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Reducing re-offending in local communities: an update to the 2005 LGA paper, 'Going Straight'

This local government policy paper sets out the LGA’s refreshed positions on reducing re-offending and probation. It outlines the factors that influence re-offending, and calls for a more coordinated and whole-system approach from Government, in order to provide appropriate support for offenders upon release.


Foreword

"Reducing reoffending is critical to creating safer and stronger communities, and tackling crime has always been a priority for local councils and the communities they represent.  The services that local authorities have responsibility for, including housing, education, employment substance misuse and mental health treatment as well as supporting families, are all of pivotal importance in helping determine whether the complex needs of many offenders are met or not, as are the relationships with the local community and stakeholders. These services can all contribute to reducing re-offending through prevention and rehabilitation.  

Re-offending rates in the country remain high, and the growing increase in the prison population has led to concerns about reducing reoffending. In 2021, the government published its Prison Strategy White Paper and set out its strategy to support prisons to reform and rehabilitate offenders. In 2023, the  Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill was passed, which should put an end to Friday Releases for the most vulnerable prisoners. 

In 2021, the Criminal Justice Inspectorate published its thematic inspection into the criminal justice system experience for offenders who experience mental needs and disorders, as well as its 2021 review into neurodivergence in the criminal justice system. Alongside this, the 2021 independent review into drugs by Dame Carole Black also drew attention to the challenges faced in the criminal justice system, and in 2023, the Howard League published its commission on crime and gambling-related harms.  

In light of these publications, the LGA decided to review and update its policy positions on re-offending and probation"

 — Councillor Heather Kidd, Chair, Safer and Stronger Communities Board

Summary of LGA's position on reducing re-offending and supporting council’s community safety teams

1. The key to a successful transition from prison to community is an integrated, multi-agency approach drawn from health, police, probation, local authorities and other agencies. 

2. Multiple factors are significant in reducing re-offending, including access to accommodation, educational and employment opportunities, support for mental health problems (including, substance and alcohol misuse and neurodivergent conditions), as well as familial support. Many needs are co-occurring and cannot be treated as stand-alone issues. 

3. Local authorities and community safety partnerships are well placed to contribute to crime reduction and should be viewed as partners and providers of services. They should have a fully funded and clearly delineated leadership role in coordinating the work of local partners in providing support to offenders returning to their communities. 

4. Government involvement needs to be consistent. There needs to be stronger and clearer communication between partners working in the prisoner and probation system – particularly regarding the release of offenders into local authority areas. It would be helpful to have greater clarity from government on strategic ownership of reducing re-offending.  

5. The prison service is struggling to recruit and retain staff whilst the prison population is growing. This will lead to a long-term rise in prison population and exacerbate the pre-existing needs of offenders which local authorities will be responsible for managing upon release. 

6. The government should explore learning from international examples of successfully reducing re-offending, including those in which small, community-based correctional facilities that focus on rehabilitation and reintegration back into society can reduce re-offending. 

7. Government can deliver safe and strong communities by giving councils the right frameworks and resources through: 

  • Adequately and directly funding Community Safety Partnerships’ vital contribution to local community safety work, clarifying roles and responsibilities within the complex community safety landscape, and providing clear guidance on effective working and identifying best practice approaches. 
  • recognising the contribution of other council services in preventative, early intervention and disruption activity that supports community safety and security, and investing in them accordingly
  • More widely, a long-term commitment to funding public health, adult social care, and social housing properly through a co-coordinated government-wide strategy to improve the nation’s health, ensure people have support for complex needs, and that people have access to a safe, secure and high-quality home. 

8. Further guidance should be provided on the data that is required to be shared under the serious violence duty. 

9. Police and probation should be leading on reoffending strategies, with consistent government involvement.  

Education and employment

10. Local authorities can produce adult educational programmes as well as provide cultural and recreational facilities. 

11. Local authorities should consider how educational programmes and councils’ role as employers can contribute to efforts to reduce re-offending. As significant employers, they may consider providing training, work experience, or employment opportunities to ex-offenders; they can also encourage other employers to do so through development and regeneration programmes. 

