30. Memorandum submitted by
the National Probation Service for England and Wales
Thank you for your letter of 24 February requesting
supplementary information for the Inquiry into the Rehabilitation
of Prisoners.
In answer to the points raised in your letter:
1. PROGRAMMES
IN THE
COMMUNITY
Statistical data relating to the number of offenders
undertaking educational programmes is given at Annex A for 2002-03
and 2003-04 (April 2003 to January 2004). The tables show the
number of offenders assessed during these periods as well as the
number of offenders commencing a basic skills programme (by type
of supervision) and the number and level of awards achieved. We
are only able to provide data about (i) offenders serving non-custodial
(community) sentences and (ii) ex-offenders released back into
the community under licence (see sections on Basic Skills Programme
Commencements). We do not hold data on ex-offenders released without
statutory supervision but who request access to such programmes.
Annex B gives figures on the number of offenders
undertaking Offending Behaviour or rehabilitative programmes in
2002-03 and provisional figures for 2003-04 (April to December
only). The tables detail the numbers commencing and completing
each programme during these periods.
I have also attached at Annex C an informative
summary that details and explains all the current Offending Behaviour
Programmes currently being run by the National Probation Service.
This table provides some useful background information on each
of the Offending Behaviour Programmes and allows some context
to be associated with the numbers detailed in Annex B.
In terms of community penalties, Enhanced Community
Punishment retains the punishment inherent in a community order
but has a strong vocational element. It uses work to address employment-related
and thinking skills.
Data relating to other vocational programmes
is not collected centrally. However, I can confirm that there
are a number of schemes operating at a local level that provide
vocational support for offenders.
2. STAFFING LEVELS
Annex D details the number of staff employed
in the National Probation Service (NPS) by the 42 Probation Boards
covering England and Wales, as at 30 September 2003. The tables
provide a breakdown by grade of staff and region.
Reporting structures
The National Probation Service for England and
Wales was formed as a national service in April 2001 and comprises
42 areas. These areas are coterminous with police, court and crown
prosecution areas.
Responsibility for each of the 42 probation
areas is vested by parliament in a probation board for that area.
Each Board has a Chief Officer who serves as a Board Member and
who is a statutory office holder appointed by the Home Secretary.
In addition to this, there are 14 other Board Members; 1 x Chair,
1 judicial member appointed by the Department for Constitutional
Affairs (formerly Lord Chancellor's Department) and 12 other independent
local members who are appointed by Ministers.
Probation Boards are accountable through the
National Probation Directorate to the Home Secretary (as illustrated
below).
All staff of the 42 areas are employed by the
relevant Probation Area Board. The Board is responsible for the
recruitment, retention, remuneration and oversight of the day-to-day
management of its employees, and for local area strategic planning,
and financial and performance monitoring.
3. OUTREACH WORK
The National Probation Service values its relationship
with the voluntary sector and encourages local probation areas
to work in partnership with the voluntary sector and others to
provide the most effective provision to reduce reoffending. The
resettlement of offenders is an essential element in achieving
this. However, it is for the local probation areas themselves
to decide, in the light of their individual business plans, how
this is best achieved. As part of a process to develop a more
strategic approach in its relations with the voluntary sector,
the National Probation Directorate has undertaken a mapping exercise
of partnership arrangements between the 42 local probation areas
in England and Wales and the voluntary sector. This has been followed
by a regional consultation exercise to find out from local probation
areas and voluntary sector organisations what factors they consider
should be included in a more strategic approach. The mapping exercise
was based on replies from 33 Probation Areas and gave information
on 625 projects. Local probation area partnerships with the voluntary
sector include work on drugs, accommodation advice, education,
training and employment, alcohol, financial and welfare advice,
community punishment, domestic violence and sex offending.
In relation to funding, I can advise you that
actual probation expenditure on services delivered by, or in partnership
with voluntary sector organisations has increased by some £4
million over the past three years to an estimated £34 million.
