http://www.nwda.co.uk/pdf/NOMS%20NWRRDP

NorthWest Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan

APRIL 2007

Foreword Welcome to the Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan for the North West.

When the North West Reducing Re-offending Action Plan was published in October 2005, it provided a foundation for the development of the National Offender Management Service in the region.

Recognising that reducing re-offending was never the responsibility of any one individual organisation, our initial efforts were focused upon building partnerships with the public, private and voluntary sectors. We received a great deal of energy and commitment from a broad spectrum of leading players in the ‘field’, all of whom brought their considerable experience and expertise to making the reducing re-offending agenda a reality. In the process, there has been the recognition that we need to target the resources we possess to deliver effective offender services through an integrated and collaborative approach.

Public protection remains our first priority. The best way of protecting the public is by reducing re-offending in our communities. Emerging findings on adult re-offending rates for the 2004 cohort show that the national target to reduce re-offending by 5% has already been met. This document sets out the plans and commitments for the next three years at a regional level in order to achieve a 10% reduction by the end of the decade.

Most importantly, the plan further embeds the work of the eight Pathways linked to the key factors that contribute to reducing re-offending, and thereby to provide the best possible outcomes for offenders and the community. Furthermore, the North West retains an additional Pathway to those in the national plan, that of Victims of Crime. This acknowledges the impact of crime on individuals and the community. But, it also recognises the importance of offenders ‘paying back’ to the community by reparation.

This plan takes further the strong and proactive partnership working that has already taken place between government departments in the region. Next steps, meanwhile, must involve expanding the alliances we have made with employers, local authorities and the ‘third sector’. These are already increasing engagement with the ‘harder to reach’ groups in society, ensuring the delivery plan is relevant to every single offender based on individual need and individual risk.

The North West has already made a real difference to offenders and communities. By continuing to work collaboratively, aligning our strategies and forging new alliances, we will succeed in making our communities safer and more secure through helping offenders to turn away from crime for good.

Liz Hill Regional Offender Manager for the North West

Contents Acronyms

9

1.

Introduction

13

2.

The North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan

15

2.1

Why do we need a Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan?

15

2.2

Who owns it and how will it be delivered?

16

2.3

How has it been developed?

18

2.4

When will it be updated?

19

2.5

Governance

19

2.6

Aim and principles

20

2.7

Performance Monitoring Framework

21

2.8

Communications Strategy

21

2.9

Cross-cutting issues

22

3.

An Offender Management Map of the North West

23

3.1

Population overview

23

3.2

Offending profile

24

3.3

Prisons

26

3.4

The Offender Management Model

27

4.

New Ways of Delivering Effective Offender Services

29

4.1

Commissioning

29

4.2

What does this mean for the Voluntary and Community Sector?

30

4.3

Targets and partnership working

30

5.

Equality, Diversity and Social Inclusion

35

5.1

Equality and Diversity – why are they important?

35

5.2

Justice in the Community

35

5.3

Alliances

36

5.4

Juveniles and Young People

37

5.5

Women Offenders

39

Pathway Delivery Plans

40

Accommodation

41

Attitudes, Thinking and Behaviour

45

Children, Families and Community Support

49

Drugs and Alcohol

53

Employment, Learning and Skills

57

Finance

63

Physical and Mental Health

67

Victims of Crime: Individuals and the Community

79

Appendix 1:

84

North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board – Terms of Reference

85

Appendix 3:

86

North West Pathway Groups – Terms of Reference

87

Appendix 2:

83

North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan Board Members

82

Acronyms ACCT

Assessment and Care in Custody Teamwork

ASRO

Addressing Substance Related Offending

ALI

Adult Learning Inspectorate

ATR

Alcohol Treatment Requirement

BME

Black and Minority Ethnic

CALM

Control, Anger Learning Management

CARATS

Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare Services

CBT

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CJC

Community Justice Centre

CPA

Care Programme Approach

CSCP

Cognitive Self Change Programme

DH

Department of Health

DIP

Drug Intervention Programme

DRR

Drug Rehabilitation Requirement

EBS

Employment and Benefit Surgery

ELS

Employment, Learning and Skills

ESF

European Social Fund

GMP

Greater Manchester Police

GONW

Government Office for the North West

GP

General Practitioner

HMP

Her Majesty’s Prison

HSCCJ

Health and Social Care in Criminal Justice

HSF

Healthy Sexual Functioning

IDTS

Integrated Drug Treatment System

ILP

Individual Learning Plan

IMPACT

Innovation Means Prisons and Communities Together

I-SOTP

Internet Sex Offender Treatment Programme

JCP

Jobcentre Plus

LAA

Local Area Agreement

10

LCJB

Local Criminal Justice Board

LGA

Local Government Association

LSC

Learning and Skills Council

NACRO

National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders

NOMS

National Offender Management Service

NTA

National Treatment Agency

NW

North West

NWEEF

North West Employer Engagement Forum

NWELSPB

North West Employment, Learning and Skills Partnership Board

NWIG

North West Interventions Group

OASys

Offender Assessment System

OLASS

Offender Learning and Skills Service

PCT

Primary Care Trust

PMF

Performance Monitoring Framework

PPO

Prolific and Priority Offender

PSP

Prison Service Plus

PSR

Pre-Sentence Report

RAP

Resettlement and After Provision

ROHT

Regional Offender Health Team

ROM

Regional Offender Manager

RRAP

Reducing Re-Offending Action Plan

RRDB

Regional Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board

RRDP

Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan

SDVC

Specialist Domestic Violence Court

SHA

Strategic Health Authority

SLA

Service Level Agreement

TWP

Together Women Project

VCS

Voluntary and Community Sector

YJB

Youth Justice Board

YOT

Youth Offending Team

11

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1. Introduction Why do we need to reduce re-offending?

Although overall crime rates are falling, the prison population is growing. Inroads have been made to tackle re-offending, with a reduction of at least 3.4% since 1997. However, just under 58% of offenders continue to re-offend within two years of being released from prison or starting a community sentence. According to the Social Exclusion Unit’s 2002 report Reducing re-offending by ex-prisoners, re-offending from these offenders alone is estimated to cost the country £11 billion a year, on top of the longlasting damage it can have on individual lives, families and local communities. For these reasons, the Home Office Strategic Plan 2004–2008 set a target for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to reduce re-offending by 5% by 2007/08 and 10% by 2009/10.

Emerging findings on adult re-offending rates for the 2004 cohort already show a reduction nationally in re-offending of 6.9% from the 1997 baseline. More work needs to be done, however. The Reducing Reoffending Delivery Plan (RRDP), then, is focused on continuing to tackle the negative outcomes resulting from offending behaviour at a regional level. This is not just about sustaining a reduction in re-offending over the long-term, but also in support of the wider aims of achieving community cohesion, social inclusion and recognising diversity.

But, our communities also demand that we no longer work in silos.

This is why the RRDP exists. It represents an active forum focused on achieving the seamless integration of partnership working, closing the gaps between the provision of services that have historically existed in offender management. It is about working smarter, and more collaboratively with all colleagues in Prisons, Probation and other public, private and voluntary agencies impacting upon the reducing re-offending agenda, with the resources available. But, it is also about engaging with new partners from the civic, corporate, and community sectors, harnessing the expertise available at a localised level to deliver yet more effective offender services.

The RRDP, then, is not setting broad aspirations in stone. Rather it is intended to be a ‘living document’.

It is about responding to the changing factors in the region so that the match between the individual needs of offenders and their individual risk remains relevant. This will be crucial if the public are to be fully protected and communities are to grow in strength, safety and resilience over the ‘lifetime’ of the RRDP and beyond.

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14

2. The North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan 2.1 Why do we need a Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan?

Protecting the public by reducing re-offending is the key priority for NOMS in its wider aim to build safer and stronger communities. In the North West, NOMS is working with our colleagues in prisons, Probation, and other public, private and voluntary sector agencies to ensure that the ‘joined-up’ service offered to offenders is an achievable reality, and not just an optimistic aspiration.

The RRDP is predicated on the findings of the Social Exclusion Unit’s 2002 report Reducing reoffending by ex-prisoners, and the achievements of the North West’s Reducing Re-Offending Action Plan (RRAP), which was published in 2005. It sets out individual delivery plans that correspond to the nationally agreed Pathways addressing the dominant influences upon offending behaviour: •

Accommodation

•

Attitudes, Thinking and Behaviour

•

Children, Families & Community Support

•

Drugs & Alcohol

•

Employment, Learning and Skills

•

Finance

•

Mental & Physical Health

For instance, employment can reduce the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half, while stable housing can reduce re-offending by more than 20%. Securing these objectives will make a critical contribution to the achieving the NOMS target of a 10% reduction in re-offending rates by 2009/10.

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The North West has included an additional Pathway: •

Victims of Crime: Individuals and the Community

This Pathway is focused on ensuring that individuals and the community are properly protected from offenders who pose a high risk of causing harm and that these arrangements are properly promoted.

Where possible, it is desirable that offenders will have the opportunity to demonstrate reparation through work that benefits the community, and that this is promoted. Moreover, victims of crime should be aware of the sentences served by offenders, expressing their views in all relevant processes.

2.2 Who owns it and how will it be delivered?

Responsibility for producing the RRDP lies with the Regional Offender Manager (ROM) for the North West, with a duty to ensure that existing resources are targeted more effectively and holistically in the provision of offender services to make a real and measurable difference in changing offending behaviour – changes that will be felt by the individuals, families and communities whose lives are blighted by crime.

The Regional Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board (RRDB) – formerly known as the North West RRAP Board – is responsible for delivering the RRDP jointly with the ROM. The Board brings together leaders from a wide range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to optimise collaboration on reducing re-offending in the region. Board Membership and Terms of Reference are set out in Appendices 1 and 2 respectively.

Supporting the RRDB are the Pathway Groups, whose Leads and Membership are representative of the statutory bodies, local authorities and voluntary agencies who already have a significant track record of delivering results inside and outside the criminal justice system. Terms of Reference for the Pathway Groups are set out in Appendix 3.

