Pilot for Identifying Unmet Needs Between Local Authorities and Probation Services

The Secretary of State for Justice (“MOJ”) has a strategic objective to reduce reoffending and improve public protection by enabling more effective, data-informed decision-making within probation services. HMPPS have expressed the need for a pilot in which a supplier will test the hypothesis that access to Local Authority data will add capacity into the probation system and enable frontline staff to perform their feasibility of surfacing cross-system data to probation officers and commissioners. The insights generated will support risk and needs assessments, sentence planning, and commissioning decisions.

The Ministry of Justice intends to award a contract to Newton Consulting Limited (the “Supplier”) for 6 months (plus optional 3 month extension) at a maximum contract value of £800,000 to test whether: (a) Local Authorities (“LA”) hold data on unmet need that can drive effectiveness in sentence management for use by probation practitioners; and (b) HMPPS can serve that data to probation services.

The supplier is required to design and deliver a pilot that enables probation services to access cross-system data such as mental health, housing, education, and substance misuse indicators; to identify unmet needs among people on probation. The pilot will involve 5–10 local authorities or equivalent data holders and their corresponding Probation Delivery Units (PDUs).