Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Moderator

Good afternoon everyone the chat is now open and we are discussing reducing re-offending. The panel members will now introduce themselves.

Rupert Bailie

I'm Rupert Bailie. I work for NOMS in the London Regional Offender Manager's Office. I lead on the local delivery of reducing re-offending in London and also on health and drugs issues

Joanna Fiddian

I am a Resettlement Projects Officer for the London Regional Offender Manager's Office. I support the Resettlement Local Delivery Programme, which links prisons with agencies working in the community, in order to reduce re-offending.

Philip Rees

I'm Philip Rees. I lead on local delivery in NOMS, which includes the policy responsibility for community engagement and the Civic Society Alliance.

Pat Edwards

I'm Pat Edwards and I work in the Home Office Local Delivery Unit on secondment from NOMS to ensure NOMS is fully integrated into all the new developments and that we work jointly with the Home Office.

sue1

Not sure how this works, though want to discuss how you evidence reducing re-offending, what counts and what are the main indicators?

Rupert Bailie

The main outcome measure is reconviction of individuals on community sentences and following release from custody. Recently this has been measured as reconviction at 2 years but this will change to a one year measure from April.

Joanna Fiddian

Sue - what organisation are you from? We may be able to give you more specific advice...

sue1

I work in the Leicester City Council as a development officer. We have been undertaking work as part of the Civic alliance, i.e. unpaid work, restorative justice, accommodation issues.

Philip Rees

We are aiming to have first reports on data to support the reconviction data at a local authority level from end of April 2008.

Pat Edwards

Until April 2008 information covering individual probation area will be provided from September 2007

Joanna Fiddian

In addition to reconviction data, there are a number of other relevant indicators in the national LAA framework, for example social exclusion measures and access to housing and ETE services. The complete list can be found on www.communities.gov.uk .

Moderator

Joanna What are ETE services?

Joanna Fiddian

Education, Training and Employment - sorry for the acronym!

Philip Rees

We are hoping to send out LAA case study information to ROMS and Probation Chief Officers to support CLG LAA guidance within the next few days. This will help identify relevant indicators for reducing re-offending and also demonstrate links with crime reduction, social exclusion etc.

Joanna Fiddian

In London, we support the Resettlement Local Delivery Programme, through which we are attempting to monitor outcomes for offenders across the 7 resettlement pathways in addition to reconviction data.

sue1

Thanks. At LCC our Youth Offending Service offers opportunities for staff to be volunteers on youth panels and mentoring opportunities. The Community Safety Team is planning to extend this as a training opportunity to staff to be mentors to adult offenders and link with our Probation Area. I consider this to be a very positive contribution towards reducing offending but wonder how this could be evidenced.

Pat Edwards

One option is to measure the reconviction rate of the group being mentored against predicted rate or a control group using the Police National Computer (not self report). There is a tender out for a project doing this type of mentoring and if you email me at pat.edwards@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk after the chat I can give you a contact name.

Philip Rees

Previous research on mentoring has been limited and largely inconclusive on the impact on reducing re-offending. It can depend on the length of the mentoring arrangement, nature of offenders, other interventions etc.

Moderator

Can anyone else logged on offer Sue any advice if they have tried a similar project locally?

Joanna Fiddian

Sue - I am aware of some interesting mentoring work being undertaken in Southwark, using serving adult prisoners acting as mentors to young offenders. I have more detail about this back at my desk - email me at joanna.fiddian@gol.gsi.gov.uk if you would like further information.

Pat Edwards

The project on mentoring I was referring to earlier is designed to generate the evidence to show the results of mentoring and will be evaluated more effectively and over a longer time period than the previous studies. Part of the problem with the previous studies was the limited sample sizes and length of time they were monitored.

Moderator

How can CDRPs work to ensure that reducing re-offending is reflected in LAAs?

Rupert Bailie

CDRPs need to see reducing re-offending as part of reducing crime, with a focus on the offender rather than the offence. There are quite a range of indicators in the LAA which can be chosen as local priorities, according to local issues. The CDRP should feed into the LSP.

Spencer

Hi I am Spencer Draper. I also work on developing the Civic Society Alliance. We worked closely, over the summer, with colleagues in the Home Office to ensure that the National Guidance for CDRPs reflected the role that reducing re-offending should have in supporting CDRPs' statutory obligations to reduce crime, substance misuse and anti-social behaviour.

Spencer

The guidance can be found at http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/guidance_for_effective_partnerships.pdf

Moderator

Spencer can you tell us what the Civic Society Alliance is?

Philip Rees

It aims to provide equality of access for offenders to mainstream local services e.g. accommodation and health through improved partnership working with local authorities, local organisations and communities.

Joanna Fiddian

The Resettlement Local Delivery Programme constitutes London's response to the Civic Society Alliance. You can read more about the programme in the London Reducing Re-offending Action Plan 2007-09.

Joanna Fiddian

The London Reducing Re-offending Action Plan 2007-09 can be found here: http://noms.justice.gov.uk/news-publications-events/publications/strategy/London_RRAP_0709?view=Standard&pubID=495461 .

Spencer

As part of our commitment under the Civic Society Alliance, we are also looking at how to improve offenders' access to sport and leisure facilities. We are planning to deliver a practitioners' handbook, early next year. This will help practitioners working with offenders to signpost them to sport facilities in their locality. We also want to highlight case studies around the country. Does anyone online today have good case studies of engaging offenders on sport?

