Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company Annual Service Plan 2016-17 Strategic Overview
1. Introduction This document sets out our services, our commitments, key contractual requirements and the measures on which our performance will be judged. It is our second Annual Service Plan (ASP) as a company following the government s Transforming Rehabilitation reform programme which saw ownership transfer from the Secretary of State for Justice to Working Links, a unique public, private and voluntary company on 1 February 2015. Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) operate across the South West of England and are responsible for the management of low and medium-risk offenders. Over the last year, we ve worked with almost 4,000 adult service users at any given point providing a range of offender management and rehabilitation services including: Delivering specific interventions including Community Payback and accredited programmes, as well as innovative services available for service users managed either by CRCs, the National Probation Service (NPS) or, increasingly, the wider community. Delivery of a resettlement service for all prison leavers, engaging with offenders in custody and supporting them through the prison gate into the community. Designing and delivering innovative Rehabilitation Activity Requirements (RARs) to reduce reoffending, rehabilitate service users and help them turn their lives around. Protecting the public while managing service users in the community, including identifying any changes in risk and referring high-risk cases to the NPS. We recognise the delivery landscape in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and the value achieved from the strength of partnership working and through this plan we will continue to build on these relationships. This includes joint service development focused on criminal justice priorities with strategic partners and stakeholders and we will seek opportunities to co-commission or develop new services with partners. Service integration and improvement opportunities will be taken forward with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and the NPS at every opportunity. 2 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
2. Our approach to service delivery Through our skilled workforce, evidenced best practice and strong partnerships, we are committed to delivering services which protect the public, rehabilitate service users, reduce reoffending, and make the people of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall safer. Everything we do is underpinned by our fundamental responsibility to protect the public, and we understand that risk levels of service users we manage can change. When necessary our people ensure that information is shared with partners and when risk levels rise, these are swiftly referred to the NPS. For Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC, 2015 was a year of transition and mobilisation including: Continually improving performance across the whole range of service measures that we are contractually required to deliver. The development of a Continuous Improvement Plan will assist in driving further improvements in quality this year. The introduction of new resettlement services into local resettlement prisons, supporting service users through the gate and into the community. In collaboration with our delivery partner, Catch 22, a consistent level of services are provided in all the custodial settings that we are responsible for. Most recently, together with our delivery partner PACT, we have introduced mentoring services to assist service users further where extra support is required. Our core resettlement service offer includes completing a Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCST) and Resettlement Plan, addressing immediate resettlement needs including finance, accommodation, employment, and the needs of offenders with a history of sex working or domestic violence. We also provide modular resettlement support for accommodation, employment, finance, benefit and debt, health, and family and relationships. The new RAR sentencing option has enabled us to pool best practice and develop a range of interventions and programmes that cover all of the reoffending pathways. This includes two new interventions to provide service users with the skills and resources to tackle addictive behaviours and build emotional resilience. We have continued our work with vulnerable women service users in partnership specifically working alongside specialists. We provide a credible alternative to custody and have developed specific RAR provision for female service users. Women are able to be allocated a female case manager, meet in a female only environment and be placed on female only unpaid work placements. Developing a directory of services In addition to the support provided to service users managed by the NPS and other CRCs, we have developed a service directory to broaden our service offer to other organisations in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. This presents a real opportunity to deliver new and innovative services on behalf of others in support of the wider social justice agenda. Successes in the last year have included our involvement with strategic partners and stakeholders in developing substance misuse services, restorative justice interventions and services for young people not in education, employment or training. A new commissioning strategy and Local Commissioning Board will provide us with the option of encouraging the innovation of services and refreshing our range of delivery partners so that service delivery remains relevant and based on the evidence of what works. 3 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
3. Our vision, values and strategic objectives for 2016/17 Our plans for 2016-17 are transformational and include cultural and system alignment and implementing an enabling infrastructure that supports effective service delivery while providing value for money and an outcome focused approach to case management and delivery of interventions. These plans sit within the context of the overall Working Links transformation business plan the Working Links Way. Our plans are summarised through our vision, our values and four high level objectives: Our Vision To help those we support lead healthier, happier and more productive lives that lead them away from crime and out of the criminal justice system. Our Values To take full account of public protection when assessing risk To be open and transparent To incorporate equality and diversity in all that we do, and to value, empower and support our people, and work in collaboration with others. To treat all those we support with decency and respect. To embrace change, innovation and local empowerment, and to use resources effectively to deliver value for money. Objectives We will ensure exemplary performance is achieved and we continually improve our service delivery across all areas of the organisation by: Delivering and reporting on services that satisfy the requirements of the Amended and Restated Service Agreement Implementing a performance management framework to deliver contract requirements Continuous improvement Delivering equitable services Providing effective Interface and Delivery (supply chain) Partnership. We will ensure that the Target Operating Model is implemented to ensure a smooth transition to 2016/17 and beyond by: Implementing the Target Operating Model Embedding new interventions Investing in what works Implementing Operational Hubs Implementing our estates strategy. We will work collaboratively with our stakeholders and partners locally, regionally and nationally by: Effective statutory partnerships Effective non-statutory partnerships Effective strategic partnerships Developing our services Maximising our service user compliance and engagement. We will transform our organisation through strong leadership and engagement to deliver our strategic objectives by: Ensuring our ICT Infrastructure is fit for purpose Reviewing and revising our financial processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness Maintaining an open, transparent governance framework Establishing robust organisational controls Undertaking workforce development. 4 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
