Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
It is nearly four years since the strategy was published and the Ministry does not...
Conclusion
It is nearly four years since the strategy was published and the Ministry does not yet have an overall plan to evaluate the work it and others have done in this area.56 We asked the Ministry if it had the data it needed to know what it is achieving against each of the strategy’s aims and the performance measures it will use to assess progress. It replied that it is still working on what its performance metrics will look like. To do this it needs to understand what it is it is trying to achieve, how it will know when it has got there and 47 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.9–2.10 48 Q 46 49 Qq 46, 76 50 Q 29 51 Qq 28, 66 52 Q 75; Ev CJS0013 Women in Prison submission para 3 53 C&AG’s Report, para 3.19 54 Ev CJS0011 penultimate para, page 3 55 Ev CJS0011 para 2, page 4 56 Q 45; C&AG’s Report para 3.12 Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system 15 how it is going to measure it. It told us it will soon be appointing a director general for performance strategy and analysis to focus on data and evidence.57 The Ministry told us that the governance and data are important to make sure it is investing in the right sorts of interventions.58
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
6: PAC conclusion: The Ministry does not yet know the effectiveness of its interventions, or whether it is achieving its aims. This limits its ability to identify and share best practice and to understand where it needs to invest to achieve its aims. 6: PAC recommendation: The Ministry should publish a monitoring and evaluation plan by September 2022. This should include the following: • how it will work with other government departments to evaluate the main strategy commitments and build on the evidence of what works to aid funding decisions; • the specific performance measures it will use to assess progress towards its aims. For example, how women are dealt with at various stages – before court proceedings are started, while they are progressing through the courts, and when they are sentenced; and whether they offend in future; and • how it will use performance measures, along with other qualitative methods to identify good practice in local areas and what it will do to support its adoption widely. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: Summer 2022 6.2 The Female Offenders Strategy Delivery Plan intended for publication in Summer 2022 will contain an outcomes framework, which will include clear metrics for measuring progress against commitments, drawing on a range of data sources including published evaluations, where there are sufficient samples of females for reliable analysis. 6.3 Separate from the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan, the department plans to publish an Evaluation and Prototyping Strategy later this year that reflects the strong commitment to maintaining and developing a robust evidence base that can tell us what works, for who, how and why. In line with Government Social Research Publication Protocol, the department publishes all research that generates robust and reliable information, including evaluation of interventions for female offenders.