The potential impact of local commissioning on victim services in England and Wales

This article looks at the shift that has taken place in the funding of victim services in England and Wales, following the decision to appoint Police and Crime Commissioners, and give them the responsibility to commission such services at the local level. Over the past 40 years or so the voluntary sector agency Victim Support was ‘the major victims’ agency’ to which the majority of victims who reported crime to the police were referred. Victim Support therefore enjoyed reliable and consistent funding from the state, whilst its more ‘independent peers’ in the form of specialist services, had to contend with often less generous and less stable sources of funding. The shift to local commissioning chimes with the neo-liberal ideology which has permeated Conservative government policy since 1979, and which the Coalition government of 2010, and the Conservative government of 2015, have continued to champion. Thus the economy and the commissioning of victim services are increasingly subject to ‘the market’, as the best way to achieve efficient, effective and economic service provision. An array of government documents have talked about the importance of introducing competition into victim service provision, both as a political goal but also as a way of meeting the challenges that the current era of austerity poses. This paper then explores the potential implications for victim services in devolving funding to elected Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales.</jats:p

Matching provision to needs : the example of victim support

Merged with duplicate record (10026.1/682) on 03.01.2017 by CS (TIS)This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.The current study is an evaluation of a voluntary sector service, Victim Support. The focal points of this work are the impact of crime upon victims and the extent to which they feel that Victim Support, as a service provider, has helped to restore their sense of equilibrium. In this way the success of a community response to crime is considered. The research was undertaken between 1998 and 2002 and was largely based upon the work of one local scheme; Victim Support, Plymouth. The study included the views of service users (victims of crime) and those of service providers (paid staff and volunteers). In contrast to earlier studies, my work looks at Victim Support at a much later date in its history, at a time when service provision has become increasingly professionalised and standardised. Furthermore my work examined Victim Support at a time when it is being charged, fairly overtly, with responsibilities alongside other voluntary and state agencies for the governance of crime. At the same time Victim Support is under pressure to provide a service that IS 'community' In nature, whilst meeting the stricter economic imperatives of managerialism. Previous studies do not appear to have considered the value of all types of service provision that Victim Support makes, nor have they directly included victims who, though quite badly affected, were not typically offered assistance. More recent studies of Victim Support have also been undertaken more as a by product of national victim surveys, with only vague references to the contact made with victims, and within which support is offered/provided. The work that I have undertaken seeks to address these gaps in knowledge, making a clear link between the needs of crime victims and the organisational response of Victim Support at the local level.Department of Social Policy and Social Work (as was) within the University of Plymout

On sustainability and higher education: Towards an affirmative ethics

Sustainable development has been the dominant focus in sustainability discourses over the past three decades. In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a blueprint for peace and prosperity. The agenda is to be driven by the now well-known 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The higher education sector has not been left unaffected by these developments. In 2021, we saw Times Higher Education (2021) for the first time introducing its impact rankings, which assess universities against the United Nation’s SDGs. This new category of the university ranking system may see universities increasingly account for their contributions towards both ecological sustainability and social justice. Paradoxically, higher education would have to embrace SDG targets as a social justice imperative, but within a neoliberal performance architecture and by applying the ethics of neoliberal market fundamentalism. In this article, we trouble the underlying normative, economy first (instrumentalist) assumption and anthropocentric approach to sustainability and its relationship with (higher) education. We argue that sustainability is not a means to an end (instrumentalist), but a social and ethical process that is situated, open and forever inbecoming. In doing so, we draw on Rosi Braidotti’s (2019; 2013) critical, posthumanist perspective, which enables us to perform two methodological moves: 1) a critical philosophical exploration of the concept sustainability and 2) generating affirmative propositions for thinking about sustainability education. At the heart of Braidotti’s (2019; 2013) postulations is the affirmation of hope to enable sustainable transformations and futures. In addition, she proposes an ethics of joy and affirmation that functions through transforming negativity into positivity. Through this affirmative ethical philosophy, we offer alternative imaginings of sustainability and generate six affirmative propositions for sustainability in higher education