Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers
Published 11 Nov 2023
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving resettlement support for prison leavers All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
HMPPS told us it is seeking to improve the conditions of service for existing staff to assist with staff retention. It has implemented a new three-year pay deal and increased its focus on staff development and wellbeing. We asked whether pay increases would reduce the amount of resettlement funding available for other activities, HMPPS acknowledged that getting both the right number of staff and rate of pay was a “constant balancing act” but insisted that investing in its staff was a priority. HMPPS told us it has recently seen a slight improvement in the rate of retention for probation officers.35 27 Qq 77–79 28 Q42 29 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.6–2.8 30 Q57 31 C&AG’s Report, para 2.8 32 Q35 33 Qq 32, 43 34 Q58 35 Q57, 115 12 Resettlement support for prison leavers Commissioning resettlement support
From: Public Accounts Committee, Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers (HC 1329), 11 November 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 February 2024 (deadline 11 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on resettlement support for prison leavers, giving target dates for several of them.
- On inequalities, HMPPS is planning a programme of work to understand disparities in resettlement outcomes, and says that "By April 2025" it will deliver this analysis across prioritised thematic areas.
- On an action plan, HMPPS will "respond to the Committee by the six-month deadline" and says its plan will aim for "an adequate and consistent resettlement service" for all prison leavers by April 2025.
- On substance misuse, MoJ and the Department of Health and Social Care will develop a proposal on metrics, and the government says it will publish these metrics routinely, with a target implementation date of summer 2024.
- On evaluation, impact evaluations are "expected to be complete" by summer 2024, though findings on impact for some initiatives will only be available beyond 2024.