Developing digital probation services to improve rehabilitation and reduce reoffending

dxw is delivering an ongoing programme of work with MoJ to develop their digital services for prison and probation staff and give people the best chance of not reoffending.

A major strand of this work has been creating a national service to help probation practitioners find suitable interventions for people, refer them to the suppliers who run these programmes, and receive regular updates about their progress. The service forms an important part of the wider programme of work to transform the Probation Service.

The refer and monitor service is intended to support a range of different types of interventions. We began with commissioned rehabilitative services, which provide a holistic offer to meet frequently occurring rehabilitative needs. Since then, we’ve brought a significant new intervention, accredited programmes, into the same service model.

Unlike commissioned rehabilitative services, accredited programmes are behavioural programmes which aim to change the thinking, attitudes and behaviours that might lead people in prison or on probation to reoffend. An important part of the work has been to address the specific needs of programme staff in a way that aligns with the wider service.

Outcome

The refer and monitor service makes it much easier to find information about available programmes and reduces the time spent on administering referrals, freeing up staff to focus on higher value activity for the people in their care. Importantly, it has improved the quality and availability of data about rehabilitative programmes, which supports informed decision-making at local, regional, and national level. 

It is one of the first shared services for staff working to support people in custody and the community, aligned with the aim of the One HMPPS programme to bring together prison and probation strategies.

What we did

We successfully launched phase 1 of the refer and monitor service in June 2021.  The team rolled out the service to a fixed one day deadline in line with the programme to reform the Probation Service. This needed us to work quickly and pragmatically and be clear about priorities with multiple stakeholders. 

With a tight and immovable deadline there were limited options in being able to start small, test, iterate then scale-up. We had to deliver a comprehensive minimum viable product to get the site live. Although this meant there were more support issues in the first week than usual, the team was prepared to prioritise requests and keep the service running smoothly. We helped to define MoJ’s operating process and created a support model so users’ problems could be fixed quickly. 

In January 2022 we handed over the service to the MoJ team, leaving solid foundations for them to build on and deliver improved outcomes for people eligible for an intervention.

Working in a blended team

We took the project all the way from discovery through to live, working in a blended team alongside MoJ colleagues and specialist contractors. We also collaborated with others across MoJ including their digital, commercial, risk and governance teams.

Rehabilitative services cover a large and varied range of areas across prisons, probation services, and community schemes, with many interested parties. We needed to understand and navigate this complexity to deliver the new service. 

With multiple user groups, and many different needs, a key task was to scope and understand who the first users of the service should be and how it could best work for them. Through extensive research and co-design with experts in interventions, we were able to map out a Day 1 version of the service and a sequencing of how the service would be scaled up after that point.

Having a blended team meant we maximised our capability. We created a culture of evidence-led decision-making to keep everyone aligned, with data and KPIs to report on progress.

Focus on good communication

With so many different stakeholders, ensuring good lines of communication was essential. We established a consistent narrative and common language to talk about the service and coordinated our communications across a number of channels. 

We joined existing stakeholder meetings, and led a working group with the service owner for updates and feedback. We also maintained a strategic roadmap to reflect on the bigger picture and worked in the open, publishing weeknotes and sharing videos of our show and tells for those unable to attend in person. As we approached going live, we shared 2-3 minute easy to understand videos to explain the service to a wider audience.

Overcoming the challenge of legacy systems

One of the main challenges we faced was balancing the need to integrate with existing systems to access and share critical case data, whilst also supporting the long term strategy of breaking MoJ’s dependency on those same systems. 

We did this by gradually becoming the source of truth for intervention-specific data in the new service and carefully carving that away from the existing systems. For non-intervention data, we maintained integrations with the existing systems as minimally as possible for the needs of the new service.

Sharing and re-use

For phase 2 on accredited programmes, we started with a good knowledge of HMPPS’ technical, architectural and design standards. By collaborating with expert stakeholders, we were able to build our understanding of the particular opportunities and challenges in this space and engage front-line staff in the design and testing of prototypes.

We took time to consider the refer and monitor service in the context of other products and services to make sure we were taking decisions in the interests of the wider organisation. This included an extensive review of parallel digital projects to establish opportunities to share and re-use design patterns, data models and technologies. Saving time and money now and in the future. 

By considering shared approaches, the digital teams involved also hope to achieve a consistent experience for staff, who often interact with several services in the course of their work.

Using data to improve lives

In the past, data on interventions had been poor and disjointed. This resulted in limited understanding of how successful an intervention had been, and the probation practitioners who placed people on interventions weren’t always aware of what’s available or how an intervention was progressing. 

We designed the new system to make these key metrics accessible and available to everyone who needs them.