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17

VCS & Faith Alliance

Finance

Employers

Mental & Physical Health

Youth Justice Board

Youth Offending Teams

Public Health Services

National Treatment Agency

Victims of Crime: Individuals & the Community

Chair: Liz Hill North West Regional Offender Manager

Adult Re-offending Senior Reporting Officer: Julie Taylor NOMS Director of Commissioning

Chair: Helen Edwards NOMS Chief Executive

Juvenile & Young Offenders Estate

Probation Service

Local Authorities

Jobcentre Plus

Drug & Alcohol Action Team

Private Sector

Voluntary & Community Sector

Prisons

Legal Services Commission

Primary Care Trusts

Strategic Health Authorities

Police

Learning & Skills Council

Health

Employment, Learning & Skills

Key Partnerships

Drugs & Alcohol

Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Children & Families

Government Office for the North West

Courts

Faith Communities

Connexions

Attitudes, Thinking & Behaviour

Pathway Groups

OLASS Providers

Accommodation

Civic Alliance

Children & Families

North West Regional Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board

Corporate Alliance

Alliances

Education, Training & Employment / Finance, Benefits & Debt

Sub-boards

National Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board

Delivery Framework

& L O C A L

R E G I O N A L

R E G I O N A L

N A T I O N A L

2.3 How has it been developed?

The first draft of the RRDP was produced in collaboration with the RRDB, the Pathway Leads and members of the Pathway Groups. This was followed by a five-week period of consultation starting in February 2007 when the plan was sent to around 250 key representatives, including from: •

Public and Private Prisons

•

Probation Service

•

Police

•

Youth Justice Board

•

Home Office

•

Department for Education and Skills

•

Department of Health

•

Department for Work and Pension

•

Government Office for the North West

•

Local Authorities

•

Housing Officials

•

Primary Care Trusts

•

Black and Minority Ethnic Groups

•

Faith Groups

•

Service User Groups

•

Voluntary Organisations

Feedback from the consultation was presented to the RRDB, which agreed changes to the original draft. Pathway Leads also reconvened their respective Groups in order to revisit and amend their individual delivery plans in the light of the consultation feedback. This publication is the culmination of these activities and reflects the collegiate view of all those involved in the RRDP at Board and Pathway Group levels.

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2.4 When will it be updated?

The new RRDP covers a three-year period from April 2007 to March 2010. However, it will remain a ‘living document’. That’s to say, it will be refreshed on an annual basis, acknowledging the outcomes achieved to date while agreeing further action to take forward that responds to the changing profile of offending behaviour in the North West. In the process, it will provide milestones and overarching direction for all stakeholders, partners and organisations involved in reducing re-offending in the region.

2.5 Governance Overseeing the implementation of the RRDP in the North West is the RRDB. Representation comes from public and private Prisons and Probation, statutory agencies, local authorities and the voluntary sector.

As well as those directly involved in the criminal justice system, the region has also ensured representation from cross-governmental partners whose work impacts upon offenders and their families on both the RRDB and the Pathways. These include the Department of Health (drugs and alcohol abuse, mental and physical health problems), the Department for Work and Pensions (employability and training, benefit advice) and the Department for Education and Skills (learning and skills training).

This is essential if strategies are to be aligned, problems tackled collaboratively, and new alliances forged, reflecting the best possible community engagement in delivering resettlement for offenders based on individual need and individual risk.

Alongside the work of the RRDB are the Standing Conferences, which are held twice-yearly themed around two of the Pathway areas on a rotational basis. Invitations are made to ensure the widest possible engagement with organisations that are not ‘at the table’, especially those outside the criminal justice sector, in order to learn from and expand the influences on the evolvement of each of the Pathways.

This regional structure sits within a national Delivery Framework. This is designed to harnessing the expertise required to deliver effective offender services in the North West, while also giving the region the opportunity to influence the national scene and resolve obstacles to progress.

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2.6 Aim and principles The overarching aim of the RRDB is to reduce re-offending in the North West, while the RRDP creates a structure and a shared strategy that will enable key partners to work together in a co-ordinated and collaborative way to protect the public through an overall reduction in the levels of crime committed in the region. This is reflected in the organisations represented on the Pathways, as well as the breadth of consultation in putting together a RRDP that draws on the vast knowledge, experience and expertise prevalent in the North West. The RRDB will oversee the activities of each of the eight Pathways and regularly monitor the progress towards achieving the outcomes articulated in the RRDP. The key principles underlying the RRDP are: •

protecting the public

•

a commitment to evidence-based practice

• a recognition of the diversity of needs, of racial, cultural, personal, spiritual and social contexts, and equality and parity of service delivery that equates with all communities in the region (see Section 5) • targeting the use of public resources to ensure value for money is reflected in fully matching offender need with eliminating public risk • the implementation of a system of end-to-end management of offenders that puts the offender at the centre of the process in such a way as to maximise public protection The role of the ROM will be to facilitate an environment in which these outcomes are delivered. This will support the change to the commissioning of offender services in the region – this is discussed in more detail in Section 4).

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2.7 Performance Monitoring Framework The RRDP will not be effective unless the Pathways are subject to a robust system of performance monitoring.

The RRDB, therefore, commissioned the ROM to design a Performance Monitoring Framework (PMF), which: •

is easy to use

•

highlights areas of achievement

•

indicates obstacles to progress

The PMF will come into effect in April 2007 with the RRDP. Risk management is an integral component of governance, and the ROM has embedded this into the PMF. Risks to the RRDP will be highlighted using a RAG (Red/Amber/Green) analysis, which will be presented to the RRDB on a quarterly basis. Each Pathway Lead will be responsible for the risks in relation to their respective delivery plans, detailing the likelihood of a risk occurring and the impact it would have.

The RRDB has also agreed the option to escalate any obstacles to progress to the Inter-Ministerial Group on Reducing Re-offending, which was set up by Baroness Scotland, the Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Offender Management.

2.8 Communications Strategy The ROM recognises that an effective communications strategy is a priority in the North West.

The appointment of a full-time Information Manager in the region will not only ensure that information about the RRDP is communicated to the right audiences, but provide the data needed to ensure that offender need is accurately targeted. This will also ensure that the widest possible consultation will take place with existing – and potential new – partners, government networks, service users and the new alliances the ROM is forging with the civic, corporate, voluntary, community and faith.

Online engagement will be facilitated with the setting-up of a webpage for the RRDP on the North West ROM website, which will include updates on the Pathways as well as minutes of meetings by the Pathway Groups.

Complementing these activities, the ROM is also developing a database of voluntary, community and faith groups. This is designed to ensure the RRDB’s messages are communicated to the most relevant people, and ensure that information to develop these sectors in tandem with the reducing re-offending is maximised.

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2.9 Cross-cutting issues It is estimated that approximately 50% of public funding spend on offenders comes through government departments other than Prisons and Probation. Effective partnership cutting across all the Pathways is, therefore, fundamental to the success of reducing re-offending in the region.

Applying an overarching approach to the reducing re-offending agenda is a firm recognition that the contributory factors behind recidivism need to be tackled in an holistic way.

Against the wider aim of social inclusion, this also presents a major opportunity to benefit from crossgovernmental partnerships, including with local authorities, and maximise resources to deliver shared outcomes.

Since the publication of the RRAP in 2005, the region has done much to identify issues that ‘cut across’ different areas of statutory responsibility and non-statutory involvement, not just in relation to NOMS’ remit of adult re-offending. This has been particularly true of the Youth Justice Board’s (YJB) involvement in the region. Following the publication of The National Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan by the Home Office in July 2004, the YJB at a national level responded with the commitment to providing joint policy direction on youth resettlement. Taking up the challenge at a regional level, the YJB and colleagues in Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in the North West are represented on all but one of the Pathways in order that youth justice and children’s services strategies are embedded alongside work focused on adult re-offending.

In the North West, there is also a commitment to meeting the specific needs of women who offend and who are at risk of offending (see Section 5.5). This work is being developed through the Together Women Project (TWP), which is collaborating with a number of partner agencies in the region to deliver programmes to address factors including domestic violence, child care, substance misuse, unemployment and self-esteem. Recognising that all the Pathways can influence and deliver successful outcomes for vulnerable women, TWP will be represented on the RRDP as a way of identifying and dealing with relevant issues within each of the Pathway Groups.

As the Pathways embody prevalent factors that are known to affect all vulnerable groups, this in turn reflects the membership profile of the RRDB and the Pathway Groups.

Subscribing to the RRDP means the Pathway Groups are signing up to collaborating across Pathways in order to maximise outcomes: for instance, an Integrated Drug Treatment Service has already been set up, bringing together both health and drug workers. By also focusing on the longterm, this approach will contribute to breaking down generational cycles that blight families with a history of offending.

However, success will be dependent upon robust information and communication systems between Pathways being put in place. This will be a key challenge over the ensuing months.

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3. An Offender Management Map of the North West 3.1 Population overview The North West is made up of three counties (Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire) and two metropolitan areas (Greater Manchester and Merseyside).

Population density: by local or unitary authority, 2004

Population density, 2004 (people per sq km) 2,500 or over 1,000 – 2,499 500 – 999 250 – 499 100 – 249 99 or under 1. Barrow-in-Furness

8. Sefton

16. Knowsley

2. Blackpool UA

9. Bury

17. St. Helens

3. Preston

10. Rochdale

18. Warrington UA

4. Hyndburn

11. Salford

19. Halton UA

5. South Ribble

12. Manchester

20. Stockport

6. Blackburn with

13. Tameside

21. Ellesmere Port &

Darwen UA 7. Rossendale

14. Trafford 15. Liverpool

Neston 22. Congleton

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The region has extreme fluctuations in population density, reflecting its complex composition of rural areas, post-industrial towns and highly regenerated cities, as well as fluctuations in social, cultural and economic factors.

3.2 Offending profile Compared with other regions, the North West faces some of the most formidable challenges in tackling crime and reducing re-offending. Almost 3,500 household offences per 10,000 households were recorded by the Police in 2004/05. This statistic is 16% greater than the average rate for the whole of England, making it the highest of all regions. In the same period, the North West was the second highest in England for thefts of and/or from a vehicle with 1350 offences, as well as the fourth highest for burglaries in a dwelling at 743 per 100,000.

