Oxford Insights
From 2024 to 2025, we worked with HM Prison and Probation Service in the Ministry of Justice to build a digital service to connect alleged offenders released on bail to temporary accommodation.
As part of a multidisciplinary, cross-supplier team, we took the digital service from discovery to beta and made significant improvements to the formerly paper-based service, resulting in the highest ever number of applications for the new service during the first week of public beta.
Every successful application in our service results in a low-risk alleged offender being housed in the community instead of prison, which can reduce reoffending, encourage rehabilitation and reintegration, and reduce pressure on prisons.
The challenge
The Community Accommodation Service (CAS) provides temporary housing to eligible current, alleged, or former offenders who have no suitable accommodation. CAS-2 for Bail, one part of CAS, offers low-risk alleged offenders temporary accommodation, helping them avoid unnecessary remand in prison, reducing pressure on prison capacity, and supporting rehabilitation.
Previously, probation and bail officers submitted paper referral forms, which were confusing and error-prone, causing delays, repeated clarifications, and sometimes unnecessary imprisonment for people eligible for community bail. The Ministry of Justice sought a digital solution to streamline referrals, increase successful placements, and reduce pressure on prisons.
Our approach
First, we carried out a rapid discovery phase to understand the problems the new digital service needed to solve. We conducted user research with users in courts and prisons across the country, identifying the biggest pain points that prevented them from making successful CAS-2 referrals. In some cases, we found that the paper referral form was so time-consuming, and accommodation so limited, that eligible applicants were missed — resulting in more pressure on prisons and the risk of worse outcomes for alleged offenders.
We were selected to continue our work in an alpha phase focused on testing the hypotheses from our research. We produced detailed process maps from interviews with users in order to better understand how a new digital service should operate. For example, we investigated whether court applications could be reused in prison settings and how the service might capture unmet demand for community accommodation.
Alongside a multidisciplinary, multi-supplier team, we helped build the digital service in a private beta phase. We wrote and prioritised user stories for development while ensuring alignment between designers and developers. Once the service was built and tested with a small group of users, we ensured a smooth handover to the Ministry of Justice by engaging regularly and tailoring artefacts to their needs.
Our impact
Our service passed alpha and private beta service assessments, meeting high standards within accelerated delivery timelines. We successfully handed over the service to the Ministry of Justice, who released it for public beta.
During the first week of public beta rollout, the service received its highest ever number of applications. Users reported the digital service is quicker and easier to use than the paper-based service, freeing up their time to complete more applications or deal with complex cases.
Every successful application in our service results in a low-risk alleged offender being housed in the community instead of prison, which can reduce reoffending, encourage rehabilitation and reintegration, and reduce pressure on prisons.
Grid photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
