Recommendation 22

MoJ told us it is working with HMPPS to better understand what works best on accommodation support for prison leavers.52 Outcomes have remained stable in recent years despite HMPPS’ investments, with 76% of prison leavers from April 2022 to February 2023 in settled accommodation after three months, compared with 75% in 2021–22.53 In its March 2023 inspection of post-release support for prison leavers, HMI Probation found that HMPPS’s flagship initiative to provide 84 days of housing to prisoners at risk of homelessness (Community Accommodation Service Tier 3, or CAS3) was working well but securing longer-term accommodation for prison leavers remained difficult.54 HMPPS told us that finding housing in some parts of England and Wales is challenging, and it needs to do more to understand how to improve the long-term outcomes for prison leavers.55 HMPPS plans to compare outcomes for CAS3 against control groups in late 2023 to isolate the effectiveness of the service in improving accommodation outcomes.56 46 C&AG’s Report, para 3.7 47 Qq 86, 94 48 C&AG’s Report, para 3.10 49 Q86; C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 50 Q86 51 Qq 11, 15, 22, 85 52 Q3 53 C&AG’s Report, para 1.15–1.18 54 C&AG’s Report, para 1.20 55 Qq 8–9 56 C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 Resettlement support for prison leavers 15