12. Councils are well placed to support partners to provide employment and training due to their knowledge of local labour markets.  

13. Those on community sentences and certain types of custodial sentences should be brought into regeneration programmes as part of local restorative, justice/reparation strategies. 

14. Councils should review existing patterns of adult and vocational training courses – namely moving away from courses running primarily from September to June to rolling entries to reflect varying release dates. 

15. In the youth offender population, there is an overrepresentation of children in the youth justice system who have special educational needs (SEND), but there are gaps in the current SEND code of practice meaning children in custody with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) may not be receiving the support they need.  

16. The role that undiagnosed SLCN plays in our understanding of, and responses to, children in conflict with the law has long been recognised but must be brought into sharper focus in future SEND reviews and acknowledged within the criminal justice system.

17. The government’s 2021 SEND Review: Right Support, Right Place, Right Time, acknowledges that councils are ideally placed to act as convenors of local SEND systems, bringing together health and educational partners to develop local inclusion plans. It recognises the importance of getting it right in the early years so children’s needs are identified. Early identification of needs can also contribute to preventing young people from entering the criminal justice system.   

18. Government should support the continued and expanding inclusion of restorative and reparative justice programmes in Regional Reducing Reoffending Plans, which are an important part of the criminal justice system, providing agencies with a low-cost, and moderately effective means of reducing re-offending.  

19. International success in reducing re-offending, such as in the Norwegian Correctional Service, provides good evidence to government for a reducing re-offending model that focuses on educational and employment opportunities for ex-offenders.  

Accommodation

20. Social housing provision is essential to ensure ex-offenders have access to the accommodation they require.  

21. Findings from the 2021 Dame Carole Black review into drugs also highlight the shortcomings in the availability of specialist housing support (for example ‘supported housing’, ‘recovery housing’ or ‘floating support’) tailored to meet the specific needs of the population in drug treatment. 

22. The LGA is calling for a long-term sustainable funding framework for social housing to ensure that councils have the ability to invest in and regenerate their housing stock, and to fulfil local and national ambitions of ensuring that everyone has access to a safe, secure and high-quality home.  

23. The Department of Work and Pensions, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and prisons should work more closely with local authorities and release dates need to be set in a manner that enables local authorities and partners to provide better support to ex-offenders. 

24. It was also raised that the Local Housing Allowance shared accommodation rate (SAR) is problematic for prison leavers and people on probation for whom shared accommodation might be unsuitable because of the risks that they present or the vulnerabilities that they have. There is a need to consider flexibilities that would allow exemptions from SAR in specified circumstances. 

25. Anew statutory ‘Duty to Collaborate’ to named public bodies to collaborate to prevent homelessness would place less of a burden on homelessness services alone and widen access to preventative support while encouraging partnership working across multi-disciplinary teams. This could include a requirement to collect and publish data of those who are at risk of homelessness and the action taken to prevent it. 

26. Central Government needs to reflect on and utilise the drivers and levers across Whitehall to prevent and reduce easily preventable homelessness – for example, the recent restrictions on Friday releases. This will ease the burden on local authorities and allow them to more proactively and effectively meet the housing needs of ex-offenders and those in the probation system. 

27. The LGA welcomes the announcement to end Friday releases of prisoners vulnerable to addiction, mental health issues or homelessness. In bringing release dates forward, this will ensure prison-leavers have enough time to access the right help and support to prevent them heading back towards previous criminal activities.

Individual support for offenders with mental health, substance and alcohol misuse, gambling, and neurodivergent needs

28. Many who come into contact with

29.The criminal justice system have a history of co-occurring mental health and substance misuse problems, neurodivergent conditions, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma. 

30.Mental health, drug and alcohol reduction strategies and gambling addiction strategies need to be better integrated as well as have stronger linkages with wider public health bodies at a national level. 

31.The role of finance, benefits and debt in reoffending needs to be better recognised in particular in preparing for the day of release, to ensure that prisoners are not released into an impossible financial position. 

