RT Hon David Hanson speech to the NPS Offender Management Conference

21 November 2007

Good afternoon.

Apologies.  I am not able to be with you because of Parliamentary business; a vote in the House.

I want to start by saying a little about the new Ministry of Justice. 

The Ministry is new and ambitious.  Because it is something that underpins our society, we want the justice to be served by the best systems and processes we can create and manage.

I want this speech to give you my perspective about your service, the National Probation Service, and the wider issues facing the Government. 

I want to be honest with you about the challenges around crime and how we meet those challenges and the public expectations they provoke.

We must maintain the belief that we are capable of making progress in cutting crime, continuously.  In a decade we have seen a 42% fall in crime and a 7% reduction in reoffending.  We have seen 40% more offences brought to justice.  These are good figures, but challenges remain.

Probation is a core component within Criminal Justice, not just in the delivery of community sentences - which in themselves are impressive - but also in the work done in the Courts, in post release and, probably most importantly, in public protection. 

And probation performance continues to be strong. 

The probation service deserves recognition for its strong performance.

Reconviction research, especially recent research about the impact of programmes, is encouraging.  Your interventions are making an immediate impact on offenders' thinking, and in turn on the rates of reoffending. 

Programmes overall now show a significant impact on reconviction rates.  General programmes show an 11% reduction in reconviction, and others in anger management and sex offender treatment are higher still.

In the last full year reported, we acknowledged the Service had its best ever year in terms of performance.  The facts speak for themselves.

There were record numbers of offenders completing accredited programmes and unpaid work.  19,875 completed in year ending March 2007, 14% above the target of 17,500.

[There were] more offenders starting and completing drug requirements than in any previous year, 15,799.  That is 1,700 more than the previous year and almost exactly hitting the 16,000 target.

The highest ever rates of enforcement were reached.  92% enforced within the timescale.

The number of referrals to Skills for Life exceeded the target, 60,418; 26% above target and 15,000 more than the previous year.

Assessments on high risk and prolific offenders were made on time in around 95% of cases.

And the good work continues.  In the first quarter of this year, results show that there is one area with outstanding performance, 15 areas with good performance, 18 with passable performance and eight areas actively addressing their poor performance. 

That attention to poor performance is paying off.  Early indications from the second quarter of this year show further improvement.  Fewer probation areas are performing poorly and are none performing poorly in service delivery.

As ever, you as probation staff continue to reliably manage offenders in large numbers with more than just competence, but with energy, expertise and commitment. 

As a minister, I know we are lucky that staff bring those qualities to their work.  I think I understand something of what motivates you and them, and I am quite prepared to accept that it is probably not based on anything that comes just from Whitehall or Westminster. 

I understand that their motivation is connected to a sense of vocation, to professionalism and to the personal reward of making a discernible difference to the lives of individuals; whether it be the lives of offenders, their victims or indeed their families.

I have been lucky to be visiting probation since I started this job and I have met very many impressive people and seen the work that they do.

These achievements are good news but part of a very tough reality. 

It is the job of the ministerial team to constantly seek answers to some very blunt and difficult questions.

How can we improve on reducing reoffending?

How can we manage pressures on resources, both in probation and prison, on a finite budget?

How can we build co-operation across a system of distinct organisations and professions?

How do we protect people caught up in the system who patently should not be there?

And it is no accident that the first strategic objective of the Ministry of Justice is about reducing reoffending.

Our objective is to reduce reoffending and protect the public:  To do it by ensuring that the punishment fits the crime; by ensuring that violent and dangerous offenders remain in prison for as long as they remain dangerous; by breaking the cycle of reoffending through increased use of effective community penalties and rehabilitation; and by bringing more offences to justice and enforcing orders of the court.

It is part of our response to these imperatives that we are focussing on not just one change, but several. 

Both probation and prison have had steadily rising numbers, for a range of reasons.   The total number of community sentences increased by 57% in ten years to 2005. 

We are constantly nudging prison's maximum capacity and, equally, probation is stretching to accommodate the demands of a rising caseload. 

You will also be aware that we can no longer expect the resources that have considerably grown the service over seven years to continue, and, because of financial constraints - not reforms, incidentally - probation areas are anticipating that possibly staff numbers will begin to decline after a very long period of growth. 

