When the Coalition government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’ was first articulated, innovation was an important theme, encompassing innovation by frontline staff, by organisations working within a mixed economy and even social entrepreneurs.
Authors
Chris Fox, Caroline Marsh
Abstract
When the Coalition government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’ was first articulated, innovation was an important theme, encompassing innovation by frontline staff, by organisations working within a mixed economy and even social entrepreneurs. Under Transforming Rehabilitation, innovation remained a stated aim of criminal justice reform, but the scope of innovation envisaged seemed to narrow. This paper describes the early stages of a socially innovative project to develop and implement a perso- nalised approach to offender rehabilitation in the context of Transforming Rehabili- tation. It draws on the concept of ‘desistance’. This in turn leads to consideration of community capacity-building and market development that draws on experience from the social care sector. A number of early challenges and plans to overcome them are discussed. Challenges include the inherent uncertainty of the innovation process; the importance of collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, including service users and local community organisations; innovating during a period of organisational change and wider public sector cuts; and the public presentation of personalised working with offenders. Plans to address these challenges include moving gradually from small-scale prototyping to larger pilots and close collaboration between service providers and evaluators.
Publication link
Publication Date:
Friday 01 July 2016
DOI:
10.1177/0264550516648402
Publisher:
Probation Journal Vol. 63(2) pp.169–181
PERU Outputs
Nothing found.