NOMS, which is responsible for coordinating both custodial and community-based offender programs, requires a full integration of the previously independent prison and probation services and the establishment of a regulated market place for independent (nonstatutory) organizations to become increasingly involved in the delivery of services to offenders. The latter provides an opportunity for a wider range of organizations to become involved in offender programs, which means that faith-based organizations and secular welfare organizations with a rehabilitative emphasis can provide a counterbalance to punitive influences within the correctional enterprise. The multiagency approach under the New Labour government and NOMS is based in the recognition of the complexity of offenders' presenting problems and the importance of the interface between residential and community settings. Although some policymakers and practitioners fear that combining custodial and community-based offender programs and services will lead to the domination of the punitiveness associated with incarceration, NOMS also holds the potential for a more balanced approach to corrections. Many agencies that operate within the NOMS framework are committed to offender rehabilitation. The inclusion of more of these rehabilitative agencies within a multiagency framework for corrections should provide greater advocacy for a rehabilitative approach in corrections than in the past. 19 references