Moderator

Can the panel suggest what the relationship is or should be between ROMS and Government Offices?

Rupert Bailie

Most ROMs are moving into Government Offices and they should be working very closely together, particularly on crime and drugs issues. In London we work well together - others may know about other areas.

Pat Edwards

The draft SLA between the Government Offices, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice defines a set of actions which outlines the close link between ROMs and GOs. It will be signed off shortly.

Rupert Bailie

I'm sorry I have to leave the chat to go to prison for the afternoon...

Moderator

Everyone is very quiet today - are there any questions you want to put to the panel?

Moderator

What are you doing nationally to ensure that the appropriate links are made between reducing re-offending and reducing crime?

Philip Rees

The recent Home office Crime Strategy outlines the integral role that reducing re-offending plays in meeting wider crime objectives. We have ensured that suitable references to reducing re-offending are included in the CDRP guidance and NOMS are joining a Home Office inspection of Bristol CDRP in January.

Moderator

Another question for everyone logged on:

How does the involvement of probation enhance the pursuit of the CDRPs objectives?

Joanna Fiddian

Probation representatives can provide CDRPs with data to support the business case for reducing re-offending, and feed in progress on key criminal justice schemes such as the Prolific and Other Priority Offenders (PPO) scheme and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) scheme for serious offenders.

Moderator

Do we have any practitioners logged on that have engaged effectively with their Probation office?

Moderator

I know from previous CDRP Performance Support Programmes there is often frustration that probation are not a mandatory member of CDRPs. Does this reflect your experiences?

Philip Rees

Supporting probation in their work to successfully resettle and rehabilitate offenders into communities will have a significant impact on CDRPs' crime reduction targets. Collaborative work between probation and police and other partners on PPOs has demonstrated how both crime and re-offending can be reduced and there are a number of areas that are looking to build upon this.

Joanna Fiddian

In London, probation representation on CDRPs is particularly constructive in those boroughs that are involved in the Resettlement Local Delivery Programme.

Woteng

I'm the DIP Liaison within Southwark Housing & my experience confirms that housing remains the main issue for returning prisoners, particularly for those with substance misuse problems. Rough sleeping or street homelessness increases the risk of re-offending as offenders are easily exposed to the offending triggers (street dealers, shoplifting to fund habits, lack of hygienic storage facilities, breach of probation conditions etc). What is the overarching strategy to address this problem, bearing in mind the application of the homeless legislation tests?

Joanna Fiddian

There is a National Accommodation Pathway for offenders, which is mirrored in London by the Regional Accommodation Pathway, supported by my office (the Regional Offender Manager's Office). The Pathway has an action plan to drive its work, which attempts to address concerns such as yours - please see the London Reducing Re-offending Action Plan 2007-09 for more detail. If you have a specific query, send me an email on joanna.fiddian@gol.gsi.gov.uk and I can refer you to my colleague, the Accommodation Projects Manager for our office.

Joanna Fiddian

A representative from the National Treatment Agency sits on the regional Accommodation Pathway and would be able to provide you with more detail around accommodation for offenders with substance misuse problems. I know that some research has been undertaken recently, which may be of interest to you - again, feel free to email me.

Philip Rees

As you probably know, Support People is the programme which provides funding for housing related support for vulnerable people, including offenders. Delivery of housing is embedded in the new LAA national indicator set. These include indicators such as N143 offenders under probation supervision living in settled and suitable accommodation at the end of their order or licence.

Pat Edwards

When discussing housing for offenders in the CDRP context it could be helpful to refer to the new PSA 16 which has an objective of increasing the proportion of socially excluded adults in settled accommodation.

Pat Edwards

Also in the PSA 16 one of the 4 groups considered are adult offenders under probation supervision (including those discharged prisoners under licence).

Moderator

Another question for the panel and/or chatters - what are probation trusts?

Philip Rees

Probation Trusts are explained at the following link: http://www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk/output/Page380.asp . This also explains the Offender Management Act. Six trusts will be created with effect from April 2008.

Joanna Fiddian

Just a comment - although the involvement of probation in CDRPs is vitally important when it comes to reducing re-offending, there is a gap around short-sentenced prisoners who do not come under statutory supervision by probation, and who are not PPOs or on the DIP caseload. This is a significant challenge, and one which we are trying to address through the Resettlement Local Delivery Programme, which is developing processes for working with short-sentenced prisoners, as well as those on remand.

Pat Edwards

It is of course possible to focus on the under 12 month short term prisoners within the social exclusion PSA or in the local targets in an LAA.

Philip Rees

In some areas Police working in conjunction with probation are looking to address the issue of under 12 months' prisoners by trialling a system of integrated offender management. This is most developed in West Yorkshire where the police are leading on this work.

Pat Edwards

It is likely that this type of initiative for offenders will be piloted on a national level to see whether there is merit in rolling it out more widely.

Joanna Fiddian

This kind of integrated model, building on learning from existing schemes such as PPO, seems to be developing organically in a range of local areas. Certainly, we are seeing that in London, the alignment between PPO and DIP schemes, along with work through the Local Delivery Programme in the boroughs where this is operating, appears to be a strategic and pragmatic response to this issue.

Moderator

That's all we have time for so thanks everyone for taking part you will be emailed with a transcript of the edited chat shortly. The next chat will be on 31st January about criminal damage to vehicles.