Probation and rehabilitation services contracts

News Release

29th October 2014

INTERSERVE-LED PARTNERSHIP SELECTED AS PREFERRED BIDDER TO RUN PROBATION AND REHABILITATION SERVICES

· Interserve-led partnership, Purple Futures, to acquire and manage five Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) in Greater Manchester & Cheshire; Merseyside; West Yorkshire; North Yorkshire; Humberside & Lincolnshire and Hampshire.

· Collective contract values expected to be worth circa £600m over seven years.

· Purple Futures members: Interserve; 3SC; Addaction; P3 and Shelter.

· Purple Futures to work with local specialist and voluntary groups to provide offender support, improve life chances and reduce reoffending rates.

Purple Futures, an Interserve led partnership, has today been selected as Preferred Bidder to provide probation and rehabilitation services in Greater Manchester & Cheshire; Merseyside; West Yorkshire; North Yorkshire; Humberside & Lincolnshire and Hampshire as part of the UK Ministry of Justice's Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) programme.

The Partnership is led by Interserve, which is one of the UK's leading providers of public services, and operates a number of services for Government departments, including DWP; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Defra and the MoD. As well as Interserve, the Purple Futures partnership includes the housing charity Shelter; the drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction; P3, the national charity providing social inclusion services to people with complex needs; and 3SC, a social enterprise that will build and manage the voluntary sector supply chain on Interserve's behalf.

The contracts, which will run for seven years will not only see Purple Futures taking over the delivery of all probation and rehabilitation services to low and medium risk offenders in these geographical areas, but will for the first time provide support to offenders who are released after serving prison sentences of less than 12 months. This group, which numbers around 50,000 nationally, currently receives no supervision or rehabilitation support after release despite accounting for the highest rates of re-offending.

Interserve CEO, Adrian Ringrose, said:

"The Purple Futures partnership brings together the best of the private, voluntary and not for profit sectors. Interserve will bring its business expertise, investment capability and public service delivery pedigree. Our four partners, 3SC; Addaction; P3 and Shelter, will bring a wealth of service delivery and community engagement experience. It's an exciting prospect.

"Probation and rehabilitation services have always been embedded within local communities. By working closely with local businesses, voluntary agencies, local authorities and the police, which are all critical to successful public protection and rehabilitation, we believe we can make a real difference."

Interserve and its partners have spent over 12 months co-designing services to reduce re-offending, working with local voluntary sector groups who will provide a range of specialised services in local communities designed to improve the life chances of offenders and help reduce reoffending rates.

Proposals include measures such as the setting up of new social enterprises, to provide employment opportunities for offenders and ex-offenders. Purple Futures will also continue to use the well established Community Payback model.

Interserve's 'Charity Charter' sets out the principals of what it, as a substantial commercial enterprise, can offer and what it expects from its voluntary sector and social enterprise partners.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Nicola Savage or Rhys Jones, Interserve Press Office: Tel: 0118 932 0123

Email: [email protected]

Notes to Editors

1. Full details of today's announcement were made via a Written Ministerial Statement from the Ministry of Justice. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/voluntary-sector-at-forefront-of-new-fight-against-reoffending

2. For more information about Transforming Rehabilitation, visit: www.justice.gov.uk/transforming-rehabilitation

3. As part of the MoJ's proposals, 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were established in June 2014 to provide probation services to medium- and low-risk offenders; In addition a new National Probation Service under the Ministry of Justice will retain management of the most high-risk offenders in society.

About Interserve

Interserve is one of the world's foremost support services and construction companies. Our vision is to redefine the future for people and places. Everything we do is shaped by our core values. We are a successful, growing, international business: a leader in innovative and sustainable outcomes for our clients and a great place to work for our people. We offer advice, design, construction, equipment, facilities management and frontline public services. We are headquartered in the UK and listed in the FTSE 250 index. We have gross revenues of £3.4 billion and a workforce of over 80,000 people worldwide.

Website: www.interserve.com Twitter: for all news follow: @interservenews

About Shelter

Last year Shelter helped more than 4 million people struggling with homelessness or bad housing - and we campaign to prevent it in the first place. We're here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

Further information can be found at: www.shelter.org.uk

About 3SC

3SC wins and manages public services contracts on behalf of third sector organisations. Using a consortium model, we manage the bidding process and build supply chains of local organisations, allowing smaller third sector providers to compete for, and deliver large public sector contracts. Our members include charities, social enterprises, and voluntary and community groups representing a diversity of specialisms, including employability, skills, housing, criminal justice, health, and social care. 3SC acts as an enabler for the third sector. We work in collaboration with our members to promote best practice, create and implement innovative solutions, and shape and design high quality services that reflect the changing needs of communities and commissioners.

Further information can be found at: www.3sc.org

About Addaction

Addaction is a UK charity which helps people and communities to overcome the effects of drug and alcohol misuse. For nearly 50 years we've been providing support to individuals and families. We run 117 services in 80 locations across England and Scotland, helping around 48,000 people every year to overcome addiction.

Addaction's purpose is to deliver services that make a real difference to people and communities blighted by substance misuse. We do this through education and prevention initiatives, needle and syringe exchange programmes, recovery-orientated community prescribing, mutual aid programmes, group interventions and residential rehabilitation.

Addaction recognises that it cannot meet each of the varied needs of our services users in isolation, so we put significant effort into building partnerships with other organisations. We work closely with GPs on shared care schemes and the criminal justice system through Drug Intervention Programmes and community-based rehabilitation to create pathways for service users into, through and out of treatment into sustainable recovery.

Further information can be found at: http://www.addaction.org.uk

About P3

We're a charity and social enterprise, made up of passionate people, who care about people. We run a variety of services all over the UK that aim to give everyone the chance to be part of the community they live in and feel connected to society. We think that everyone is unique and with support and confidence, can unlock their potential within, opening up a world of possibilities.

Our mission is to improve lives and communities by delivering services for socially excluded and vulnerable people to unlock their potential and open up new possibilities. Our vision is that every person has the opportunity to be a full and valued member of a society where social exclusion and isolation no longer exist. It's that simple!

Further information can be found at: http://www.p3charity.org