Economic cost of crime analysis for integrated offender management

• To clearly demonstrate to the community and service users the benefit of the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) scheme in reducing reoffending by reducing harm.
• To evidence that benefit by producing clear data to show the offence reductions and the economic cost of crime benefits.
• To disseminate the data to internal budget holders, senior leaders within Bedfordshire Police, criminal justice boards and external corporate communications to demonstrate the benefit of investment being allocated to the IOM partnership.
• To offer reassurance around offence and harm reductions, increasing public confidence in the work and legitimacy of Bedfordshire Police. 

To provide tangible evidence of the reductions achieved for reoffending rates, crime severity scores and economic cost of crime associated with the IOM managed cohort in a form that is easily interpreted.

This allows managers to provide evidence of effectiveness in budgeting and value for money processes, demonstrating an effective use of public funds.

The impact report can also be used to attract other partners who may be reluctant to contribute to the scheme. 

The concept of producing an annual report of the IOM scheme was to demonstrate its effectiveness in reducing reoffending. The report has been in existence for 10 years, however, in line with the recent IOM National Refresh Strategy, it was updated in 2022. In the early days, the data was quite technical from a probation service perspective and showed reoffending rates and offender group reconviction scores, with no evidence of cost and harm benefit.

The data was then linked to an IOM partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which detailed partnership contributions in both resources and finances. The IOM partnership wanted to provide evidence of achievement and impact as a core principle of the MOU, to demonstrate effectiveness to senior managers in the partnership.

In 2014, the local chief executives, Bedfordshire Police chief constable and Bedfordshire chief fire officer agreed to create a charity called YouTurn Futures, who were commissioned to provide this level of analytical support. Several statutory partners have financially committed to IOM and the creation of YouTurn Futures.

Over the past 10 years, YouTurn Futures and police staff have worked together to maintain the key IOM performance data and produce the outcome report.

Over the past 5 years, a greater reference has been made to the Home Office economic cost of crime scores. This formula has also now been overlaid with analysis of reductions in crime severity scores to produce evidence of monetised cost savings to the criminal justice system and to the community. This built on the existing work of an inspector and their staff within the IOM partnership at Norfolk Constabulary.

The report now shows values in reduction for reoffending rates and reductions to crime severity scores, as well as financial values for both these measures. There is often a disparity between the two financial figures. However, this does provide parameters of achievement and cost savings. The model is also now being applied to other business areas within the ‘Management of Offenders’, for example, the management of registered sex offenders within Bedfordshire.

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspected and reported on IOM within Bedfordshire, highlighting that the force approach to managing offenders and suspects is outstanding.

PEEL 2021/22: Police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy – An inspection of Bedfordshire Police

The principles behind this practice have also been identified as unique across the UK and identified as effective practice. YouTurn Futures has been commissioned to support other IOM work within the Eastern region and presented and liaised with other schemes throughout England. 

The economic evaluation has been rolled out beyond IOM in Bedfordshire and is now being adapted to show the benefits attained by the sex offender management team. It is now seen as essential among partner’s inspection and evaluation processes and demonstrates value for money to senior officers.

The unique nature of Bedfordshire Police commissioning YouTurn Futures is seen as effective practice locally. Other police and probation areas can be reluctant to seek the support from local charities, but this has been successfully implemented within Bedfordshire and provides wide ranging benefits to the local IOM scheme and wider partnership. 

• This process does need the vision and support of local partners and utilisation of a central agency to coordinate the analysis leading to the report.
• Careful planning prior to a reporting cycle is needed, with an accurate means of capturing data to ensure it is current and complete.
• Each year a master spreadsheet is created that both Police and YouTurn Futures staff input into. Within this document, baseline scores of offending and crime severity scores are created for each nominal and a comparison can then be made whilst on the scheme. Those nominals entering the scheme for up to 6 months have a pro rata approach taken to aggregate to a full year. Those nominals joining less than 6 months in the year are carried over to the following year to avoid skewing of the data.
• There is also a local partnership IOM SharePoint site within Bedfordshire to facilitate data recording between partners (with restricted access to key partnership personnel). This is managed and hosted by YouTurn Futures. This site is also instrumental in recording data from other partners, for example, logging visits to managed offenders. Other records for multi-agency case conference (MACC) meetings are also held here so that partners can securely access papers. There is an administrative burden in sifting and analysing the data for analytical staff and this approach seems to help and avoid duplication.
• Staff shortages can be a challenge as this prevents the spreadsheet from being up to date. In conjunction, some staff adopt local practices and start to create copies and administer these separately. YouTurn and Police staff often have to reconcile anomalies and inaccuracies.
• The MACC meeting now minutes and records decisions to enable a smooth recording of data onto the both the master spreadsheet and IDIOM (IT system to support the delivery of local IOM arrangement). Other partners have different data requirements as well. To satisfy this, YouTurn Futures create links to sections of the master spreadsheet to maintain accuracy of data rather than having parallel systems.
• Within the end of year report there is always a section on methodology, that can sometimes become technical. However, this does provide reassurance to commissioners and stakeholders of the accuracy and claims within the report. These methods have never been questioned. We often provide two values of the economic outcomes within the end of year report. One based on reduced reoffending from police national computer (PNC) data and the other based on the Office of National Statistics (ONS) crime severity Scores. This provides some parameters on economic claims of cost savings. This seems to reassure the reader that single claims are not being made and the relative merits of each approach can be used.
• The whole process has evolved over 10 years. In the early days, the end of year report was very technical and tended to be around probation data, such as offender group reconviction scale scores and reduced offending. The partnership aspect to this approach was limited and reflected funding and collocating within Probation offices. However, over the past 5 years the report has become far more partnership based and outcome focused on reoffending and crime severity scores linking both to financial savings.