Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Long-term accommodation outcomes for prison leavers remain challenging despite HMPPS investments.
Recommendation
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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states that detailed evaluation plans are now in place to assess the effectiveness of HMPPS investment in resettlement, with impact evaluations expected to be complete and findings available by summer 2024 to inform future planning. For some initiatives, findings will be available beyond 2024, with interim findings provided by autumn 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 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. 5.3 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. 5.4 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. 5.5 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.