Within the region, there are five Probation Areas: Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

North West Probation Areas 1. Cheshire 2. Cumbria 3. Greater Manchester 4. Lancashire 5. Merseyside

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Trends of particular significance are to be found in the largely metropolitan areas of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Greater Manchester accounts for a larger proportion of recorded crime relative to the size of population, untypically reflected in a greater number of acquisitive crimes. In Merseyside, however, there is a greater occurrence of violent crime, with 25% more likelihood of an assault against the person than any other part of the North West. As the table below indicates, the numbers of acquisitive crimes are fewer in the remaining regions, where there is a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities; instead, violent crime is predominant in these areas.

Probation Area

Violence against the person

Robbery

Burglary dwelling

Theft of a motor vehicle

Theft from a vehicle

Total Recorded Crime 2005/06

Cheshire

19

1

11

4

8

95,297

Cumbria

19

0

6

2

4

42,886

Greater Manchester

21

3

23

7

14

328,237

Lancashire

20

1

10

3

7

142,229

Merseyside

25

2

18

5

11

174,989

North West

21

2

16

5

10

783,638

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3.3 Prisons There are 13 adult male prisons in the North West, including three contracted establishments and one in the High Security estate. There is also one women’s establishment, as well as three Juvenile and Young Offender Institutions.

Analysis of custodial places in October 2006 shows that the North West accommodates North West Probation Areas 1. Buckley Hall (Contracted) 2. Garth 3. Haverigg 4. Hindley (includes J/Y) 5. Kirkham 6. Lancaster Castle 7. Lancaster Farms (J/Y) 8. Liverpool 9. Preston 10. Risley 11. Styal (Female) 12. Thorn Cross (J/Y) 13. Wymott 14. Kennett 15. Manchester (High Security) 16. Forest Bank (Contracted) 17. Altcourse (Contracted) (J/Y = Juvenile/Youth Estate)

approximately 14% of the national demand, with almost 11,500 offenders. However, as the national prison population has been predicted to rise by 2.36% year-on-year, there is serious risk that demand will exceed the total capacity of 11,704 custodial places existing in the current North West estate. Overcrowding will have a major impact on the delivery of appropriate services to offenders while in custody. Anticipated problems are likely to include not being able to transfer prisoners to overcrowded establishments where offender programmes that more relevantly address their type of criminal behaviour are available, or having sufficient numbers of trained personnel to deal with an increase in an establishment’s population where such programmes are offered. The decision to open HMP Kennet in the North West prison estate will hopefully address this situation to some extent.

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Capacity Adult Male Adult Female Juvenile & Young offenders Total

Population at November 2006

9,950

9,789

451

450

1303

1239

11,704

11,478

The numbers of community orders supervised by the Probation Service in the North West was just under 28,000 in 2005/06; this accounts for approximately 17% of national community demand. With the assumption that this figure will rise by 3% yearly, demand would increase to 31,000 starts in 2007/08, 33,000 starts in 2008/09 and 34,000 starts in 2009/10. Against the backdrop of an anticipated annual rise in the prison population of 2.36%, the number of post-release licences is also expected to increase by 7.7% in 2007/08, taking account of the new automatic release sentences of over four years under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, followed by a projected 4.3% increase in 2008/09.

3.4 The Offender Management Model Dealing proactively with these difficult forecasts about demand and capacity in the criminal justice system is an integral, but not exclusive, part of the new approach to offender management.

Known as the Offender Management Model, its function is to provide a universal way of delivering effective work with offenders, a single framework within which the different components and staff that make up NOMS can coalesce. In short, it represents NOMS’ core aim of having the same offender manager working with an offender for the entirety of their sentence. This also means Prisons and Probation need to work closer together than ever before. Using the concept of an end-to-end management team to treat an offender in the same coherent way, this will ensure that individual intervention programmes are designed and supported to facilitate changes in offending behaviour.

For all offenders, the period before sentence – whether on remand, in custody or on bail in the community – is more than ever a crucial time when agencies make contact with the individual and collate information that can be used to make decisions about appropriate interventions, as well as risk assessment, quickly after sentence. This will, in turn, assist courts in reliably targeting sentences.

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Adopting this approach is particularly important for those offenders who receive custodial sentences of less than 12 months. At present, these offenders do not come under the supervision of the Probation Service. Therefore, agencies need to work together and ensure effective interventions are planned at the earliest possible stage.

Of course, NOMS recognises that a robust community sentence can sometimes get better results than a prison sentence for many offenders, more so given that the prison population has reached record levels with many establishments having reach existing capacity. Where sentences are to be served in the community, the nature of the sentence is now defined according to a ‘menu’ of options available to the courts and includes consideration of elements which will contribute to reducing reoffending. In serving community sentences, offenders are required to make amends for their actions and engage in work designed to reduce future offending.

This high degree of continuity is designed to break the historical disjunction experienced by offenders on release from prison, let alone the recognisable division as ‘mainstream’ services are accessed.

As with the original RRAP for the North West, the RRDP continues to stress that agencies need to work in partnership to ensure continuity in the provision of services for offenders and their families.

Research has shown that the systemic failure to tackle offending behaviour means that offenders’ children are at the greatest of becoming the next generation of offenders. NOMS recognises, therefore, that delivering on the Pathways must invest in the needs of offenders’ families with equal importance, if the inter-generational cycle of criminal behaviour is also to be broken and protecting the public is to be sustained. In particular, demonstrating leadership in local government remains paramount in delivering this aspect of the plan.

The criminal justice picture in the North West, then, is a complex one. In putting together this delivery plan, due recognition has been paid to the influences which affect offending behaviour before, during and after the time spent serving the sentence. At the same time, the regional contexts have been fully considered identifying the problems in an offender’s life, as well as the opportunities available to divert them away from re-offending. For this reason, each of the Pathways in the delivery plan is both sensitive to the region’s needs and designed to explain the services available before, during and after sentence. It is also intended to subdivide these stages further in such a way as to present a thorough, yet holistic, concept of resettlement and rehabilitation alongside the processes of sentencing.

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4. New Ways of Delivering Effective Offender Services 4.1 Commissioning Underpinning the RRDP is the concept of commissioning.

Commissioning is one of the strands in the reform of the offender management system represented by the establishment of NOMS. Its aim is to secure service provision in prisons and the community that is ‘offender-centric’ (tailoring services to have maximum impact on offenders based on individual need and risk), rather than ‘one size fits all’.

Commissioning is also a system of resource allocation that exists to align services with what is actually provided ‘on the ground’, working smarter with the resources that exist, and investing in the more responsive and higher performing providers. In this way, public protection is also delivered with an emphasis on value for money.

NOMS recognises, however, that commissioning is also about locating the ‘centre of gravity’ at a regional level, where variation dictates this is necessary and appropriate. By having commissioners in the North West, closer to service delivery and the key agencies that are currently delivering here, this will guarantee a better understanding of local and diverse needs and priorities, and how these can be translated into service provision.

For this reason, the ROM will be engaging the broadest possible range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations in the process of commissioning offender services in the North West.

Using this approach to identify the opportunities where collaboration can and should take place, this will further maximise the use of resources by avoiding duplicated effort and broaden their impact, not just upon offender management but also wider social inclusion. In the process, this is expected to result in: •

Co-commissioning – where two or more organisations align their strategies for shared or mutually beneficial outcomes

•

Joint-commissioning – where two or more organisations pool budgets to commission services with shared or mutually beneficial outcomes

It is also expected that these modes of commissioning will also link with the work of the Pathway Groups as a vehicle for delivery on the key aspects of the RRDP. Priorities include strengthening commissioning around health, education, accommodation, and drug and alcohol services.

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4.2 What does this mean for the Voluntary and Community Sector?

Commissioning is about strengthening the ‘local’ in delivering offender services.

One of the RRDP’s key objectives is to harness the energy of the voluntary and community sectors whose expertise can have a real impact upon reducing re-offending in the North West. Prisons and Probation, as lead providers in the region, already recognise the importance of pursuing such an approach.

Furthermore, the RRDP is driven by finding a common language that unites all organisations irrespective of sector while allowing them to retain their individual identity and founding principles. To address this, the ROM will seek to further engagement with non-statutory organisations with a track record of delivering social inclusion and support them in joint-working with these lead providers.

NOMS will also strive to reduce the inequalities that exist across sectors and ensure the right sort of commissioning takes place. In return, any organisation seeking to be involved in offender management must demonstrate they have the most appropriate solutions and offer the best value for money.

4.3 Targets and partnership working Public protection is NOMS’ first priority. Reducing re-offending is a major element of NOMS’ strategy to maintain and improve the protection of the public.

In the North West, the RRDP represents a key strand in delivering on this strategy at a regional level.

It is, however, important to make a distinction between the ‘deliverables’ contained in the Pathways and the targets owned by statutory agencies that relate to reducing re-offending, but which are developed and managed separately from the RRDP. This section makes the link between the RRDP and activity outside the Pathways, giving a ‘flavour’ of how statutory agencies are contributing to reducing re-offending in the context of their own targetsetting and broader commitments to social inclusion for vulnerable groups, which of course include offenders and their families.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been negotiated by the ROM with North West Prisons and Probation Areas, and represent their contribution to reducing re-offending in the region. Whether Custodial, Offender Management or Interventions, each SLA has nationally set minimum targets around the Pathways concerned with getting offenders into settled accommodation and sustainable employment, improving their educational and skills levels, and attending and completing drug rehabilitation, alcohol dependency and offending behaviour programmes. Delivery on these targets must also demonstrate a proactive response to diversity matters, ensuring work is founded on principles of equality and parity of service.

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Examples of these targets are given in the table below.

National Metric

Custodial SLAs: Percentage of sentenced prisoners moving into settled accommodation on release from custody Number of prisoners with a job, or education / training place, to start at the point of discharge

Targets in North West Prison & Probation SLAs 60% 39,417

Offender Management SLAs: Percentage of offenders at the end of their order / licence living in settled and suitable accommodation

80%

Intervention SLAs: Number of offenders under supervision in the community placed into employment

15,000

Number of offenders placed into employment retaining it for at least four weeks

12,000

Outside of the criminal justice sector, health is one headline area of cross-government partnership relevant to offenders. Health and Offender Partnerships, one of the directorates in NOMS, is continuing to build the vital collaboration with the Department of Health to ensure that health services provided for the high proportion of offenders who have mental and physical health needs are broadly equivalent in range and quality to those available to the rest of society. Protecting the public from further re-offending, of course, remains the ‘driver’ here, reflected in the kinds of healthcare offered to offenders, such as the implementation of an integrated drug treatment system so that offenders are sustainably ‘clean’ on release from custodial sentences, or supporting the effective management of dangerous and severely personality disordered offenders in prisons, secure hospitals and the community.

