These values guide everything we do, from strategy to service delivery:
We act with honesty, transparency, and responsibility. We are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve and the partners we work with.
We believe in designing change with people, not for them. We collaborate across boundaries and centre those most affected by systemic issues to ensure everyone has a voice. The decisions are not ours to take.
We prioritise evidence, experimentation, and continuous improvement. Our systems and solutions evolve through active listening and real-time learning.
These five principles reflect our long-term commitment to the creation of a fairer, safer, and more effective justice system:
We place communities and victims at the heart of decision-making. By regularly listening to their needs and views, we ensure the justice system is shaped by local priorities and lived experiences.
We break down silos across sectors to achieve shared, measurable outcomes. Multi-agency and cross-government partnerships drive better public value with stronger capability to reduce reoffending, increase public safety, and improve lives.
We combine compliance to national standards with local trialling. Best practice models are guided by current evidence and verified through real-world insights to stay ahead of complex challenges.
We highlight root causes of crime and harm to address, and systemic inequalities to remove. We help to focus resources upstream to reduce future crime and create justice pathways that are fair and inclusive.
We prioritise long-term reintegration, not just short-term processing of sentences. By supporting people to rebuild their lives, the social and economic costs of crime and justice are significantly reduced.
Our work aligns with The Centre for Public Impact’s six global principles for modern public services, including:
These principles reflect our belief that the future of justice must be locally led, openly shared, and continuously improved.
While our focus is on fostering a community-centric criminal justice system, strategic, system-wide transformation must be directed from the highest levels. Comprehensive support from the Secretary of State for Justice and Deputy Prime Minister, along with committed leadership from the Minister for Prisons, Probation, and Reducing Re-offending, is crucial.
Our Framework—The Three Pillars of System Change—articulates both the ministerial responsibilities and the national government’s oversight requirements for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). This framework is designed to be broadly applicable to national systems change across any government department.
Empowering those who are optimally positioned to effect change necessitates an appropriate balance between delegation and genuine devolution. The Framework of Tiers of Devolution specifically addresses rehabilitation, recognising that reoffending rates represent one of the most significant challenges facing the criminal justice system. Advancements are markedly more feasible when decision-making authority is situated at the front line and within local communities, rather than centrally in Whitehall. The framework outlines a progressive methodology that can be implemented in phases, with flexibility to pause or discontinue at any point as needed.
