National Offender Management Service
Encyclopedia
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice
responsible for the correctional services in England and Wales
(separate arrangements exist in Scotland
and Northern Ireland
). It was created by combining parts of both of the headquarters of the National Probation Service
and Her Majesty's Prison Service
with some existing Home Office functions. The agency has its head office in the Clive House; it moved its head office there in 2010.
(now Lord Carter of Coles), a Labour
-supporting businessman. Carter had been asked by the government to propose a way of achieving a better balance between the prison population in England and Wales and the resources available for the correctional services. He proposed three radical changes. Firstly, that there should be 'end-to-end management' of each offender from first contact with the correctional services to full completion of the sentence. Secondly, that there should be a clear division between the commissioners of services and their providers. And thirdly that there should be 'contestability
' amongst these providers. By this means, he argued, efficiency would be increased, unit costs reduced, and innovation encouraged. Growth in the prison population
, which had increased by two thirds over the previous ten years, would be constrained by giving the courts greater confidence in the effectiveness of community sentences as opposed to prison sentences through better management of offenders, leading to reduced levels of reoffending. The Government accepted these proposals.
Helen Edwards
succeeded Martin Narey
as second Chief Executive of NOMS in November 2005.
The emerging structure of NOMS saw the appointment of a Regional Offender Manager (ROM) for each of the 9 English regions and Wales. Their responsibilities included the negotiation and performance monitoring of Service Level Agreements with each of the public sector prisons and probation areas in their regions, and of contracts with private sector prisons. The actual management of public sector prisons however remained with HM Prison Service, reporting separately to its own Director General, Phil Wheatley.
ROMs were also given responsibility for the reduction of reoffending in their regions, effected by the development of multi-agency partnerships which harnessed the capacity of other government departments, agencies, and local authorities to influence the factors which affect offending - drugs and alcohol, accommodation, employment training and education, children and families, health, finance debt and benefit, attitudes thinking and behaviour.
, Phil Wheatley
, becoming the Chief Executive of NOMS, and assuming responsibility for both the National Probation Service
(NPS) as well as HM Prison Service and management of contracts for private sector operation of prisons and prisoner escorting.http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement290108a.htm Following this the Chief Executive post was reclassified as Director-General. and NOMS was designated as an executive agency within the Ministry of Justice http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/noms-agency-framework.pdf Subsequently ROMs were replaced by Directors of Offender Management (DOMs) in each of the 10 Government regions in England and Wales, combining responsibility for prisons and probation services in their region.
On 1 April 2008, six probation areas' governing boards were redesignated as Probation Trusts, enjoying greater freedoms than their board counterparts but more susceptible to competition and possible loss of business should their performance prove to be intractably poor. On 1 April 2009 Jack Straw announced the creation of two further Probation Trustshttp://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease010409a.htm.
The Agency says it will face three significant challenges over the coming years :
NOMS Agency has set out how it will meet these in the Strategic Commissioning Plans for 2010-13, which set out how the agency will provide services and meet demand for all 10 areas.
Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
responsible for the correctional services in England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
(separate arrangements exist in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
). It was created by combining parts of both of the headquarters of the National Probation Service
National Probation Service
thumb|right|100px|NPS logoThe National Probation Service for England and Wales is a statutory Criminal Justice Service, mainly responsible for the supervision of offenders in the community and the provision of reports to the criminal courts to assist them in their sentencing duties...
and Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
with some existing Home Office functions. The agency has its head office in the Clive House; it moved its head office there in 2010.
Creation
NOMS was created on 1 June 2004 following a review by Patrick CarterPatrick Carter, Baron Carter of Coles
Patrick Robert Carter, Baron Carter of Coles is chairman of the review panel examining the future of NHS pathology. He recently reviewed the procurement of legal aid in England and Wales, and was chair of Sport England until September 2006...
(now Lord Carter of Coles), a Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
-supporting businessman. Carter had been asked by the government to propose a way of achieving a better balance between the prison population in England and Wales and the resources available for the correctional services. He proposed three radical changes. Firstly, that there should be 'end-to-end management' of each offender from first contact with the correctional services to full completion of the sentence. Secondly, that there should be a clear division between the commissioners of services and their providers. And thirdly that there should be 'contestability
Contestable market
In economics, the theory of contestable markets, associated primarily with its 1982 proponent William J. Baumol, holds that there exist markets served by a small number of firms, which are nevertheless characterized by competitive equilibria because of the existence of potential short-term...
' amongst these providers. By this means, he argued, efficiency would be increased, unit costs reduced, and innovation encouraged. Growth in the prison population
United Kingdom prison population
The United Kingdom has three distinct legal systems with a separate prison system in each—one for both England and Wales, one for Scotland, and one for Northern Ireland...
, which had increased by two thirds over the previous ten years, would be constrained by giving the courts greater confidence in the effectiveness of community sentences as opposed to prison sentences through better management of offenders, leading to reduced levels of reoffending. The Government accepted these proposals.
Helen Edwards
Helen Edwards
Helen Edwards CBE is a British civil servant, currently serving as the Director-General for Criminal Justice in the Ministry of Justice....
succeeded Martin Narey
Martin Narey
Martin Narey was the Chief Executive Officer of Barnardo's from October 2005 before stepping down in January 2011 to spend more time with his family...
as second Chief Executive of NOMS in November 2005.