A great deal of this had been invested in projects with the voluntary
sector. Of the current expenditure, £3.5 million is core
funding provided by the National Directorate to support the central
infrastructure of a small number of national organisations, but
the bulk of the funding flows through the 42 probation boards
to local organisations and projects.
Work with statutory partners
Work undertaken by the National Probation Service
in partnership with voluntary sector organisations is being taken
forward alongside work with the Prison Service and with other
Government Departments to develop a National Rehabilitation Strategy
and Action Plan. The Action Plan, subject to final ministerial
agreement, will address key themes identified in the Social Exclusion
Unit Report on the resettlement of ex-prisoners. An important
principle underpinning the strategy is that offenders should gain
proper access to the "mainstream" services necessary
for their rehabilitation. To this end, the prison and probation
services are working together with other departments to agree
an action plan and time-scales in relation to each identified
theme by April 2004.
The National Rehabilitation Strategy will address
seven areas of need, or strategic pathways, critical to offender
rehabilitation. These are:
— Attitudes, thinking and behaviour
— Education, training and employment
— Finance, benefit and debt
The delivery of services in these areas of need
is supported by a number of cross-cutting delivery strategies
which centre on case management, information exchange and regional
strategies.
Regional Strategies
Co-ordinated work at regional level is fundamental
to effective delivery of resettlement work on the ground. To this
end all probation regions, will be required to develop joint regional
resettlement strategies with the Prison Service by March 2005.
These strategies will closely mirror the central rehabilitation
strategic themes. They will, as part of the NRS, require the establishment
of delivery agreements at regional level with partners in the
Correctional and Criminal Justice Services, statutory agencies
and the voluntary and private sectors.
4. JOINT INITIATIVES—PREPARATION
FOR THE
NATIONAL OFFENDER
MANAGEMENT SERVICE
(NOMS)
Work on the National Rehabilitation Action Plan
will feed into preparation for NOMS. In particular, the joint
probation and prison service development of resettlement strategies
at regional level and in Wales will help to pave the way for the
delivery of an integrated service.
Other initiatives currently being undertaken
by the Probation Service and Prison Service that will contribute
to an integrated service include:
— the establishment of a joint Criminal
Justice Act Sentence Delivery Board to oversee preparation for
the introduction of the new sentences. Of particular significance
in this context will be the introduction of Custody Plus. Custody
Plus will end the current situation where short-term prisoners
are not subject to licence on release from custody;
— the Sentence Delivery Board is also
overseeing the development of the joint case management process
which will meet the SEU report's concern for continuity in case
management from prison to the community, and which will co-ordinate
the delivery of services to individual offenders by partner organisations.
Case management is part of a core curriculum of joint work by
the two services which also includes OASys—the joint risk-needs
assessment tool-programmes to address offending behaviour, and
a range of initiatives designed to support community reintegration.
The prison and probation services are jointly
steering a number of other resettlement projects, including the
Prison Service Plus project. Provisional agreement has already
been reached for this project to go forward under the auspices
of NOMS. This work is being co-ordinated with steps to address
the rehabilitation needs of persistent offenders and other priority
groups, in particular in partnership with the police, as an integral
part of work on the National Rehabilitation Strategy. Work has
also begun on designing a NOMS centre including the appointment
of a transition team. It is planned that the National Offender
Manager and other strategic appointments will be made by 1 June.
In taking forward the work of NOMS, proposals are being put forward
to establish a number of regional pathfinder projects to test
new joint delivery arrangements.
In addition to the resettlement projects, there
is also a good deal of other joint work being undertaken by the
NPS and the Prison Service. One example is the work currently
being done on Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBPs). The key objectives
of joint working for these programmes include that wherever possible
provisions to ensure joint planning and analysis of work are in
place and that a co-ordinated approach to the development of programmes
is achieved. Other objectives include the need to ensure that
business changes are assessed for each organisation and that a
common approach to training and support is developed along with
the flexible use of resources. The implementation of NOMS will
facilitate this further and allow for much closer collaborative
working.
Stephen Murphy CBE
Director General, National Probation Service for
England & Wales
25 March 2004
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