Formalising this collaboration is the SLA which exists between the Health and Offender Partnerships and the Care Services Improvement Partnerships, one of the directorates in the Department of Health. This is agreed nationally, and then devolved to the eight Regional Development Centres belonging to the Health and Social Care in Criminal Justice (HSCCJ) programme, which builds on earlier work undertaken by Prison Health, a joint Home Office and Department of Health unit.

In the process, the programme has been bringing together a large number of statutory, voluntary and private organisations at a regional level. This approach is about using best practice and targeting resources effectively in supporting positive changes in the well-being of people with health and social care needs within the criminal justice system. There is also the further recognition that the role of healthcare must be considered in the context of other factors that can determine whether an offender will successfully resettle on return to their community. For instance, as this extract from the national SLA for 2006/07 emphasises, an offender’s health needs can significantly impact upon their employability on release from a custodial sentence.

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SLA between Health and Offender Partnerships and the Care Services Improvement Partnership for the delivery of the Health and Offender Partnerships workprogramme 2006/07 Key Service Deliverables 1. Mental Health To support the development and delivery of comprehensive mental health services to offenders across the criminal justice system… c) S ocial inclusion for offenders as part of a much wider system of helping offenders to reintegrate following release. Regional Development Centre Leads to ensure inclusion of prisoners and offenders with mental health problems into the wider programme of work around social exclusion from the Regions, including improved access to specific employment and back to work programmes by April 07.

The North West’s Regional Development Centre is aware of the degree of health and social care challenges emanating from some of the most deprived areas in the country, and has promoted recovery and inclusion for offenders in their engagement with local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), social care communities, Prisons, Probation and the Police. Adding value is the HSCCJ programme’s leadership of the Mental and Physical Health Pathway in the region, as well as being represented on the Drug and Alcohol Pathway.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for the North West is complementing outcomes delivered in prisons and through the Probation Service by including offenders in their own national targets, which are to: 1) ensure all young people to reach age 19 ready for skilled employment or higher education; 2) t ackle to adult skills gap: increase the number of adults with the skills required for employability and progression to higher levels of training.

Employment can reduce the risk of re-offending by between a third and a half. Offering employment as well as benefit advice, Jobcentre Plus (JCP) has Employment and Benefit Surgery Advisers in each of the region’s prisons. JCP also works in partnership with the LSC, feeding into the latter’s lead on drafting and delivering the Employment, Learning and Skills Pathway Delivery Plan, as well as sitting on the Pathway Group; they also provides input to the Finance Pathway around the benefits which would be available to offenders on release into the community.

Furthermore, JCP introduced a new way of measuring performance in the 2006/07 operational year, with the emphasis now firmly on services directed more towards disadvantaged groups and communities, including ex-offenders, who have historically found it more difficult to secure employment. Specific provision directed at ex-offenders seeking work is available through the Progress2Work programme, where providers support people recovering from illegal drug misuse in searching for jobs, interview techniques and other work-related skills.

In its 2005 report, Going Straight, the Local Government Association argued that the criminal justice agencies alone were not able to provide or to guarantee effective resettlement of offenders, and that greater recognition should be given to the major role that local authorities can play in reducing re-offending. Intensifying local focus has been paramount in the interaction between the ROM and

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the Government Office for the North West (GONW), which has been conducive to ‘striking a deal’ between central government, local authorities and other stakeholders in the criminal justice sector. In particular, Local Area Agreements (LAAs), which are negotiated under the auspices of GONW, involve a ‘block’ through which local councils and their partners are asked to define better outcomes on safer communities linked to crime and disorder. Furthermore, from April 2007, the Home Office has added a mandatory ‘indicator’ to the LAA framework on reducing re-offending amongst adults and young people – including prolific and other priority offenders – as one part of wider targets on crime reduction and the ‘Respect’ agenda.

This, in turn, has opened up opportunities for Probation and their service providers to engage with local government in ways that did not previously exist, and as a result bid for funds within the target and reward grant schemes. Probation is able to play to its strengths on tackling offending behaviour and recidivism, and therefore offer direct assistance to local authorities in meeting the targets within the reducing re-offending indicator. The mechanism for enabling this, of course, is the RRDP, which utilises the resources available within communities to challenge the offending behaviour that prevails in them.

There is, then, a great deal of activity by partner agencies in the statutory sector related to social inclusion that will increasingly impact upon reducing re-offending by helping offenders turn away from a life of crime for good. Better partnership working, therefore, means protecting the public by creating safer, stronger and resilient communities.

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5. Equality, Diversity and Social Inclusion 5.1 Equality and Diversity – why are they important?

There is a strong commitment to reflect the range of communities and groups that bring diversity to the North West.

Within the scope of the RRDP, a key ‘driver’ is to deliver greater equality of access to services provided for offenders in prisons or supervised in the community, irrespective of their race, gender or other characteristics. This is crucial to achieving greater parity of outcomes, where this is not the case, and to promote greater confidence in the criminal justice system among those communities and groups where this is lacking or weak. An Impact Assessment Tool will, therefore, be used to qualify how far each Pathway addresses the full spectrum of diverse needs in its respective delivery plan. However, it will also be subject to review at regular intervals to ensure that it remains current, relevant and ‘fit for purpose’ at all times.

The RRDB will also seek to engage with a number of advisers on diversity issues and encourage partners to maximise the expertise of diversity leads within their own organisations. Similarly, there is broad recognition of the need to pursue greater dialogue with service users reflecting the diverse make-up of our communities and groups in the region.

5.2 Justice in the Community A major contributory initiative to facilitating social inclusion is by encouraging the community to play its part in the criminal justice system within the North West.

Leading this effort is the work of the Community Justice Centres (CJCs) in North Liverpool and Salford, which are overseen by the Community Justice National Programme, a trilateral team involving the Home Office, the Department for Constitutional Affair and the Crown Prosecution Service. The core objectives of the programme are: •

making the court and the criminal justice system responsive to the community

•

breaking cycles of re-offending

•

ensuring the compliance with the court’s orders or other penalties are seen and recognised by the community and that their problems are addressed

Of course, the courts cannot deliver these objectives by acting alone, so the CJCs are driving forward in partnership with key players from all the criminal justice agencies, such as the Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Probation and the YOTs, local authorities and the wider voluntary

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sector. Indeed, CJCs are supporting the Pathways by offering a range of services on site to the community they serve, including victim and witness support, drug and alcohol workers, housing advice, education and vocational advice, and debt counselling. By strengthening the links between the courts and the local community in this way, local people themselves are empowered to engage directly with the reducing re-offending agenda.

5.3 Alliances NOMS recognises that reducing re-offending is not the responsibility of one agency alone. ‘Joined-up’ delivery is critical at regional and local level, and requires effective collaboration while avoiding duplication. The ROM in the North West is committed to developing an environment that allows key partners to align strategies in making our communities safer and stronger by tackling offending behaviour. One of the ways in which this is being achieved is through the building of ‘Alliances’ with the civic, corporate, voluntary, community and faith sectors.

Against the backdrop of the RRDP, then, NOMS wants to encourage the further development of:

Corporate Alliances: building direct links with employers This will be done by…

•

raising awareness of the education and training that offenders are undertaking in custody and community

•

highlighting how employers can effect change in offending behaviour by creating sustainable employment opportunities for offenders

•

promoting exemplars in the public and private sectors who employ ex-offenders to other employers

Civic Alliances: improving existing links with local authorities and other local service providers This will be done by…

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•

encouraging local services to support the successful resettlement of offenders back into their families and communities

•

encouraging local authorities to recognise offenders as a socially excluded group

•

ensuring that offenders and their families have equality and parity of access to mainstream services such as housing, health, education and social care

•

promoting LAAs as a mechanism to build safer, stronger and more resilient communities by addressing the needs of offenders and their families

Voluntary, Community and Faith Alliances: helping to bridge the gap between offenders and wider society This will be done by…

•

encouraging community groups to work collaboratively in tackling the causes of offending behaviour, the inter-generational cycle of offender behaviour and social exclusion of offenders and their families

•

promoting the essential support that is available at a ‘grassroots’ level for offenders and their families

•

highlighting how offenders can make a full, ‘reparative’ contribution to their local community

•

developing a better understanding of different faith groups to maximise community cohesion

•

encouraging faith groups to continue playing an active role in the resettlement of offenders

These ‘Alliances’ were launched by Baroness Scotland, Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Offender Management, in 2005. Since the publication of the RRAP in the same year, the North West has already made good progress – and recognised the considerable value – in engaging in this fashion with organisations that are not formally part of the criminal justice system, yet nonetheless have a meaningful role to play in contributing to the overall vision of an inclusive, cohesive society.

5.4 Juveniles and Young People NOMS is focused on reducing adult re-offending. However, following the publication of The National Reducing Reoffending Delivery Plan by the Home Office in July 2004, the YJB responded with the commitment to providing joint policy direction on youth resettlement. This response is articulated in the YJB national document Youth Resettlement: A Framework for Action, which closely aligns the youth and adult Pathways.

In the North West, YOTs are located in every local authority in the region, made up of representatives from the Police, Probation, social services, housing officers, and agencies dealing with health, education, and drugs and alcohol misuse.

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Youth Offending Teams 1. Blackburn with Darwen 2. Blackpool 3. Bolton 4. Bury 5. Cheshire 6. Cumbria 7. Halton/Warrington

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8. Knowsley 9. Lancashire 10. Liverpool 11. Manchester 12. Oldham 13. Rochdale 14. Salford

15. Sefton 16. St. Helens 17. Stockport 18. Tameside 19. Trafford 20. Wigan 21. Wirral

In line with the national recognition that the partnerships required to deliver effective offender services to young people are, in most cases, the same as for adults, the North West agrees it makes smart business sense to have an inclusive joint approach. For this reason, the YJB and the YOTs are represented on all but one of the Pathway Groups, in order that youth justice and children’s services strategies are embedded alongside work focused on adult re-offending. This approach is embedded in specific Pathway deliverables related to youth offending, intended to meet the specific problems that make young people offend as well as measuring the risk they pose to others. This is turn ensures identification of suitable programmes that address the needs of all offenders – irrespective of age – with the intention of preventing further re-offending.

