Service design in criminal justice system: reducing reoffending - part 1

This week we started work on a 6-month service design project to develop an Intensive Alternative to Custody (AIC) for reoffenders with a substance misuse problem. Our brief is to develop a new model that can be implemented and scaled across the UK.

As far as service design projects go this is one of the most exciting and challenging projects I’ve been involved in. Exciting because what we design could have a massive impact on reducing the costs associated with prosecution and custody of reoffenders. But more importantly, because of the positive impact a better model could have on the lives of offenders and their families in breaking the vicious cycle many of them are in. It is also challenging because this is one of those intractable problems that some of the brightest minds working in this area have not been able to transform. It is also a notoriously politicised area that abides by a logic of its own, as the recent news over the justice reform has demonstrated.

This will be the first instalment in a series that will follow this project as we proceed. It should help those interested in service design to understand more about the process and methods used. And it will help us reflect on the challenges we face as we move forward.

During this past week we’ve been immersing ourselves in as much information as we could get hold of and read. We’ve been on the phone and email with dozens of people, searching for the latest thinking, the most interesting organisations and individuals who can inspire us. We also agreed the project plan with our client who are keen to learn about innovation and understand how it’s different to conventional service development.

The project will be based on our Disciplined Innovation model, following a four phase design process of: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. We’ve also defined the different roles and teams that would be working in different areas and the methods we would employ in each of the phases.

In the first phase we will be collecting information and data about community orders, rehabilitation, the locality (West London), the user group and the current costs of the system. In a few weeks’ time we will begin fieldwork, including ethnography with ex-offenders and their families and co-design with offenders in prison and in the community. We will run several workshops to collaboratively analyse and generate ideas.

By September we should have a good idea of the proposition for the future service and we’ll be able to move into detailed design and specification. In particular we will be focusing the parameters for commissioning this service, based on a Payment-by-result model, including the costs, revenue, outcomes, etc.

I’ll aim to write another instalment in a few weeks.