Rebooted x East of England Probation: What Did We Learn During Our Digital Bridge Pilot — and Where Are We Going Next?
Working together toward a common goal: to make support easier to deliver.
During the last three months, Rebooted worked with East of England Probation Services to assess whether providing peer mentors with the appropriate technology would be an effective way to improve the quality and efficiency of support given to individuals leaving prisons.
Peer mentors offer lived experience and one-to-one support that complements commissioned rehabilitative services. Peer mentors engage in high-impact, high-trust work in which they often rely on traditional methods. Therefore, we asked: If we were to provide the same laptops we provide to prison leavers as a means of assisting the peer mentor team in terms of coordinating and communicating, as well as simplifying administrative tasks, wouldn't that fill a current gap?
That’s the gap our Digital Bridge Pilot Programme (South East England) set out to address.
Why this Matters Now (and Why This Is Important)
There is increased pressure being placed upon both the Probation Service and community-based support services to manage more and more prison leavers within the community. As such, efficiency is critical. By allowing peer mentors to respond quickly; gather detail accurately; and coordinate activities among various service providers, the likelihood of an individual falling through the gaps will be reduced.
Our pilot was not solely about devices. It was about enhancing the day-to-day support network surrounding prison leavers.
What we set out to test
We identified five specific examples of how a laptop could reduce friction and save time in each of these areas:
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Forms: Moving from manual completion of visit forms to electronic forms.
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National Lived Experience Panel: enabling mentors to join independently
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Advice & Guidance Level 3 qualification: Ensuring eligible mentors had access to a device capable of meeting course requirements.
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CAS3 Housing Meetings: Making it simpler to conduct meetings remotely rather than depending on libraries or community centers.
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Communication: Improving coordination between mentors, coordinators, probation services, and prison leavers; particularly during times when rapid response is necessary.
How The Pilot Was Conducted In Cambridge
Rebooted supplied refurbished laptops for peer mentors in the trial region of Cambridge.
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For the pilot, we provided devices to 4 peer mentors.
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Devices were delivered to the Cambridge Probation Office.
To ensure a great out-of-the-box experience, Rebooted also ran a device setup learning session for all mentors, supported by our Digital Learning Toolkit.
Feedback from Peer Mentors
Following completion of the pilot, we convened a debriefing session to gather input and determine future direction. The most evident pattern from the input gathered from the peer mentors was related to communication.
As stated above, peer mentors reported that laptops enhanced their ability to record details accurately and communicated more clearly with other parties involved.
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Contact reports are frequently documented verbally (voice messages via telephone/WhatsApp) however writing reports provides greater detail and clarity.
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The ease of working across different probation offices was also reported by the peer mentors. They noted that laptops allowed them to log-in easily; connect to WiFi; and perform tasks on a display that was far easier to navigate than a mobile phone.
Practical examples of how laptops have already assisted peer mentors' work included:
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Conducting monthly focus groups at the probation office.
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Creating more thorough written reports documenting post-meeting activity.
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Assisting with sensitive cases where documentation via written correspondence and creating a clear paper trail is crucial.
What we’ll improve next
The pilot also surfaced a few practical improvements we can make quickly:
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Accessories: adding a laptop mouse for easier use.
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Directory of services: uploading a directory to help signpost to associated support services.
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Email usability: improving email routing so communication works smoothly.
Next Steps: Enhancing Support (with donor assistance)
On the basis of successful results obtained from the pilot, we propose conducting another round of support expansion in a strategic manner based on evidence
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Continue supporting the 4 existing peer mentors.
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Extend laptops to 4 additional peer mentors.
In addition, exploring a batch of devices prepared for prison leavers, starting with those settling in Cambridge/Huntingdon, held by probation for quick deployment via our application process.
Donor Assistance
If your organisation possesses unused laptops collecting dust in storage you may contribute these devices towards preparing them into secure, ready-for-use devices which will ultimately assist in reintegrating members back into the community. Any devices contributed by businesses will be thoroughly sanitised prior to being restored/refurbished. Once cleaned, they will then be configured for their new users.