HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Invest to save project helps reduce reoffending [October 2001]
The press release issued by HM Treasury on 10 October 2001.
An innovative interagency scheme on Teesside to help prisoners return to the community with a reduced likelihood of reoffending is the overall winner of the first Invest To Save Budget (ISB) ‘Progress In Partnership’ awards, Chief Secretary Andrew Smith announced today.
The “Prisoners? Passport” project is one of four winning initiatives which show how closer joint working can underpin smarter, better services in diverse areas of the public sector. It offers advice on jobs, housing, health and benefits to inmates due for release in two prisons on Teesside. In its first year, the reconviction rate among 375 prisoners involved in the scheme was around 5%, compared to around 40% nationally. This was achieved with an investment from the ISB scheme of £18,000 to fund a full-time adviser to the project.
Mr Smith said :
“This project is a striking and valuable example of what can be achieved by public sector agencies coming together and pooling resources to deliver better services across the country. It cuts crime by helping prisoners go straight, to the benefit of their families and communities, as well as addressing the financial and social consequences of criminal behaviour.
“Other winning ISB projects support bereaved families in Wolverhampton, help young people into adult life in West Lothian and offer one-stop access to national databases for local authorities and local delivery agencies across the country.
“What all these projects have in common is that they deliver important and innovative public services at local level, directly to citizens and communities. The integrated approach they have used so successfully in these projects is one that all agencies can learn from and adapt to improve their own service delivery.
“These first success stories under the Invest to Save Budget initiative show how a relatively modest investment in drawing agencies together can generate new and better public services. The real winners are those who benefit from these imaginative schemes.”
The Prisoners’ Passport project works with prisoners preparing for release in Holmehouse and Kirklevington prisons. As well as reducing the likelihood of reoffending, the initiative helps offenders, their families and their communities generally by increasing the chances of their finding work and accommodation, improving skills and opportunities and helping to keep families together.
The awards were presented at “Joining Forces”, the second Invest to Save Budget Conference, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster.
