PCC/D/100

KEY DECISION
POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER FOR BEDFORDSHIRE
Title and Reference – PCC/D/100
Subject: Allocation of funding to a training provider for Restorative Justice (RJ) In
Prisons project
Report of: Police and Crime Commissioner
Date: 02/08/2023
Summary:

Overview of project:
Restorative approaches enable those who have been harmed to convey the impact of the harm to those responsible, and for those responsible to acknowledge this impact and takes steps to put it right. Restorative approaches refer to a range of methods and strategies which can be used both to prevent relationship-damaging incidents from happening and to resolve them if they do happen.

Prison can be a challenging environment where staff-prisoner relationships and prisoner to prisoner relationships could benefit from restorative approaches to inform alternative approaches to conflict resolution that address behaviours and increase understanding.

A proposal has been developed to detail full project activity. For the purposes of training prison staff and prisoners, a training provider is required.

Training requirements are outlined in the below document under Year 1, Part 1, and Part 2 in line with criteria 3 of the Restorative Justice Council Accreditation Framework.

The process was completed in line with the OPCCs commitment to working closely with 7 Force Commercial Services, ensuring that the Commissioning Team and wider OPCC adhere to the local Financial Regulations and Contract Standing Orders which set out the
following financial thresholds:

£0-£5,000 – one written quote required to commission services
£5,000 – £50,000 – three written quotes required to commission services
£50,000 and above – services to be commissioned via competitive tender.

For this process, the allocated budget was sub £50,000 therefore the appropriate process was to obtain a minimum of three written quotes. Quotes were obtained from the following organisations:

Belong
Restorative Solutions
Remedi
HMP Peterborough

Once obtained, each quote was considered by Tara Malciw and Alysha Patel, against the following criteria.

Specific Restorative Approaches (RA) training for prisons.
Capacity of training provider within the scope of the project
Value for money.

Following this process, (detail how each organisation did against these criteria and why the “winner” was most suitable.

Approval was sought from the Commissioning Team initially as the Project Lead and the decision is to be authorised by the Director of Operations as financial authority.

Recommendation

A recommendation is made to progress with Belong as the training provider for the practitioner training course and the “train the trainer” course. Belong offer a prison specific training package which is relevant to the purposes of this project and given the sensitive, complex, and dynamic nature of a prison environment, this expertise and specific approach is valuable to project success and eliminating risk in practise. It is considered advantageous to have the same provider deliver the practitioner training and the train the trainer training for consistency, efficiency and to ensure that their experience in working with prisons is implemented across all training packages.

While Restorative Solutions offer more cost-effective approaches to delivering the training, they are able to support a reduced number of clients per course, potentially requiring the need for two courses to be run in order to encompass all relevant prison staff and prisoners. Restorative Solutions do not offer a tailored restorative approach training course with an awareness of the prison environment.

Remedi also offer a more cost-effective training solution, however they are also unable to provide a specific restorative approaches solution which may pose a risk to service delivery if practitioners are not considerate of prison specific complexities.

HMP Peterborough offer the most attractive solution in terms of practitioner training, free of cost with a consideration given to expenses however the nature of their capacity, with a part-time RJ Coordinator would limit the ability to run courses for HMP Bedford staff and prisons. This would cause delays to the project and may impede the ability to train the required number of staff in the allocated funding period. HMP Peterborough are also unable to deliver the “train the trainer” training that is required also by HMP Bedford for sustainability. While not necessary, it is advantageous to have one training provider deliver all elements of training to ensure continuity and to build effective working relationships with training providers.

To note decision
Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner
I hereby approve the recommendations above.

Bedfordshire Police Headquarters

Email the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

Office of the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner

PCC/D/100

Bedfordshire Police AND Crime Commissioner

Bedfordshire PCC