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Perfect storm or a bright tomorrow – help to chose
Positive trend in the last decade:
Over most of the last decade I have been fortunate to work in a climate of positive support for those helping ex-offenders to resettle successfully. Government policy gave a higher priority to reducing re-offending after the Social Exclusion Unit 2002 report on the subject.
Greater attention to policy culminated in the Next Steps green paper of December 2006 which set up pilot schemes and an implementation plan to reduce re-offending by 10%. The Offender Learning And Skills Service was created in a spirit of optimism about educational provision to get ex-offenders into work, so they stay out of prison.
A new community focus:
If we are not careful that positive trend will be lost. I went to a meeting last week where officials from the Ministry Of Justice briefed senior staff from Third Sector organisations about progress toward the green paper scheduled for publication in November.
They sketched a policy under which the prison population will fall as greater use is made of community based sentencing. Social enterprises large and small will be given positive encouragement to help ex-offenders move successfully to a future for them without re-offending.
Uncertainty about the content:
However, when people from the social enterprises present at the meeting asked what MOJ commissioners might expect from them they got the same answer: “Misters are still looking into this”. There were no firm statements, even on the nature of the commissioning process in the context of the Big Society, let alone the criteria that might apply to measuring the efficacy of resettlement programmes. One thing was made clear. There would be greater competition in the commissioning process.
This can be viewed as an opportunity for the Third Sector. But the green paper will only point the way. The opportunity to bid for the new community based work is in the uncertain medium-term.
Cutbacks will bite too soon:
In the short-term, by which I mean by April 2011, there is a more certain and forbidding reality. Local authorities and other commissioners are already enacting cuts of 25% in budgets.
The Third Sector is not noted for being cash rich. Many of their balance sheets are not strong in that regard. Organisations may run out of cash and fold before the new opportunities arrive. John Maynard Keynes famously said: “In the long run we are all dead.” Maybe now he would be saying: “In the short run we are all dead.”
It would not be the first time that rhetoric and outcomes were different when it came to government policy. The cuts may counter the policy objective of enlisting the resources of the Third Sector by reducing those resources.
There are good reasons to believe that big cuts are coming the Third Sector’s way. Local authorities and other organisations higher up the food chain are facing big cut backs now. Operationally they will preserve core competencies and statutory requirements. Financially, making people redundant is expensive because of the exit packages that employees are entitled to.
It might not be nice, but it is close to inevitable that the burden of making painful adjustments will be passed down that food chain from the commissioners to the commissioned. It will bear most heavily on discretionary projects.
Need for an agile response:
Those of us in the Resettlement business need to be agile and inventive to find successful survival strategies. New funding sources will need to be found. Maybe Social Finance, the social investment organisation running the Social Impact Bond project at HMP Peterborough, is showing the way ahead (www.socialfinance.org.uk ).
New alliances will need to be struck. For example, 3SC is helping Third Sector organisations to build alliances (www.3SC.org). Costs will need to be squeezed form delivery processes.
TLJ is planning a new free directory of Third Sector organisations involved in the resettlement of ex-offenders. We hope this will help in spreading market information for those seeking strength through cooperation.
Input to the green paper here:
Above all, those with valuable information should be sharing it with policy makers through the consultation process. It closes at 5:00pm on Friday 24th September. So do not delay, go to:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/call-for-evidence-on-review-of-offender-learning?cat=open