In the next few months we expect the publication of Lord Carter's findings on the supply of prison places and the building programme. 

We have the Corston Report, on women in criminal justice, to which we are due to reply shortly.  We are indicating that our work with women offenders will change.  There is a clear expectation that we should be better linking services together and coming up with different types of services and facilities to those we have now. 

Finally, the strategic plan for reducing re-offending is just about to be released for consultation and it will look for new ways to meet the challenging targets set for us in public service agreements. 

The consultation builds on the well-known assumption that reoffending by ex-prisoners alone costs the country about £11 billion per year.  The plan will expect us to be much more assertive in accessing services for offenders that probation cannot and should not provide itself.

And we need to continue the reforms linked to NOMS. 

For me and for Government, NOMS' reforms are an important step in structuring services differently; in making sure greater emphasis is placed on what offenders need - either individually or collectively as women, as people with mental health problems or as drug addicts, or indeed as members of minority ethnic groups, and so on. 

The change to probation trusts, and the local, regional and national commissioning that accompanies it, is one of the things that will enable this shift to happen.

It was heartening to see more that half of the Probation Boards put themselves forward as potential first wave trusts. 

Let me be the first to acknowledge that the Offender Management Act that enables the creation of trusts was a long time coming and I do not underestimate how much additional work the change will demand, but believe you me there will be some benefits and freedoms that will accrue to the new Trusts.

Let me give you some examples:  Not being required to deliver a service on any terms.  In other words, it is the Secretary of State, not the probation trust who will be the provider of last resort.

Three year funding:  Trusts will be given three year indicative funding.  They will be able to negotiate changes to the service specification, subject to a central sign off procedure.

Trusts will be able to negotiate change through a notice of change procedure of any of the central requirements that might have resource implications.

And trusts will be able to put in a business case if they wish to change things such as the national IT or facilities management.

And, of course, there is the roll-out of offender management. 

Your technical knowledge of offender management is greater than mine, but I am as keenly aware as anyone else of the progress and the need to embed and consolidate what we have already achieved.  The fundamental principles of the new model are penetrating professional practice and, both in the community and in prison, feedback from staff and offenders has been very positive.

Let me assure you, it is not a change for change's sake.  It is a change that can offer a different and better way of working with offenders, with better outcomes.

So we have first Corston, now Carter and, from April 2008, a new plan to reduce reoffending to meet our targets.  We have the NOMS reforms to both probation structure and practices. 

It is a list of challenges and changes that when taken separately are daunting, but when put together can be colossal. 

Are we over-facing ourselves and you with change?

My answer to this is no. 

As a Government, we have a duty to respond where we feel an improvement that can be made.  We have to be open to ideas and we must be prepared for the extra work and cost that these changes bring. 

But more reassuring to me still is that there is a common logic that binds these changes together. 

In each change we wish to see the offender and the professional responsible for them as close to the centre of decision-making as possible.

In each change we want to see boundaries between organisations or professions reduced or removed.

And in each change we want to enable an offender get the right service, in the right place, at the right time and, of course, at the right cost to the taxpayer.

In each change we want to create synergy with other partners in different disciplines, services or sectors, rather than the strain that can occur now.

In each change, we want people to be in the right part of the system for the right length of time - to properly punish, help, change or control - and to make sure that finite resources are used where they will make the most difference.

And in each change we want the activity to be understood and recognised as valid when held up to inevitable public scrutiny.

These are constants that we will apply. 

And we will apply them is because it will help us to reducing reoffending and reduce crime.  They, and the outcomes they bring, fit squarely into the objective of the Ministry of Justice.  And, beyond the Ministry of Justice, as the chair of the inter-ministerial group on Reducing Reoffending, I know my colleagues across Government are equally committed to finding shared solutions to crime and reducing reoffending.

I think that you and your boards - especially those confident in their own strengths - will benefit from the new developments and the opportunities that will ultimately present themselves. 

There is already success in the system that demonstrates that we are already getting much right, but I am sure that many of you will feel ready to do more. 

I will do what I can to support you. 

I am grateful for the chance to speak to you and I am sorry that I couldn't join you. 

I know we will work hard together in the next 12 months to make a real difference to reoffending.