'Disaster area' prison and probation agency to be scrapped in weeks

'Disaster area' prison and probation agency to be scrapped in weeks

· Leaked Whitehall paper confirms shakeup
· Sources say brand is damaged beyond repair

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Friday September 28, 2007
The Guardian

The government's troubled £2.6bn programme to manage convicted criminals in order to cut reoffending rates is to be scrapped within weeks, the Guardian has learned.

Leaked Whitehall papers confirm that an internal shakeup at the recently created Ministry of Justice will lead to the demise of the much-criticised National Offender Management Service (Noms) only three years after it was set up.

Noms is responsible for managing the prisons and probation services and was designed to provide "end-to-end offender management" for the first time, but Whitehall sources have confirmed that it will be scrapped in a shakeup to be announced early next month.

It is understood that senior justice ministry sources have admitted that the Noms "brand is so damaged, it cannot continue" and have claimed that it is simply "a disaster area" with costs spiralling out of control.

Earlier this summer the government had to admit it had frozen further spending on the £155m computer system that would have given prison and probation staff joint access to offenders' files across the criminal justice system for the first time. More than £5m has been spent in consultants' fees alone in the past two years trying to fix the problems facing the troubled service.

The need for a 1,300-strong headquarters has also been criticised. The cumbersome structure was adopted after a move to merge the prison and probation services was dropped.

A leaked copy of a confidential review of justice ministry internal structures set up to ensure it was "fit for purpose" after taking over the 60,000-strong prison and probation services from the Home Office confirms that it is now to be ditched.

The shakeup was thrashed out at an away-day three weeks ago and is designed to be implemented by the time the justice ministry moves to the old Home Office headquarters in Queen Anne's Gate.

It will be accompanied by a major report on managing the prison population crisis by Lord Patrick Carter, the original architect of Noms, who is believed to have been disillusioned by its progress.

The report, by Ursula Brennan of the Office of Criminal Justice Reform, says delay could jeopardise the justice ministry's status: "Our reputation as a reliable and capable department in Whitehall and in the media is critical and early failures could tip us into crisis management before we have built the capacity to respond in a more measured and strategic way."

She adds that the "inherent cultures in the two parts of the MoJ are not particularly well aligned", in an admission that the Home Office split has not proved as smooth as some might have hoped. The paper also envisages that the court service will remain within the department and not gain the independent status demanded by senior judges.

The shakeup will see a second permanent secretary appointed as chief operating officer, with responsibility for the day-to-day operational delivery of the department's services, including prisons, probation and the courts. Separate directorates will be responsible for ensuring that strategy and policy are based around "client outcomes".

The leaked paper admits this model contains "presentational risks from the perceived demise of Noms", but the flow charts contain no room for the organisation. The review says that the central directorates will provide "a robust analytical capability and a strong strategic focus" and will negotiate with the "various delivery arms and external providers".

In the case of prison places and offender management, "this includes delivery through a commissioning/contracting model while the courts and tribunals will do it through service level agreements with the respective delivery arms".

A second model, which would have "retained a degree of corporate autonomy in Noms" and "ensured its current approach remains intact" has been rejected.

The justice secretary, Jack Straw, earlier this week denied reports that the future of Noms was in doubt, insisting that the review would merely make "adjustments in the relationship between Noms and the prisons and probation services". But it is clear from the leaked paper that its death warrant has been signed.

Harry Fletcher, of Napo, the probation union, said: "The Noms project was flawed from the outset because of the lack of consultation. It has been expensive, bureaucratic, has added nothing to the front line and has been unfocused and obsessed with theoretical models rather than what is needed on the ground."