The emerging structure of NOMS saw the appointment of a Regional Offender Manager (ROM) for each of the 9 English regions and Wales. Their responsibilities included the negotiation and performance monitoring of Service Level Agreements with each of the public sector prisons and probation areas in their regions, and of contracts with private sector prisons. The actual management of public sector prisons however remained with HM Prison Service, reporting separately to its own Director General, Phil Wheatley.
ROMs were also given responsibility for the reduction of reoffending in their regions, effected by the development of multi-agency partnerships which harnessed the capacity of other government departments, agencies, and local authorities to influence the factors which affect offending - drugs and alcohol, accommodation, employment training and education, children and families, health, finance debt and benefit, attitudes thinking and behaviour.
Changes following the creation of the Ministry of Justice
After a period characterised by changes of political leadership, crises about foreign national prisoners, and a burgeoning prison population, on 9 May 2007 the correctional services element of the Home Office was moved to join the former Department of Constitutional Affairs in the newly created Ministry of Justice. In January 2008, the Secretary of State for Justice announced major organisational reform which resulted in the Director-General of Her Majesty's Prison ServiceHer Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
, Phil Wheatley
Phil Wheatley
Philip Martin Wheatley CB is a retired British civil servant, formerly the Director-General of the National Offender Management Service and before that, Director-General of HM Prison Service,....
, becoming the Chief Executive of NOMS, and assuming responsibility for both the National Probation Service
National Probation Service
thumb|right|100px|NPS logoThe National Probation Service for England and Wales is a statutory Criminal Justice Service, mainly responsible for the supervision of offenders in the community and the provision of reports to the criminal courts to assist them in their sentencing duties...
(NPS) as well as HM Prison Service and management of contracts for private sector operation of prisons and prisoner escorting.http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/announcement290108a.htm Following this the Chief Executive post was reclassified as Director-General. and NOMS was designated as an executive agency within the Ministry of Justice http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/noms-agency-framework.pdf Subsequently ROMs were replaced by Directors of Offender Management (DOMs) in each of the 10 Government regions in England and Wales, combining responsibility for prisons and probation services in their region.
On 1 April 2008, six probation areas' governing boards were redesignated as Probation Trusts, enjoying greater freedoms than their board counterparts but more susceptible to competition and possible loss of business should their performance prove to be intractably poor. On 1 April 2009 Jack Straw announced the creation of two further Probation Trustshttp://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease010409a.htm.
Role
NOMS remains an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It divides England and Wales into 10 areas, each under a separate Director, with other Directors appointed for specialities such as the High Security Estate. The current Chief Executive is Michael Spurr. The Agency is responsible for delivering the Ministry's Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) 3: “protecting the public and reduce re-offending”, and supporting delivery of DSO 4: “more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public”. NOMS operates within the agreed Agency Framework Document, made in 2009. That document sets out its role:-
- Probation Services to Court
- The Agency commissions the provision of information, advice and reports on offenders to service court appearances and sentencing processes. It also ensures information is available to sentencers on the availability of services, the costs and benefits of interventions and sentence options.
- Offender Management
- The Ministry sets strategic policy and direction for the delivery of end to end Offender Management by the Agency. The NOMS Agency commissions and operates Offender Management services which ensure offenders are managed in a consistent, constructive and coherent way during their entire sentence, whether in a custodial or community setting.
- Custodial Services
- The Ministry sets strategic policy and direction for adult custodial services and prison capacity. Public sector prisons are run by the NOMS Agency. Individual public sector prisons are managed through SLAs agreed between Directors of Offender Management in NOMS and Governors. Private sector prisons operate under contract to the NOMS Agency. The Agency is responsible for managing the prison population, including Prisoner Escort and Custody Services, maintaining the existing estate and building prison capacity. With ethical walls between the purchaser and provider, it lets, through a competitive process, and manages Service Level Agreements and contracts awarded to public and private sector organisations to build prisons and deliver custodial services. In addition, the NOMS Agency is commissioned by other organisations, in particular by the Youth Justice Board to provide secure accommodation places and attendance centres for young people, and by the Border and Immigration Agency to provide services to immigration detainees.
- Offender Interventions
- The Ministry sets strategic policy and direction for use of intervention services. The NOMS Agency commissions and directly provides interventions which implement sentences and orders of the courts and reduce offender risk of serious harm, address offender needs, and resettle and rehabilitate offenders across custody and the community. The Agency contracts Electronic Monitoring as a sentencing and court service utilised by Agency providers, the UK Border AgencyUK Border AgencyThe UK Border Agency is the border control body of the United Kingdom government and part of the Home Office. It was formed on 1 April 2008 by a merger of the Border and Immigration Agency , UKvisas and the Detection functions of HM Revenue and Customs...
, Youth Justice Board and counter terrorism operations.
- The Ministry sets strategic policy and direction for use of intervention services. The NOMS Agency commissions and directly provides interventions which implement sentences and orders of the courts and reduce offender risk of serious harm, address offender needs, and resettle and rehabilitate offenders across custody and the community. The Agency contracts Electronic Monitoring as a sentencing and court service utilised by Agency providers, the UK Border Agency
- Probation Services to Court
The Agency says it will face three significant challenges over the coming years :
-
- 1) Align supply with demand.
- 2) Increase efficiency and effectiveness.
- 3) Improve performance and public confidence.
NOMS Agency has set out how it will meet these in the Strategic Commissioning Plans for 2010-13, which set out how the agency will provide services and meet demand for all 10 areas.