What lessons can government learn from the insourcing of probation services?

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The new public sector Probation Service was created in 2021 to unify the outsourced management of low- and medium-risk offenders with the public sector management of high-risk offenders.

While the initial transition went well, four years on probation still faces deep structural challenges – as do other public services. The government is committed to public service reform and a ‘mission-driven’ approach, but it is not yet clear what this will look like.

So what can the government learn about improving public service reform from probation insourcing? What are the implications for Labour’s strategic review of probation governance? And what comes next for the probation service?

To discuss these questions and more, we were joined by an expert panel including: 

• Professor Harry Annison, Co-Investigator of Rehabilitating Probation Research Project, and Professor of Criminal Justice at Southampton Law School
• Helen Berresford, Director of External Engagement at Nacro
• Sam Freedman, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government
• Martin Jones CBE, HM Chief Inspector of Probation

The event was chaired by Cassia Rowland, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Government.

This event was kindly supported by Rehabilitating Probation.