5.5 Women Offenders In March 2007, Baroness Corston published her report on the experience of women in the criminal justice system. Although the report was commissioned by Baroness Scotland, the Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Offender Management, the government has yet to make a formal response to Corston’s recommendations to bring about a radical change in the way the criminal justice system treats women, not just those who offend but also those at risk of offending.

The North West has already taken significant pre-emptive steps to deal with many of the issues raised by Corston with TWP, which represents a major rethink about the way in which services for this group of vulnerable women are provided and accessed.

TWP already meets the new statutory duty of gender equality, under the Equality Act which comes into force in April 2007, by responding to the domestic, personal and socio-economic factors that have often resulted in prison sentences.

Two centres – in Liverpool and Salford – are now up and running, following service level agreements secured with a number of partner agencies to deliver programmes to address factors including domestic violence, child care, substance misuse, unemployment and self-esteem. Drop-in sessions have also been established at HM Prison Styal, a women’s establishment, with both centres represented there taking referrals and ‘signposting’ women.

TWP also recognises that all the Pathways can influence and deliver successful outcomes for vulnerable women, and will be represented on the RRDP as a way of identifying and dealing with relevant issues within each of the Pathway Groups.

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Pathway Delivery Plans 40

The Deliverables and High Level Outcomes have been set for a 3-year period (2007 – 2010).

The key milestones will be reviewed annually.

Accommodation Homelessness or being housed in unsuitable accommodation represents a primary risk for offenders. This Pathway is focused on ensuring that offenders are housed in suitable accommodation on release from prison or whilst serving community sentences, and enabling offenders to take responsibility for playing their part in keeping their homes.

Deliverable

Improve the quality of Prison management information systems on accommodation needs, as heralded in the Regional Homelessness Strategy.

High Level Outcome Improved identification of offenders who will be potentially homeless on release from custody

Key Milestones 1. R eport for Pathway Group on information currently available on accommodation needs of offenders in custody 2. Identify gaps in assessment on need within prisons 3. Develop Good Practice Guide on assessment of need

Ownership Prisons â—Š By December 2007 Deliverable

Introduce improved management systems into youth offender institutions to identify potentially homeless young offenders High Level Outcome Prevent youth homelessness

Key Milestones 1. Report for Pathway Group on accommodation issues for young offenders in NW. 2. Develop Good Practice Guide on preventing youth homelessness on leaving custody

Ownership YJB, YOTs â—Š By December 2007

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Deliverable

Develop and improve capacity and practice of advice on housing and debt management within prisons High Level Outcome Increase in numbers of offenders having sustainable accommodation on release

Key Milestones 1. Impact and NACRO currently undertaking a review of service provision 2. Gaps in provision identified 3. Action Plan developed

Ownership Prisons â—Š By September 2007 Deliverable

Identify good models of practice in relation to housing provision and support for prisoners prior to their release.

High Level Outcome Increase in numbers of offenders having sustainable accommodation on release

Key Milestones 1. G ather information about local projects e.g. HMP Buckley Hall Pilot, Cumbria Protocol and English Churches Housing Group

By December 2007 2. D isseminate and share good practice throughout the NW

By December 07 3. S howcase good practice from pilots at Reducing Re-offending Standing Conference, targeting invitations at local authorities

By April 2008

Ownership GONW Deliverable

Encourage better liaison between local authorities and HM Prison Service to prevent prisoner homelessness High Level Outcome More effective referral system between prisons and Local Authorities in region.

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Key Milestones 1. Assess feasibility of using common assessment form with all Local Authorities 2. Work with LGA support to implement new process 3. Share information with all prisons

Ownership GONW â—Š By March 2008 Deliverable

Investigate the specific accommodation needs of drug users and exdrug users within the region High Level Outcome Increase in number of drug users and ex-drug users in sustainable accommodation

Key Milestones 1. E xplore ways of collecting accurate information on accommodation needs of this group of offenders 2. Engage with key partners in drugs and accommodation services.

3. Seek resources to develop pilot approaches

Ownership NTA â—Š By April 2008

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‘ achieve positive change

in offender attitudes and behaviour’

Attitudes, Thinking and Behaviour This Pathway is focused on the development and application of effective problem-solving abilities, pro-social strategies for managing difficult emotions and situations, and in dealing with peers. This may include specialist therapeutic input where needed, e.g. with sex offenders or offenders with a history of domestic violence. The aim is to change behaviour.

Deliverable

Maximise access to interventions for all minority groups High Level Outcome Ensure equality of access to interventions

Key Milestones 1. O btain and analyse accurate data on gender, age and ethnicity for unpaid work and accredited programmes

By March 2008 2. D evelop practice guidelines for diversity in relation to accredited programmes

By September 2007 3. I mplement practice guidelines across the region

By March 2008

Ownership NWIG Deliverable

Develop and implement interventions for high risk offenders High Level Outcome Improve public protection and reduce re-offending

Key Milestones 1. C ontribute to the implementation of the SDVC roll-out

By March 2008 2. M atch the capacity of domestic violence programmes to meet demand

By September 2007

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3. E xtend the range of programmes for high risk offenders: CALM – Control, Anger Learning Management; I-SOTP – Internet Sex Offender Treatment Programme; HSF – Healthy Sexual Functioning; CSCP - Cognitive Self Change Programme

By September 2007

Ownership NWIG Deliverable

Improve the quality of interventions which change behaviour High Level Outcome Achieve positive change in offender attitudes and behaviour

Key Milestones 1. I mplement the relevant provisions of the revised unpaid work manual

By September 2007 2. C omplete a regional audit of unpaid work

By March 2008 3. C omplete annual revalidation of Prisons validated programmes

By March 2008 4. D evelop a quality framework for accredited programmes in the community

By June 2007

Ownership NWIG Deliverable

Develop a range of commissioning models High Level Outcome Achieve ‘value for money’ interventions

Key Milestones 1. Progress the feasibility of delivering sex offender programmes on a regional basis 2. Expand the provision of innovative ‘through the gate’ interventions 3. Test the market and build capacity to deliver a range of interventions

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a. Unpaid Work

b. Domestic Violence

c. Drink-impaired Drivers

d. ASRO

4. Explore the potential for joint staff training and cross deployment of staff

Ownership NWIG â—Š By March 2008 Deliverable

Improve the match between assessed need and provision High Level Outcome Provide sufficient interventions to meet offender needs as assessed by offender managers

Key Milestones 1. O btain and analyse OASys data on criminogenic need

By September 2007 2. U se data on offender need to profile interventions provision and inform performance targets

By March 2008

Ownership NWIG

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‘ additional levels of support for families and children of offenders’

Children, Families and Community Support This Pathway is focused on enabling offenders to maintain and develop relationships with family and community, providing support, encouragement and guidance and commitment to reintegration and rehabilitation. The aim is also to enable and encourage offenders to be effective parents, and help break the generational cycles of offending behaviour within families.

Deliverable

Secure recognition of the additional needs of children and families of offenders in Children’s Services High Level Outcome To ensure needs of offenders’ families are recognised and addressed in more widely in policy and procedure

Key Milestones 1. Presentation to Children and Learners Team in GONW 2. Awareness raising with Children’s Directors in NW 3. Representation of statutory Children’s’ Services on Pathway Group 4. Identify performance indicators that link this plan with the Joint Area Review Process

Ownership GONW ◊ By December 2007 Deliverable

Provision of information for families of offenders at earlier stages of Criminal Justice System High Level Outcome Better information and more effective communication with families at police stations and courts

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Key Milestones 1. Review current information available 2. Draw up good practice guidelines 3. E ngage with partners including LCJBs to disseminate information

Ownership LCJBs ◊ By December 2007 Deliverable

Increase number of Family Support Posts in prisons and community settings, working with Probation High Level Outcome Additional levels of support for families and children of offenders in custody and in the community

Key Milestones 1. Map current Family Link Workers in post 2. Raise profile to ensure better integration of work already taking place 3. Develop a pilot scheme for Community Link Worker post and disseminate knowledge 4. Quantify the needs of these groups

Ownership VCS ◊ By April 2008 Deliverable

Awareness raising of the needs of children and families as well as the support they can provide with new trainees in prisons and Probation High Level Outcome More effective working with offenders and their families

Key Milestones 1. Seminars to be included as part of regular training 2. Seek opportunities for training placements within YOTs

Ownership VCS ◊ By April 2008

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Deliverable

To identify and look for opportunities to address cross-cutting issues on Children and Families of offenders with other Pathways High Level Outcome More effective working with children and families of offenders

Key Milestones 1. L ook for opportunities to increase finance/debt advice services provided in Prison Visitor Centres 2. F amily-friendly services in prisons and the community for offenders who use drugs

Ownership Prisons â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

To identify any links between the pathway and those leading on the Respect agenda High Level Outcome Effective linkage and coordination with Offender Management and Respect agenda

Key Milestones 1. Establish links with those leading on Respect in region 2. Identify if there are areas of overlap and mutual benefit from a partnership approach 3. If so, establish an action plan for effective joint working

Ownership GONW â—Š By September 2007

We must also incorporate services to meet the diverse needs of families, covering gender, mental status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation, age or any other irrelevant factor.

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‘ reduced drug use, improved

health, reduced offending and reintegration’

Drugs and Alcohol The overarching aim of this Pathway is to enable offenders to change their behaviour with regard to drugs and alcohol through a range of interventions and programmes, ensuring continuity and using common assessment tools in line with the models of care framework. Many organisations and partnerships are already striving to deliver outcomes in this field. This delivery plan highlights the need for a coordinated approach and improved leadership.

