Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Set out plan for evaluating current resettlement initiatives to inform future spending reviews.
Recommendation
It is vital that HMPPS understands more about what works best if it is to get the best outcomes from its limited funds for prisoner resettlement work. Although it received £550 million in the 2021 Spending Review to reduce reoffending, MoJ says that “difficult choices” lie ahead as it looks for ways to make savings and become more efficient. It is often easiest for departments to save money through cutting spending in “discretionary” areas, such as reducing reoffending. These funding decisions are made harder given many of HMPPS’s planned evaluations for resettlement programmes are still in their early stages, so it lacks the evidence base it needs to determine the effectiveness of its investments. For accommodation support, outcomes have remained stable with 76% of prison leavers from April 2022 to February 2023 in settled accommodation after three months, compared with 75% in 2021–22. HMI Probation found that HMPPS’s flagship initiative to provide 84 days of housing to prisoners at risk of homelessness was working well but securing longer term accommodation for prison leavers remained difficult. There are some encouraging signs within employment support initiatives, with 25% of prison leavers from April 2022 to February 2023 employed after six months, compared with 17% in 2021–22. But HMPPS’s plans to evaluate its employment initiatives are still in the early stages and as of May 2023 it had no firm plans to carry out essential impact evaluations. Determining whether recent improvements in prison leavers’ outcomes are attributable to its interventions or whether they may have happened anyway will be a key challenge for HMPPS. Recommendation 5: In its Treasury Minute response, HMPPS should set out its plan for evaluating its current resettlement initiatives, including confirming how its evaluations for resettlement programmes will inform its approach in the next spending review.
Government Response Summary
The government has detailed evaluation plans in place, expecting impact evaluations by summer 2024 and early outcomes data for specific initiatives by autumn 2024, with findings informing future spending reviews.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented Detailed evaluation plans, based on best practice set out in HM Treasury’s Magenta Book, are now in place to assess the effectiveness of HMPPS investment across key elements of resettlement activity. The agency is taking a proportionate approach where interventions are subject to evaluation, prioritising those where existing evidence is limited, sample size is sufficient, and cost is high. By summer 2024, impact evaluations are expected to be complete, and findings will be available to inform planning around key interventions. Interim findings will also provide insight into the effectiveness of HMPPS’s Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS), to inform future service development. For some initiatives, findings on impact will only be available beyond 2024, due to the time required to reach a sufficient sample size and for sufficient time to pass once someone has been released from prison in order to measure whether they have reoffended. In these cases, the MoJ will use monitoring data and process evaluations to provide interim findings. By autumn 2024, outcomes data will inform early findings on the effectiveness of resettlement initiatives such as Prison Employment Leads, Employment Hubs and Resettlement Passports. The agency is continuously developing and improving its evidence base on what works to reduce reoffending, which will inform the next spending review. Where impact and economic evaluations have concluded, the MoJ and HMPPS will consider whether the evidence supports continued investment. For interventions where evaluation is ongoing, it will review whether emerging evidence supports continuing the intervention until evaluation evidence is available to support ongoing investment.