovery who chairs a National Recovery Board • 12 regional recovery boards, each chaired by the Regional Probation Directors, who lead on the implementation of recovery at a regional level • A number of recovery work streams set up to enable operational, policy and commercial input, discussions and challenges across different areas of CRC service delivery. The recovery workstreams include specific services such as Unpaid Work and Accredited Programmes so that the appropriate level of focus is put on these key elements of probation. These boards and workstreams are monitoring the models of deliver