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https://prisonleaversproject.blog.gov.uk/about-this-blog/

About this blog

The Prison Leavers Project is a £20 million cross-sector innovation programme that will pilot new ways to break the cycle of crime.  

There are 3 parts to the project, each testing a different approach to the challenges facing prison leavers:   

  •  cross-sector teams (what we call ‘Service Communities’) – 4 teams created from across the public and third sector to co-design and test innovative pilots, focusing on some of the key issues that can drive crime, including health and wellbeing, the day of release from prison, community and relationships and employability and skills
  •  the Local Leadership and Integration Fund – a grant-funding scheme to support the development of locally-led pilots through collaboration between organisations in the public and third sectors
  • the Prison Leavers Innovation Challenge – where start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will develop and pilot new technological solutions to reduce crime. 

The project will test a wide range of interventions at a small scale initially, building robust evidence to help us better understand what works, with the view to scale up the approaches that prove effective.

Four key principles: codesign (we are engaging prison leavers to ensure that what we develop meets the needs of users); innovate (we are creating the space to rapidly test and explore genuinely new ideas); systems-led (we are taking a collaborative approach, bringing in players from the entire system to address a shared challenge); and evaluate (we are discovering ‘what works’ and identifying where this has potential to scale.
The 4 principles of the Prison Leavers Project

We'll use this blog to share our work, progress, learnings and reflections with anyone and everyone who's interested!

We want to add to the existing evidence base of ‘what works’ to cut reoffending, but also hope that by sharing our journey others will be able to apply our learnings to their own work.

We’re working openly to learn as much as we can from other people and projects. We are always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate and share knowledge, so we’re keen to hear from as many people and perspectives as possible to help build our understanding.  

If you would like to offer input, challenge, or advice, get in touch anytime.