4. Developing the Working Links Way The Working Links Way is underpinned by a set of key principles that allows the organisation to be agile in the way it works and how it responds to service users. It enables the business to flex and scale in line with changing business needs and wider market requirements. Practically, that means we can increase our effectiveness and efficiency while offering excellent service through a flexible workforce. For Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC, the aim is to deliver better rehabilitation outcomes through: Improved case management A new approach to case management will be introduced that reflects the evidence on the principles of the risk-need-responsivity model. This builds on a high and low intensity approach, matching the staff best qualified to meet the requirements of our service users. Where we work with service users who pose a higher risk of reoffending, these service users will work with our most skilled probation officers. Following risk assessments, for service users that pose a low risk of harm we will encourage engagement into interventions delivered from community venues and provide more remote support and advice from our Operational Hubs. Interventions Our refined range of interventions, including unpaid work and accredited programmes, has been designed to maximise the impact on reoffending, build the skills and resources of our service users and support access to other local services. Aligned to the reducing reoffending pathways, case managers will be able to select the right intervention at the right time in the knowledge that the activity is supported by evidence of what is the most effective approach and support the service user s progression. Enhanced use of peer and other mentors is proven to promote engagement and reduce programme attrition. A key element of our proposal will support service users at key transition points such as through the gate support when resettling back into communities or a peer advisor supporting service users with moving from dependency on services to other support arrangements that can be provided by a range of our partners in Community Hub environments. As a service integrator, the case manager is responsible for ensuring services are effectively sequenced to maximise rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. It will maximise the resources available directly from the CRC whilst bringing other services into alignment along the service user journey. This allows us to remodel the workforce and use the skills of our people more effectively. Our approach will be supported by a dedicated case management system and IT platform which facilitates effective sequencing of interventions and provides one view of an offender s progress. 5 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
Operational Hubs Operational Hubs are being introduced in Plymouth and then Poole. The hubs will remove routine case administration roles from frontline staff and support the maximisation of offender-facing time for case managers. One of the key principles to desistence is the quality of relationships, therefore enabling frontline probation practitioners to work closer and for longer with service users to provide a tangible contribution to reducing reoffending and ensuring that the sentence of the court is delivered. The hubs will also ensure that core Service Level Agreements on case allocations and other reporting transactions with the Authority are completed efficiently. There are key input requirements to ensure cases are managed effectively for example the production of a sentence plan. The hubs will provide support to case managers to ensure that all required information is available and that all outcomes are recorded and reported to the authorities in a timely and assured way. Redesigning the estate The Working Links Way is critical to our ambition of broadening our support to a much wider proportion of society and implementing new integrated processes and systems to enable us to also operate in shared environments. Internally this will lead to greater integration between employability and justice services, and between our frontline and support services. Externally, better integration of services will support a rationalisation of our estate footprint through the development of Community Hubs and matching office and other locations to offender volumes and patterns of accessibility. Community Hubs will contribute greatly to opportunities to promote a broader social justice agenda as a result of co-location and integrated team working across the range of partners that support service users. 6 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
5. Our commitment to service users, strategic partners and stakeholders We recognise and value the success achieved from the strength of partnership working and we will continue to build on these relationships and develop new mechanisms to receive feedback from partners, stakeholders, delivery partners and service users. A survey of key stakeholders has identified a number of areas of focus for 2016-17 including: Further enhancing the interface arrangements that have been developed to ensure the effective working relationship between Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC, the NPS and the Prison Service that are essential for the delivery of high quality services. Enhancing access to current information about the range and effectiveness of community based rehabilitation services that are available, particularly for sentencers. Statutory and non-statutory partnership requirements We will continue to engage regularly with Police and Crime Commissioners, local authorities and a broad range of well-established agencies engaged in providing services to offenders across Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. We will continue to support our statutory partnership requirements including contributing to MAPPA arrangements to manage risk of harm, safeguarding arrangements including Local Safeguarding Adults and Children s Boards, and inclusion in Local Community Safety and Local Partnership Boards. Working with delivery partners Services commissioned and managed by Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC have been reviewed. Partnership managers work actively with our delivery partners to ensure the quality of service delivery arrangements and to continue sharing good practice. We will engage and work collaboratively with other organisations where there are opportunities to improve provision in order to meet our aims. This will include funding innovation to develop services based on what works. Engaging service users We have listened to our service users through service user forums and surveys, and have incorporated what they have told us within our Continuous Improvement Plans for next year. We will also develop and implement a service user engagement strategy based on the combined learning from ourselves, Working Links, Innovation Wessex and associated CRCs. Quality assurance Our approach to continuous improvement is based on close monitoring and analysis of the formal performance metrics on an ongoing basis and on a structured approach to managing quality. A strategic and objective overview of the quality of service delivery is also provided by strategic partners Innovation Wessex, who independently assure key areas of service delivery and identify not only opportunities to develop further but also best practice that can be deployed consistently across the three CRC areas that Working Links operate. This year will also see us implement the Customer First programme which provides a quality management system that puts a high challenge and rewarding service in place to enable service users to be supported towards achieving their goals, providing clearly defined objectives, targets and measures and a shared understanding of what good looks like. Providing inclusive services We promote an inclusive culture for all our people and service users, respecting and valuing differences so that everyone can realise their full potential. 7 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview
6. Further information For further information, please contact Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC via: Email: WLJustice@workinglinks.co.uk Telephone: 0300 049 2208 8 Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC: Annual Service Plan 2016-17 - Strategic Overview