Appendix E: Changes in the Local Delivery Landscape - The Offender Management Act 2007
The Offender Management Act (2007) aims to improve the delivery of probation services to reduce re-offending and better protect the public. It will do so by enabling the establishment of probation trusts (replacing probation boards) and supporting the development of the commissioning of probation services in greater partnership with providers in the voluntary, charitable and private sectors.
Commissioning will take place at national, regional, and local levels. The national commissioning and partnership framework will set out NOMS’ priorities for England and Wales. The national priorities will find expression in the regional commissioning and partnership plans, which will also reflect the Regional Reducing Re-offending Plans developed by the Regional Reducing Re-offending Partnership Boards. These commissioning plans will be developed in full consultation with regional and local providers, and sentencers.
Regional commissioners (Regional Offender Managers), acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, will contract with lead providers for the delivery of services in a probation area. The lead provider will concentrate on the delivery of offender management, while sub-contracting much of their interventions work to other providers based on what is most effective, and who is best placed to deliver, in their local community (known as local commissioning).
Providing their performance meets the requirements, the lead provider in a probation area will be the public sector probation trust. Due to their local knowledge and relationships, Probation Trusts, as NOMS’ lead providers, have a critical role to play and will provide assistance in ensuring that access to mainstream local services are improved for offenders through both joint commissioning and partnership arrangements. The Act creates a variety of opportunities to strengthen further the relationship between community safety partnerships and NOMS in tackling re-offending:
- Supporting Regional Offender Managers commission services to improve public protection and reducing re-offending at local level, for example through joint commissioning.
- Building effective partnerships with local agencies, voluntary groups and other local partnerships such as Local Criminal Justice Boards to tackle the social exclusion faced by offenders.
- Aligning resources to support securing effective services to tackle re-offending. This will require making the necessary links between reducing crime and reducing re-offending.