Deliverable

Ensure comprehensive sentence plans and appropriate interventions exist for every substance misusing offender High Level Outcome To decrease the risk of harm to the public and the risk of re-offending by drug and alcohol misusers

Key Milestones Improve positive testing notifications Ownership Police ◊ By July 2007 Improve non-licence compliance of Drug Rehabilitation Requirements (DRRs) offenders Ownership Probation ◊ By July 2007 Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) to include testing data Ownership Probation ◊ By August 2007 DRR reviews to include testing data Ownership Probation ◊ By August 2007 Alignment of Prolific Priority Offenders (PPOs) & Drug Intervention Programme (DIP) Ownership Police ◊ By May 2007

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Deliverable

BME equality assessment completed against each group High Level Outcome Ensure every probation sub region has ATRs in operation

Key Milestones Complete impact assessment of PPO population Ownership GONW ◊ By End 2007 Improve non-licence ex-offenders’ engagement with community support Ownership Probation ◊ By End 2007 Regional guidance on ATRs Ownership Probation ◊ By July 2007 Needs assessment of ATR requirements Ownership Probation ◊ By July 2007

Deliverable

Manage the continuity of care for drug and alcohol users in custody High Level Outcome To reduce the risk of re-offending by increasing the numbers of offenders participating in drug and alcohol treatment programmes

Key Milestones Health assessments on reception for all prisoners including drug and alcohol (see IDTS on Physical and Mental Health Pathway) Ownership PCTs ◊ By December 2007 Roll out of IDTS to specific NW sites (Health Pathway) Ownership Prisons ◊ By December 2007 Provision of a range of Drug and Alcohol treatment options to sustain engagement Ownership Prisons ◊ By December 2007 Before discharge, plans in place with in-reach / out reach services and CARATS provision Ownership Prisons ◊ By December 2007

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Deliverable

Provide seamless support to drug and alcohol users on discharge either under licence or otherwise High Level Outcome To prevent re-offending provide through care and after care rehabilitation of ex-offenders To support ex- offending young people with substance misuse problems

Key Milestones Access to comprehensive wrap around provision including continuity of treatment, and accommodation (see Accommodation Pathway) Ownership DIP Managers ◊ By April 2007 Improve support to ex-offenders on community sentences, in particular those not under licence.

Ownership DIP Managers ◊ By April 2007 Strengthen and improve retention levels for RAP for young people with substance misuse problems Ownership YOTs ◊ By April 2007

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‘ increase the employment

opportunities for offenders and ex-offenders’

Employment, Learning and Skills This Pathway recognises that sustained reduction of reoffending requires self-sufficiency through employment. It is focused on enabling offenders to enter or continue employment, training and education, in order to establish legitimate earning capacity and self-support. This will include developing offenders’ skills, learning and accreditation to apply to everyday living, and to provide evidence to assist entry into suitable employment.

Employer Engagement Deliverable

Strengthen alliances with NW employers to break down barriers to employing offenders and ex-offenders Strengthen employment advice and information for offenders High Level Outcome Increase the employment opportunities for offenders and ex-offenders

Key Milestones 1. D evelop a regional employer engagement strategy that delivers on the Regional Economic Strategy Ownership NWEEF ◊ By December 2007 2. S trategic linkages to be made with NOMS Priority Sector employer forums Ownership NWEEF ◊ By December 2007 3. R ationalisation and co-ordination of Employer Engagement Activities across the NW. Develop clear responsibilities for partners Ownership NWEEF ◊ By March 2008 4. P romote the employment of offenders and ex-offenders to employers, maximizing work

by IMPACT and PSP Ownership NWEEF ◊ By March 2008 5. U se current research on barriers to employment for offenders so that strategies are evidence-based Ownership NWEEF ◊ By April 2007

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6. E nsure service provider’ links to employers do support offenders ‘through the gate‘ and that all providers collaborate on this across the region Ownership Prisons ◊ By December 2007 7. D evelop the curriculum offer so that it provides skills for the workplace Ownership Heads of Learning and Skills ◊ By December 2007 8. R eplicate the above milestones 1-7 specifically to meet the needs of Young Offenders Ownership Heads of Learning and Skills ◊ By December 2007 9. R eview provision of JCP EBS; EBS Advisers to share effective practice. Monitor outcomes across the prison estate Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007 10. R eview the effectiveness and usage of ‘jobpoints’ at HMP Kirkham Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007 11. R eview the implications and activity for JCP in response to the Next Steps Green Paper Ownership JCP ◊ By September 2007 12. M onitor progress on JCP offender provision such as Progress2Work, LinkUp Ownership JCP ◊ By September 2007 13. E nsure JCP Advisers, both inside and outside prison, are aware of OLASS and referral processes Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007 14. U se Jobcentre Plus intranet to increase adviser awareness of the support available to offenders and ex-offenders. Introduce links to other organisations including NOMS, Prisons, OLASS, Probation Service and NACRO Ownership JCP ◊ By September 2007 15. D evelop EBS Advisory support for HMP Kennet, working alongside partners to provide appropriate employment and benefit advice and guidance Ownership JCP ◊ By August 2007

Deliverable

Create and use existing opportunities to develop employability skills and vocational skills Identify what works in increasing skills and employability of offenders High Level Outcome Improve the learning, skills and employability of offenders in custody, under supervision and serving sentences in the community in the region

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Key Milestones 16. D evelop referral process to European Social Fund EQUAL and other provision, once confirmed, linking with the LSC. Ensure that Jobcentre advisers refer to ESF EQUAL and other provision Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007 17. I ncrease the awareness and usage of Work Trials through Jobcentre Plus intranet and its advisory network Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007 18. E nsure that prison industries provide an effective and relevant learning environment Ownership All prisons ◊ By April 2008 19. Ensure Skills for Life and other opportunities for skills development and accreditation are integrated into unpaid work and reparation activities Ownership LSC ◊ By April 2008 20. Integrate skills for life and other skills accreditation and opportunities for progression to further learning from ‘offending behaviour programmes’ and ‘unpaid work’ including links to Train2Gain Ownership LSC ◊ By August 2007 21. In conjunction with ROM, procure appropriate learning and skills provision facilitating continuation of learning from custody to community where applicable Ownership LSC ◊ By August 2007 22. All providers to work together to present more holistic delivery of interventions for offenders. Identify effective PS Plus and IMPACT practice for integration into OLASS Ownership LSC ◊ By January 2008 23. Ongoing evaluation of the ESF interventions for offenders in the community and dissemination of effective practice Ownership LSC ◊ By August 2007 24. Improve the quality of offender learning pre and post inspection working in partnership with the Quality Improvement Agency, Adult Learning Inspectorate and Office for Standards in Education Ownership LSC ◊ By August 2007

Deliverable

To promote opportunities for developing and employing offenders and ex-offenders through local arrangements for economic development Highlight needs of offenders and ex-offenders in regional commissioning plan for learning and skills Probation staff embed learning and skills with other interventions Job Centre Plus staff to make links with criminal justice partners

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High Level Outcome To ensure work to improve the skills and employability of offenders is promoted within mainstream strategies and developments of partner organisations including local authorities

Key Milestones 25. T o ensure needs of offenders are included in, for example, City Strategies and local area agreements. Support the introduction of Job Developer posts in Liverpool and Manchester, developing new ways of working, evaluating and sharing best practice Ownership JCP and all partners ◊ By August 2007 26. Explore innovative ways to link employment opportunities in specific sectors with exoffenders, for example with the NHS in Merseyside Ownership Job Centre Plus ◊ By September 2007 27. C onsider commissioning in order to deliver appropriate learning and skills for offenders Ownership LSC ◊ By May 2007 28. Explore, with LSC, the potential for IAG learning and development for JCP EBS Advisers to further enhance their work Ownership Job Centre Plus ◊ By January 2008 29. D evelopment of understanding about role of learning and skills in reducing re-offending Ownership Probation ◊ By April 2007 30. J CP staff at regional, district and local level to link with appropriate partners to mutually understand areas of work Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2007

Young Offenders Deliverable

Effective Communication and co-ordination between agencies Appropriate curriculum offer Employer engagement High Level Outcome Ensure that agencies, LSC providers and employers work together effectively, with shared goals and clearly defined roles and responsibilities in order to provide continuity and suitable, sustainable employment, learning and skills for young offenders in custody and in the community

Key Milestones 31. S et up an ELS forum for young offenders!

Ownership YJB ◊ By May 2007 32. E nsure 14-19 partnerships awareness of young offenders as e.g. significant part of ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ client group Ownership YJB ◊ By June 2007

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33. E nsure sharing/comparing of data Ownership YJB ◊ By June 2007 34. A lign curricula available and in development with 14-19 agenda Ownership LSC ◊ By December 2007 35. Refer to milestones 1-7 above

Deliverable

Ensure effective governance of the Employment, Learning and Skills Partnership Board and CJA Groups Establish effectiveness of OLASS High Level Outcome Continue to develop the Pathway partnership so that there is relevance and coherence in the delivery of employment, learning and skills for offenders.

Key Milestones 36. R eview effectiveness of partnership arrangements relating to employment, learning and skills pathway Ownership NWELSPB ◊ By December 2007 37. C o-ordinate the activities of ESF and discretionary funded programmes e.g. PSP, IMPACT, LSC ESF. Integrate the actions of these projects with NW Pathway governance arrangements Ownership NWELSPB ◊ By December 2007 38. R eview progress of the ‘Maytas’ system designed to transfer ILPs from custody to community provision and report findings for consideration in tendering for the National Offender Learning Database Ownership LSC ◊ By May 2007 39. Ensure performance framework for OLASS meets the needs of partners and informs the development of a national model Ownership LSC ◊ By December 2007 40. Respond to ALI review of OLASS Ownership LSC ◊ By June 2007

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‘ level of indebtedness of

offenders and their families is reduced’

Finance This Pathway is about ensuring that imprisonment and contact with the criminal justice system does not compound difficulties with debt and benefits, and creating the circumstances that will give offenders the opportunity to manage financial problems, obtain sufficient legally obtained money and have the skills to manage within their budget.

