VCSE organisations working in the criminal justice sector are now able to bid for community rehabilitation contracts worth up to £100 million.

The bidding process opened last month and is part of National Probation Service reforms.

One of the aims of the new system is to give an “enhanced role” to charities and funding will be available to a mix of private and VCSE organisations.

Suitable organisations will provide services which help address cross-cutting social issues that lead to criminal behaviour such as poor mental health, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, debt and poor education.

Successful organisations will be added to a dynamic services register and will be competitively commissioned for delivery at a local level by prison governors, probation regional directors, police and crime commissioners and other authorities which require them.

CLINKS has provided a detailed briefing outlining how the reformed service will operate. Voscur and CLINKS have both previously written articles outlining concerns over probation reform.

Organisations that are interested in bidding or asking questions about the programmes should email the Strengthening Probation communications team: strengthening.probation@justice.gov.uk