Mental health

32. The 2021 joint thematic inspection of the criminal justice journey for individuals with mental health needs and disorders highlighted the clear need for progress and change for offenders who have mental health problems.

33. Mental illness can trigger criminal behaviour, and affect offenders' ability to understand and participate in the criminal justice process, whilst at the same time, entry to the system can provide a second chance for those who have fallen through the gap in accessing services and treatment.

34. Councils play a key role in supporting mental health in their communities, which entails maintaining good mental health, prevention of deteriorating mental health, and statutory roles and responsibilities. Mental health problems are on the increase, however, with rising demand for services and increasing complexity of needs.

35. A system-wide focus on early intervention and prevention is required. Intervening early to prevent mental health problems from developing, or to treat and support children, parents and families before problems progress is essential. This would help people leaving or within the criminal justice system with mental health problems and could help to reduce reoffending.

36. The LGA continues to call for sustainable funding for local government statutory and non-statutory mental health services, so they are on an equal footing with NHS clinical mental health services, to meet current, unmet and new demands in the community

Substance and alcohol misuse

37. For many drug users, engaging in treatment can be the catalyst for getting the medical help they need to address their physical and mental health problems. Getting drug users into treatment is a challenge but is crucial to saving lives.

38. Findings from the 2021 Dame Carole Black Review of Drugs demonstrate clear links between drug misuse and offending, with many who have addictions cycling in and out of prison. These prisoners are unlikely to achieve rehabilitation and recovery and are likely to re-offend.

39.Investing in drug prevention and treatment now provides benefits for everyone longer-term, including for the NHS, criminal justice and other public services and treatment for drug, alcohol and gambling addiction will reduce the burden on local authorities, NHS, social care, criminal justice and benefits system.

40. Councils want to continue working with government, local NHS, police, community groups and other partners to ensure everyone gets the support they need wherever possible.  

41.There needs to be clearly outlined expectations regarding the support that the Probation Service expect from commissioned substance misuse services to deliver community treatment orders. 

42. Government-funded pilots such as Project ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery) have demonstrated the success of a partnership working with local authorities and other agencies in a ‘whole-system response’, and so should continue to be supported.

43. The impact of drug misuse is felt acutely in the most deprived areas, and so addressing these problems is central to the government's ambition of ‘levelling up’.

44. Sufficient ongoing funding for public health services, including for drug and alcohol prevention, evidence-based harm reduction, treatment and recovery is needed to ensure all councils can continue to meet their statutory public health responsibilities. This shortage of funding has led to a loss of skills and capacity in the recovery sector, not dissimilar from challenges seen in the adult social care sector. 

45. Commissioners should work collaboratively with treatment providers on a cycle of at least 5 years to reduce service disruption and continuity, to bring local authority commissions more into line with NHS practice, where there is a move away from competition in favour of collaboration.

46. A holistic approach to supporting offenders with substance misuse and alcohol problems is needed. Clinical services alone cannot lead to recovery and so extra support and opportunities for drug and alcohol users to gain employment, housing, mental health care and help from other agencies is also required. 

Gambling

47. Gambling-related harms are now widely recognised as a public health issue which require a broad response. The 2023 Commission on Crime and Gambling Related Harms by the Howard League demonstrated clear links between gambling-related harms and offending, and called for a more strategic approach across government, health bodies and criminal justice agencies to tackle the issue.

48. Whilst councils are not responsible for providing treatment for harmful gambling, there are a range of ways in which different services can support people into the right treatment and support, including embedding knowledge and awareness of gambling within existing services, giving it parity of esteem with other issues- such as alcohol or substance misuse- and setting the tone of how gambling is discussed within a local area.  

49. Gambling may also be driving demand for other council service areas, including children’s, family and adult social services, treatment and early intervention services, homelessness and wider housing services and financial inclusion and debt advice services.  