Deliverable

Ensuring that offenders and their families can access advice services in Debt / Benefits in prison and in the community High Level Outcome Level of indebtedness of offenders and their families is reduced Level of homelessness of offenders and their families is reduced by providing financial advice

Key Milestones Need identified, including needs of short sentence and remand prisoners Services in place in prisons and community Survey of offenders and families to measure effectiveness of services

Ownership Legal Services Commission [Probation Service for survey] â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

Publish a list of recommended or approved websites for the use of those working with offenders High Level Outcome Improved awareness of staff working with offenders (Prisons, Probation, YOTs)

Key Milestones Identify list of suitable websites

Ownership NOMS â—Š By July 2007

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Deliverable

Evaluate the delivery of services in 12 months’ time to see what is working well High Level Outcome Clarity as to what is working and why i.e. where service is established, referrals made, access achieved, positive feedback received

Key Milestones Develop an organisation toolkit to help share good practice in 18 months time Review numbers and take-up of advice services including with remand and short-term prisoners Find solutions to blockages

Ownership Legal Services Commission in consultation with Prisons, Probation and YOTs â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

Information giving on how to access services High Level Outcome Staff working with offenders (Prisons, Probation, YOTs) have information on how to access appropriate advice services for offenders and their families

Key Milestones Update current information Establish mechanisms for ensuring availability to appropriate staff e.g. problem notice training, referral packs

Ownership Legal Services Commission â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

Develop agreements with a local financial institution and identify opportunities to pilot new approaches High Level Outcome Successful pilot run which is then mainstreamed

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Key Milestones Local financial institution agrees to pilot bank accounts for offenders Prison agrees to take part in pilot Pilot commenced

Ownership Prison Service ◊ By April 2008 Deliverable

Expand the work to ensure that prisoners families have access to good advice High Level Outcome Prisoners families are able to access advice on welfare benefits and debt

Key Milestones Identify existing information and advice provision for prisoners families Establish mechanisms for providing information on how to access advice services to prisoners families groups and visitors centres Establish additional advice services where need is identified

Ownership Legal Services Commission in consultation with prisoners’ families groups ◊

By April 2008 Deliverable

Develop protocols between JCP and advice services working with offenders High Level Outcome Ensure that advice services are targeted at those offenders and their families who are most in need

Key Milestones Improved awareness of services among JCP staff working with offenders Develop systems of referral between JCP and advice services

Ownership JCP ◊ By April 2008

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‘ mental/physical health needs and drug/alcohol problems identified on arrival into the criminal justice services’

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Physical and Mental Health This Pathway is about ensuring that primary health needs are met, mental health issues are fully assessed and taken into account in addressing individual need and managing individual risk of offenders. It will encourage and enable offenders to establish healthy lifestyles that contribute to employment, learning, leisure activity and social behaviour.

1. Health Screening Deliverable

1.1. All offenders will be health screened on admission to residential settings High Level Outcome Physical, mental health and substance misuse issues identified

Key Milestones 1. A udit of prison first and second reception health screens Ownership ROHT ◊ By May 2007 2. A udit of current prison transfer health screens in all prisons Ownership ROHT ◊ By May 2007 3. N ew health screens for young people introduced into 3 NW establishments once national pilot formally evaluated (HMP Hindley) replacing current screens Ownership YJB ◊ By December 2007 4. H ealth screen toolkits shared with probation for adaptation for approved premises and tested for usefulness Ownership ROHT ◊ By May 2007

Deliverable

1.2. All offenders will be health screened on transfer between prisons.

High Level Outcome Male and female transfer screens across the NW meet the standards required in ‘Continuity of Care Guidance’ (DH 2006)

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Key Milestones 1. S tandardised health screens developed, consulted with prison/NHS partnerships and implemented across all NW prisons Ownership PCTs ◊ By June 2007 2. N ew transfer screens for young people introduced once national pilot formally evaluated Ownership YJB ◊ By December 2007

Deliverable

1.3. A ll offenders will be offered a health screen in non-residential settings High Level Outcome Male and female transfer screens across the NW meet the standards required in ‘Continuity of Care Guidance’ (DH 2006)

Key Milestones 1. P ilot screening and referral programme developed with Knowsley probation services in relation to community sentences Ownership ROHT ◊ By June 2007 2. B est practice guidance toolkit produced for probation staff Ownership ROHT ◊ By August 2007 3. A ppropriate police screening and treatment protocols developed to support police doctrine guidance in line with NHS standards Ownership Tameside NHS Trust ◊ By October 2007

2. Access to Health Services and Information Deliverable

2.1. All offenders will be registered with a GP High Level Outcome All offenders will have access to a GP after contact with criminal justice services and improved access to health services overall

Key Milestones 1. A udit the number of detainees in police custody with no GP Ownership Police ◊ By April 2007 2. D evelop plans to improve GP access with GMP (the lead for new doctrine) Ownership Police ◊ By August 2007

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3. D evelop a protocol in the NW to enable staff or offender to access GP services on release from prison Ownership ROHT ◊ By July 2007 4. P ilot an information pack that enables offenders in approved premises to access and register with a GP when moving accommodation Ownership ROHT ◊ By July 2007

Deliverable

2.2. A ll offenders will have access to relevant health services whilst in police custody and approved premises High Level Outcome All offenders will have access to a GP after contact with criminal justice services and improved access to health services overall

Key Milestones 1. I nitiate pilot for police custody nurse scheme with GMP and Tameside NHS Trust Ownership Police ◊ By September 2007 2. D evelop a working project group led by GMP to develop the Custody Nurse post Ownership Police ◊ By September 2007 3. D evelop an information pack for NW approved premises in relation to ongoing access to health services Ownership ROHT ◊ By August 2007

Deliverable

2.3. A ll offenders will be offered information and support about promoting healthy lifestyles.

High Level Outcome Opportunities to develop information and provide services to improve healthy lifestyles are available in criminal justice services.

Key Milestones 1. B uild on custody nurse role in relation to health promotion and supporting custody staff to advise on healthy lifestyles or harm reduction advice Ownership ROHT ◊ By August 2007 2. B uild on pilots with Knowsley PCT and Probation in relation to offender health needs Ownership Probation ◊ By September 2007

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3. W ork with PCTs to extend the current work on smoking and tobacco control in prisons to approved premises and probation centres Ownership ROHT ◊ By November 2008 4. E ngage PCTs in developing ‘health trainers’ concept to include offenders Ownership PCTs ◊ By October 2007 5. W ork with partners to explore if the ‘healthy prison group’ achievements would benefit probation premises and services, producing best practice guidance for staff Ownership ROHT ◊ By October 2007 6. S upport young people with lifestyle changes, in particular transition issues Ownership YJB ◊ By August 2007

Deliverable

2.4. Prison health services will continue to improve and develop the range of services available to prisoners whilst in custody High Level Outcome NW public prisons will participate in the national project to transfer escorts and bed watches funding from the prison service to the NHS

Key Milestones 1. T ransfer of funding to each public prison in England April 2007 and commencement of a two-year project Ownership DH prison Health ◊ By December 2008 2. N ational project lead will work with regions to modernise services and improve access for offenders in custody Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007 3. R evised financial allocation in year 2 based on this years evidence Ownership PCTs ◊ By April 2008 4. R eview and evaluation of improved services across public sector prisons Ownership DH prison Health ◊ By December 2008

3. Mental Health Services Deliverable

3.1. All offenders in custody will have access to mental health services based on clinical need High Level Outcome Offenders will receive appropriate and timely access to mental health services.

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Key Milestones 1. N HS/prison partnerships will continue to develop mental health services across primary and secondary care. To include psychological therapies Ownership PCTs ◊ By April 2008 2. A ccess to secondary care services is clearly defined in relation to referrals and timeliness of transfer. The current DH work piloting 14-day transfers will be shared with partner agencies Ownership Pennine Care NHS Trust; Central Lancashire PCT ◊ By August 2007 3. Offenders returning from secure hospitals will have Section 117 reviews prior to discharge Ownership PCTs ◊ By December 2008 4. A udit to measure the use of CPA within NW prisons Ownership ROHT ◊ By June 2007 5. H ealth will support the implementation of ACCT in prisons with clinical input and support mental health awareness training of staff to reduce and manage self-harm and suicide of offenders Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007

Deliverable

3.2. A ll detainees in police custody and offenders in approved premises will receive prompt access to mental health services based on clinical need High Level Outcome Offenders will receive appropriate and timely access to mental health services.

Key Milestones 1. D evelop and review section 136 Mental Health Act 1983 in NW and develop best practice guidance for Police staff Ownership NHS ◊ By September 2007 2. D evelop ‘Train the Trainers’ for mental health awareness training with Probation Ownership ROHT ◊ By July 2007 3. B uild on the Approved Premises strategies on reducing suicide and self-harm, supporting development in relation to staff training or other initiatives identified Ownership Probation ◊ By November 2007 4. D evelop a best practice protocol for non-health organisations to support improved signposting and easier access / referral to health services. To include cross border responsibilities in both primary and secondary care services Ownership ROHT ◊ By October 2007

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4. Substance Misuse Deliverable

4.1 Drugs and Alcohol Pathway will work collaboratively to meet the needs of offenders to include the new standard for drug services in prisons. All offenders with assessed need will be offered a range of treatment options when received into custody High Level Outcome The health pathway will link with the Drugs and Alcohol pathway to ensure that the total health and social needs of this group are identified

Key Milestones 1. I DTS implemented in both public and private prisons with new DH and NOMS funding in a planned programme across all prisons in England. DH and NOMS identify new sites annually.

