Ministry of Justice: Prison Leaver Programme Evaluation

Task

The Prison Leavers Programme seeks to better understand and improve the social inclusion of people leaving prison, and in doing so, to support them to desist from crime. The aim of the programme was to test a ‘whole system’ approach to supporting people leaving prison, encouraging organisations from across the system to come together in new ways: through improving local join-up of services, establishing a collective central government response, and challenging the private sector to design new products or services that will help improve the outcomes of prison leavers. The programme was awarded £20 million from the Shared Outcomes Fund, set up to test innovative ways of working across the public sector and drive the modernisation of public service. TONIC partnered with the University of Kent to undertake the independent evaluation of the programme, including process, economic and impact evaluations, of the overarching programme, its three strands, and each of the 17 pilots.  

TONIC’s Approach

Fieldwork has centred around differential phases of the programme. The first wave of fieldwork involved ethnographic observations of each strand of the programme, attending meetings, interviewing key programme staff and external stakeholders as well as holding Delphi workshops. As the programme has progressed, the process evaluation has deployed a variety of strategies, interviewing front-line staff, managers and stakeholders attached to each individual pilot, exploring the process from grant application, award, mobilisation, delivery and eventual wind-down. We have also visited a number of sites, including prison and community, and undertaken ethnographic observation of interventions, interviewing prisoners and prison leavers as well as doing focus groups and more creative methodologies such as body-mapping. All pilots were invited to complete an online survey for staff and prison leavers to share their views.

Outcome

The project is ongoing, with five of the 8 planned reports completed, engaging over 1,000 stakeholders, and people in prison or probation. As reports are produced throughout the life of the project, findings have been delivered ‘live’ to the Ministry of Justice, informing decision making and helping shape delivery of the programme.