50. Councils should ensure that frontline staff are provided with training so they can have conversations about gambling harms, raise awareness and support people to access help such as the NHS gambling treatment clinics. Councils can also seek to work with local partners and build links with support organisations to help develop specific local referral pathways and ensure these can be accessed from across the full range of local services. This could offer crucial support to people leaving or within the criminal justice system, and could help to reduce reoffending. 

51. As frontline awareness and identification of the harms that can be caused by gambling develops, councils should ensure they capture data about it, to help understand the extent of harmful gambling, impacts and costs associated with it.   

52. The LGA has produced guidance to help councils to develop a better understanding of gambling related harm and the role councils can play to identify and support residents who are affected by it. This guidance also signposts to examples of effective approaches to screening for gambling related harms in the criminal justice system. 

Neurodiversity 

53. The 2021 Review of Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System found that there were difficulties experienced for those with neurodivergent conditions at every stage in the criminal justice process, from their arrest to their release from prison.

54. Neurodiversity is often misunderstood and misinterpreted, and can intersect with substance misuse as well as exacerbate trauma, and make navigating the criminal justice system itself challenging.

55. Neurodivergent offenders may be less likely to comply with their licence conditions, maintain employment and engage in rehabilitation programmes, where most rehabilitation programmes are normed for neurotypical offenders.

56. The patchiness of data, inconsistent assessment and lack of understanding of neurodiversity have led to concerns over meeting the needs of offenders with neurodivergent conditions, and so better assessment, support and treatment can reduce re-offending.

57. The main recommendation from the 2021 Review of Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System calls for a more coordinated and cross-government approach, so that the Ministry of Justice with the Home Office, Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Education and the Welsh Government develop an overarching national strategy, together with people who have personal experience of neurodivergence.

58. The LGA continue to call for a long-term, sustainable funding solution and workforce plan for adult social care, equivalent to the NHS, so that all those who use and work in social care have the support and certainty they need.

Youth offender population

59. Whilst there have been significant achievements in the youth justice system, with reductions in cautions, convictions and overall contact with the system over the last decade, these impressive headlines mask significant challenges in policy and practice responses that require urgent attention to divert children away from the criminal justice system. 

60. The youth justice system needs to continue to focus on children in contact with the justice system as children first and foremost, rather than focusing on their offending behaviour. 

61. Many of the children in contact with the justice system have incredibly complex needs, such as speech and learning difficulties, mental health needs, learning disabilities and care experienced young people are over-represented in the justice system. They therefore require a holistic, personalised response so the proposed approach to focus on personalised support for young people is welcome, as is the continued focus on partnerships supporting the young person. If needs are unmet and unrecognised, these reproduce in the adult offender population.

62. Recent inspection reports echo the concerns raised in the Taylor Report (2016), the Youth Custody Improvement Board report (YCIB, 2017) and more recent reviews about the quality of and access to, education in the secure estate, particularly throughout the pandemic. Staff shortages are impacting access and children are also opting out of education by spending more time in their rooms. Secure schools may, in time, offer a solution but more must be done to improve the current offering in custody in order to realise this opportunity to re-engage children in learning. Consideration should be given to how remote learning, now widely available as a result of the pandemic, can be used to strengthen education offers for this cohort. This may assist in re-engagement in formal learning and positively contribute to resettlement efforts for example, via participation in virtual taster courses in advance of release from custody.

63. The youth custodial estate is a significant concern for local authorities and failings in this part of the system will have ramifications for inspections of community youth justice services, particularly for resettlement. 

64. The 2021 joint policy position paper between LGA, ADCS, and AYM outlines 35 recommendations to existing policy or practice to better align the current system with Child First principles, including closer working between the police and Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) and routinely applying rules on vulnerable witnesses to all children appearing in youth courts. In the long-term, the report proposes, that a more sophisticated, multi-agency, multi-disciplinary response is needed to support youth offending teams to deliver early intervention and prevention services that will help meet the complex needs of children in the youth justice system.

Supporting families 

65. Tailored services to children of offenders.

66. Authorities use their health scrutiny function to ensure families of prisoners are effectively supported.

67. Authorities should provide parenting, and anger management programmes within families that complement those in prison.