Falling rates of accommodation on release highlight the importance of coordinated resettlement services. Evidence from housing programmes, inspectors and frontline providers shows why securing a bed is only one stage in helping someone rebuild their life.
The latest Ministry of Justice figures show that 83.3% of prison leavers in England and Wales were housed on the night following release in 2025/26, down from 84.0% the previous year. This measure has declined since 2021/22.
At three months after release, 81.0% of eligible supervised cases were in settled accommodation. For people starting community sentences, the equivalent figure was 85.8%. Comparisons with the preceding period require caution because it covered only 11 months.
There were substantial regional differences: Greater Manchester recorded 90.1% in settled accommodation three months after release, compared with 69.9% in the North East.
These figures measure different things. “Housed” includes temporary accommodation; “settled accommodation” means a permanent housing solution.
Unknown and out-of-scope cases are excluded from the headline percentages, while the three-month measures also exclude cases eligible for Probation Reset. The figures therefore should not be read as tracking one unchanged group from release into permanent housing.
HM Inspectorate of Probation’s evidence review describes resettlement as a continuous process beginning during the sentence and extending into the community.
It combines accommodation, benefits, identification, employment and education with work on motivation, relationships and engagement.
The review emphasises early planning, collaboration with the person leaving prison and continuity between custody and community supervision. Respectful relationships and meaningful involvement in decisions are central to effective practice.
For practitioners, this suggests a practical test: can the person use the arrangements made for them? An accommodation referral may be recorded, but does the individual know where they are going, how they will get there and whom to contact if the placement fails? A release plan becomes useful when its separate elements work together.
Voluntary sector services illustrate the breadth of this work. Nacro provides accommodation advice, wellbeing support and help with finance, benefits and debt.
Its departure lounge at HMP Doncaster helps people arrange contact with probation, housing and benefits services, alongside immediate essentials such as food and clothing. Its intensive health resettlement service supports people with significant mental health needs through the transition into the community.
The Community Accommodation Service provides different forms of support. Tier 1 consists of Approved Premises, offering structured accommodation and intensive supervision for people assessed as presenting a higher risk of serious harm. Tier 2 provides short-term accommodation for eligible people who lack a suitable address, including those on bail or home detention curfew.
Tier 3, known as CAS3, offers up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. It achieved coverage across all probation regions in December 2023.
In 2025/26, 12,655 CAS3 placements began. Among 12,280 completed stays, recorded move-on outcomes were:
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22.6% settled accommodation.
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18.7% transient accommodation.
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9.0% homelessness or rough sleeping.
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31.4% recall or further custody.
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15.8% pending outcomes.
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2.6% unknown outcomes.
These are placement-based records, so an individual can appear more than once. Starts and completed stays also cover different groups because a placement may cross reporting years.
The move-on figures underline the difficulty of turning temporary accommodation into lasting stability. However, they do not establish why someone returned to custody or whether CAS3 caused a particular outcome. Its residents are a group already identified as being at risk of homelessness.
A Ministry of Justice impact evaluation published in December 2025 provides further caution. Comparing male CAS3 participants with a matched group, it found no statistically significant effect on the reoffending rate or number of proven reoffences. Participants who reoffended did so sooner; the researchers suggested increased detection could potentially help explain that finding.
The comparison group had a higher rate of settled accommodation at three months, although some CAS3 participants were still living in the temporary service at that point. The evaluation covered early cohorts and could not undertake an equivalent analysis for women.
For commissioners, this makes it important to examine immediate homelessness prevention, successful move-on and longer-term outcomes separately. Counting placements alone cannot explain whether support is producing sustained change.
HM Inspectorate of Probation’s 2026 annual report found inconsistent resettlement practice across the regions inspected. In the East Midlands, inspectors highlighted weak preparation for release and poor handovers into community supervision. In the North East, some strong practice existed alongside gaps in planning, contact and information sharing. These findings provide context, but do not by themselves explain the regional accommodation statistics.
There are also examples of effective provision. Elizabeth Fry Approved Premises for women in Reading received an “Outstanding” rating following inspection in June 2026. Inspectors identified strong relationships, specialist support with housing, finance and substance misuse, and clear move-on plans in all eight cases examined. Residents resettling locally could receive continuing support from an outreach worker.
Although one service cannot represent the whole system, its practice offers concrete learning: assess needs before arrival, coordinate specialist support and maintain contact through the next transition.
Support practitioners could examine three questions:
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Are we confirming that support has been accessed, rather than recording only that a referral was made?
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Who takes responsibility when housing, healthcare or financial arrangements break down?
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Does planning for the next accommodation move begin early enough?
The accommodation statistics make these questions pressing. A stronger resettlement pathway requires services to follow the person’s journey across organisational boundaries, identifying where arrangements fail and using that learning to improve the next release.
