In August 2006 the Home Office published its proposals for future partnership working in a document entitled'Improving Prison and Probation Services: Public Value Partnerships', available at:
http://noms.homeoffice.gov.uk/news-publications-events/publications/strategy/impr_prison_probat_partnerships

The publication of this document was followed in September 2006 by the issuing of Probation Circular (PC) 33/2006 'The Development of Sub-Contracting Plans'.

In many cases Probation Areas (Services) already deliver significant and comprehensive services for offenders in partnership with Local Authorities, the Police and a range of local community based providers. The significance of this new approach is to use an increased amount of probation Area (Service) budgets to purchase community based provision where it can demonstrate improved effectiveness in reducing re-offending and offer better Value for Money.

A summary containing the potential areas of service delivery suitable for sub-contracting from each of the five South West Probation Areas (Services) is available to view from the tab entitled,Sub-contracting plans.

In the first instance, we invited organisations to register their details on this website against one or more of the following areas of service delivery, which are available to view from the Service Descriptions tab.

The process provided an opportunity for potential providers to identify themselves, and provide South West Probation Areas with a better understanding of what those organisations could offer in relation to delivering a range of services to offenders.

Please note that this process closed on Friday 18th May 2007. For further information, please refer to the Homepage.