Ownership DH Prison Health ◊ By National Review March 2009 2. C ommunity provision and prison treatment plans continue to be developed via joint commissioning arrangements Ownership NTA ◊ By April 2008 3. I mplementation of IDTS jointly monitored by the DH, NHS and NTA Ownership DH Prison Health ◊ By Monthly DH National Steering Group

5. Social Care Deliverable

5.1 Offenders will have their social care needs identified in prison High Level Outcome Local partnerships will collaborate to meet the social needs of prisoners

Key Milestones 1. C ontinue to monitor the number of prisoners in the NW who have an assessed social care need Ownership PCTs ◊ By June 2008 2. D evelop NW outline business plan to facilitate meeting prisoners’ social care needs Ownership ROHT ◊ By September 2007 3. C ontinue discussions with the ROM and SHA as to Social Services role/responsibility to offenders, particularly in prisons Ownership ROHT ◊ By December 2007

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4. D evelop robust links with local authorities in relation to the health and social needs of offenders in local communities Ownership PCTs ◊ By February 2008 5. P risons need to take into account Disability Discrimination Act when meeting prisoners needs in the general prison population Ownership All NW Prisons ◊ By July 2008 6. L ooked after children health and social care needs should be delivered in line with YJB standards Ownership YJB ◊ By July 2008 7. Y oung people will be supported through transition both in custody and on release Ownership YJB ◊ By July 2007

6. Partnerships Deliverable

6.1 E ffective Prison / NHS partnership boards will enable appropriate services to be developed to meet the health needs of offenders in custody High Level Outcome Prison health will be an integral part of the PCTs business

Key Milestones 1. B oards will have appropriate senior representation from each organisation Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007 2. G overnance arrangements will include management of financial, organisational and risk issues. Arrangements will also identify each organisational ‘differences’ and have mechanisms in place to support these Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007 3. T ransparency at board level about financial allocations and service development / investment in offender health in prisons with agreed monitoring of services commissioned by the PCT Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007 4. P CTs will continue to share information and engage with non-prison PCTs, and mental health trusts about the health needs of offenders on release from custody Ownership PCTs ◊ By October 2007 5. S HAs will work with ROHT to strengthen the performance aspect of monitoring the PCT / Prison Health partnerships Ownership ROHT ◊ By September 2007

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Deliverable

6.2 L ocal government and PCT engagement will include the needs of offenders and their families when planning services High Level Outcome NW PCTs will recognise all offenders’ health and social needs both in the community they live and on release from prison

Key Milestones 1. E ngage PCTs to include offender needs in PCT plans Ownership PCTs ◊ By March 2008 2. O ffender health and social needs will be reflected in the population and local LAAs Ownership PCTs ◊ By March 2008 3. P rison/health partnerships - Prison Health Development Plans will engage with PCTs who do not have a prison in their area, about offenders health needs on release Ownership PCTs ◊ By March 2008 4. L ocal partnerships will include offenders and their families in all plans relating to socially disadvantaged groups and reducing health inequalities Ownership PCTs ◊ By January 2008 5. D evelop work with Knowsley PCT for prisoners due for release to ensure that both the health and social care needs of offenders are known and planned for on release Ownership ROHT ◊ By October 2007 6. D evelop current OASys system to include a clear health pathway Ownership Probation ◊ By July 2007

7. Service Users Deliverable

7.1 All offenders will be offered the opportunity to have their views about health services they receive heard High Level Outcome Offenders are able to contribute to service development and evaluation

Key Milestones 1. D evelop protocols and tools to engage offenders’ views in all service pilots and developments Ownership ROHT ◊ By January 2008 2. E ngage and consult with offender groups through established community and statutory networks, using information to support / direct service developments Ownership All Pathway Group members ◊ By August 2007

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3. R eview whether the ‘expert patient’ programmes benefits offenders in the community Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007

8. Research and Development Deliverable

8.1 R esearch in custody relating to offenders will be undertaken to inform agencies about service development requirements High Level Outcome Service provision will be supported and evidenced by research

Key Milestones 1. S upport the NW Prison Research Network in establishing contact and research opportunities in all NW prisons Ownership PCTs ◊ By September 2007 2. D evelop research project relating to alcohol using CBT (‘Covoid’) approach with HMP Kirkham and HMP Risley in partnership with Warrington and North Lancashire PCTs Ownership PCTs ◊ By December 2007

Deliverable

8.2 O ffender research with community partners will inform future strategy and service development High Level Outcome Service provision will be supported and evidenced by research

Key Milestones

Pathway 7

3. D evelop Naltraxone Implant research pilot at Lancaster Castle with North Lancashire PCT Ownership PCTs ◊ By March 2008

1. Develop links with NW Public Health Observatory

Ownership ROHT ◊ By April 2008

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9. Impact Assessments Deliverable

9.1 Diversity Impact Assessments will ensure that offender needs are taken into account in all areas of development High Level Outcome All work and project areas are agreed because an impact assessment has been completed to ensure that all aspects of diversity have been included

Key Milestones 1. A gree what impact assessment tool is used and which organisation will be responsible for completing it.

Ownership All Pathway Group members â—Š By July 2007 2. T he Pathway will use the Impact Assessment Tool agreed by the RRDB to assess the requirements of these key deliverables Ownership Pathway Lead â—Š By September 2007

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‘ introduction of a swift deterrent with a victim focus’

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Victims of Crime: Individuals and the Community The North West has chosen to include this Pathway in addition to the nationally agreed Pathways. It is about ensuring that individuals and the community are properly protected from offenders who pose a high risk of causing harm and that these arrangements are properly promoted. Where possible, it is desirable that offenders will have the opportunity to demonstrate reparation through work that benefits the community, and that this is promoted. Just as important, victims of crime should be aware of the sentences served by offenders, expressing their views in all relevant processes.

Deliverable

Achieve the effective implementation of Conditional Cautioning throughout the region in order to allow offenders to experience swift realisation of the effects of their behaviour on victims High Level Outcome Introduction of a swift deterrent with a victim focus

Key Milestones 1. To publicise the deliverable within all NW Police Forces 2. Highlight and share good practice across the region 3. Monitor and measure numbers in each area

Ownership Police â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

Increase the profile of Unpaid Work placements in order to demonstrate that they benefit victims and communities. Improve the number of Unpaid Work placements which benefit those from minority communities including Faith Groups High Level Outcome Increase the effectiveness and public confidence in Unpaid Work.

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Key Milestones 1. I ncrease opportunities for victims and communities to have a say in deciding which schemes should be undertaken 2. Monitor the beneficiaries of placements 3. Increase publicity of good practice throughout the region

Ownership Probation ◊ By April 2008 Deliverable

Develop initiatives to allow individual victims and communities to have a voice on the impact of offenders’ behaviour. This will include increasing awareness and use of Victim Personal Statements High Level Outcome To increase victim satisfaction

Key Milestones 1. Link with LCJBs in the region to see what efforts they are making in respect of this 2. Evaluate and share good practice

Ownership Police ◊ By April 2008 Deliverable

Ensure that the National Code of Practice for Victims is being followed throughout the North West High Level Outcome To increase victim satisfaction

Key Milestones 1. Publicise the deliverable within all NW Police Forces 2. Monitor the implementation 3. Highlight good practice throughout the region

Ownership Police ◊ By April 2008

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Deliverable

Develop an information pack specifically for victims to explain what happens when an offender goes into custody High Level Outcome To increase victim satisfaction

Key Milestones 1. Assess information currently available 2. Develop information pack 3. Evaluate effectiveness

Ownership Prisons â—Š By April 2008 Deliverable

Develop improved mechanisms to allow victims to engage more effectively with the Criminal Justice process, particularly those victims who are intimidated, vulnerable and require additional support High Level Outcome To increase victim satisfaction

Key Milestones 1. I mplement national guidance on supporting vulnerable and intimidated victims and witnesses.

2. Evaluate

Ownership Police â—Š By April 2008

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Appendix 1

North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan Board Members Alastair Bishop Housing Planner GONW

John McLaughlin Director HMP Altcourse

Andrew Underdown National Probation Service

Kevin Williams HM Prison Service Secondee GONW

Anne Gornall Skills & Development Director Learning & Skills Council Carolyn Schofield Policy & Legal Manager Legal Services Commission Chris Sheffield Governor HMP Manchester Colin Dearden Deputy Chief Officer Lancashire Probation Area Farida Anderson Chief Executive Partners of Prisoners & Families Support Group Gail Porter Deputy Director GONW Ian Lockwood Area Manager HM Prison Service NW Area Office Ivor Woods Director HMP Forest Bank John Crawforth Chief Officer Greater Manchester Probation Area

Linda Bloomfield Board Chair Merseyside Probation Area Liz Hill (Chair) NW Regional Offender Manager NOMS Margaret Adams Head of Resettlement & Partnerships HM Prison Service NW Area Office Maureen Mathers Victim Support & Witness Service Mike Cunningham Lancashire Constabulary Nigel Bennett National Probation Service Secondee GONW Phil Park NW Regional Manager YJB Ruth Hussey Regional Director of Public Health NHS North West Sarah Lewis Greater Manchester Against Crime Susan Russell Health & Social Care in Criminal Justice Lead NW Regional NHS Offender Health Team 83

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Appendix 2

North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board Terms of Reference 1. O ffer regional leadership in the promotion and further development of the plan, especially where there is a need to further develop partnerships or capacity.

2. Initiate, coordinate and authorise the further development and revision of the regional plan as a working document.

3. Address cross-cutting issues across the Plan’s pathways, including those covered by the ‘Supporting Frameworks’ section.

4. Take a regional responsibility for liaison and communication with Criminal Justice Area and Local structures working in support of the plan. This includes consideration of issues or barriers raised locally but requiring regional or national action.

5. Support and have oversight of arrangements for Pathway co-ordination in order to: 5.1 progress the further development, monitoring of progress and ongoing review of pathway plans; 5.2 facilitate partnership liaison and action planning; 5.3 identify, promote and disseminate best practice.

6. T o promote and ensure full consideration of diversity issues in the further development, monitoring and ongoing review of the plan.

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Appendix 3

North West Pathways Groups Terms of Reference 1. Aims 1.1 Work collaboratively across a wide range of organisations – public, private and voluntary - involved in the Criminal Justice System, thus enabling the successful implementation and evolvement of the Reducing Re-offending Delivery Plan (RRDP) in the North West.

1.2 Report on progress to the North West Reducing Re-offending Delivery Board, including the identification of any potential or actual barriers.

2. Functions 2.1 Ensure alignment of the RRDP with key strategic work undertaken by individual agencies involved in each Pathway.

2.2 Provide steer, advice and influence to ensure the RRDP meets both current and future local needs in the North West.

2.3 Expand networks in the public, private and voluntary sectors to support the ongoing evolvement of the RRDP in the North West, reflecting current and future trends in regional offending behaviour, local needs and changing priorities.

2.4 Assist with identifying and overcoming potential and actual organisational and professional barriers that may inhibit progress on the RRDP. 2.5 Embed diversity firmly within each Pathway deliverable to ensure that the needs of all offenders are recognised and addressed.

2.6 Secure collaborative ownership of the RRDP within a wide range of partner organisations.

2.7 Support dissemination of the Pathways, the RRDP, and the reducing reoffending agenda as a whole, to the wider community.

3. Membership & Chair 3.1

To be reviewed annually.

3.2 To include a range of partners with the capacity to influence achievement of the RRDP’s objectives.

4. Notes of Meetings 4.1 Brief notes with clearly defined actions will be published on the North West ROM Area webpage.

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