- Community Payback provides punishment and reparation by requiring offenders to work on projects which are of benefit to their local community.
- A competition for provision of Community Payback across England and Wales will take place between Probation Trusts and private providers. The first to be launched was the London lot on 24 June.
- Opening up Community Payback to competition will harness the skills of the private and voluntary sectors to drive up standards.
- Through competition, we are seeking to strengthen the extent to which providers of criminal justice services are accountable to their local communities, rather than a remote Whitehall authority
How it will support Community Organisers
- Community Payback Citizens’ Panels have already been established in most areas, are linked closely to local communities and enable members of the public to nominate work projects
Community Organisers could:
- play a key role strengthening community input,
- maintaining an ongoing dialogue
- improving accountability and transparency of feedback
How it will help communities to become more active and independent
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Competition will only increase community involvement in influencing the type of work completed by offenders. Providers will be required to:
- find ways to maximise public engagement in the selection of projects and respond to all suggestions
- ensure public nominations account for a minimum of 55% of the actual hours worked by offenders
- report on progress of the work where projects are taken on and ensure at least 85% of beneficiaries judge the work performed to be of a good or very good standard
