Community Rehabilitation Companies: Coronavirus

(asked on 4th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the level of investment by community rehabilitation companies in (a) remote videoconferencing, (b) equipment and training for staff home working and (c) other forms of infrastructure on (i) staff health, safety and welfare, (ii) probation client safety and welfare, (iii) public health and (iv) the efficient performance of the services those organisations are contracted to provide during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 12th June 2020

As of week commencing 23rd March, all Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have been operating under the obligations within their Exceptional Delivery Models (EDM). As a result CRCs have adapted to an alternative way of working, albeit on a temporary basis, in order to adhere to the social distancing measures announced by the Prime Minister. All CRCs have a responsibility to ensure the health and wellbeing of their staff and service users during the pandemic.

CRCs have invested in greater use of mobile technology to maintain levels of contact with offenders in the community in a safe and efficient manner, including the use of videoconferencing facilities such as Skype and WhatsApp. Staff are working from home and limiting unnecessary travel unless in exceptional circumstances. CRCs have been instructed to prioritise their caseload and continue to carry out face to face interventions for those in their cohort deemed at highest risk where it is safe and practicable to do so. Group sentence delivery including Unpaid Work and Accredited Programmes has been temporarily suspended. This is to safeguard both staff and service users, and the wider general public, from the risk of COVID infection.

The EDMs are subject to robust assurance and compliance activities, which are carried out by the Authority on a regular basis to ensure that CRCs continue to operate to their contracted obligations and continue to deliver front line probation services to protect the public.

Reticulating Splines