Guidance

National Probation Service Sentencer update – NOMS in Wales

Published 26 March 2015

Applies to England and Wales

1. National Probation Service – working closely with Sentencers

Probation services have always valued close and effective working relationships with sentencers, and this has continued following the creation of the National Probation Service (NPS) last year.

The NPS and NOMS in Wales now work alongside the newly formed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to provide a full range of probation services. Throughout the changes that have taken place during the past year we have made every effort to ensure that the services you have required have remained of a high standard, and maintaining our positive relationships with sentencers is an important element of these efforts.

We also appreciate the importance of regular communication between sentencers, courts and probation services. That is why we have started to create news and updates on GOV.UK which we hope you will find both informative and useful.

The introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act in February has brought about considerable reform, including the introduction of supervision for the vast majority of offenders sentenced to under 12 months in prison. The numbers of offenders affected by the changes introduced by the ORA will increase during the coming months, including the use of the new Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR).

The NPS is arranged into seven divisions, each led by experienced senior managers. We hope that you are already familiar with the senior NPS managers in your area; however an article from each divisional NPS lead is contained in this section. We’ve also included a selection of news articles from each division to give a flavour of some of the activity happening across the NPS.

We hope the information provided will prove interesting and useful, but we would appreciate your input to tell us what kind of information you’d like to receive from the NPS in future. A short survey has been set up to gather your views and we’ll use these to shape future communications with you.

Thank you

Colin Allars, Director, Probation

Sarah Payne, Director, National Offender Management Service in Wales

2. Working with the new Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR)

The recently introduced Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) offers the opportunity for a greater range of work to address offending behaviour.

Sentencers will be aware that this new requirement is available for both Community and Suspended Sentence Orders and replaces much of what would have been previously undertaken using supervision and activity requirements. It is for the court to first decide whether a Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order with a RAR is an appropriate sentencing disposal and then to set the length of the sentence and the maximum number of activity days.

The RAR does not allow for a minimum number of days, only a maximum. The allocated Responsible Officer, (previously known as Offender Manager or Probation Officer), will then decide the content of the activity days, how they will be delivered, how frequently the offender attends.

In some instances, the content of the RAR activity may be decided pre sentence where there are bespoke interventions in place. Therefore while the court may be aware of the proposed content, it cannot set what specific rehabilitation activities should be delivered under the RAR.

Roz Hamilton, NOMS Deputy Director and Courts Lead for the National Probation Service, said:

“The National Probation Service continues to work closely with the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) in each division as they begin their rehabilitation services in line with the requirements of the RAR.

“This close working relationship will ensure that the NPS and sentencers are kept informed of what interventions and activities are available and also the impact they are having.

“The NPS will continue to provide the pre-sentence reports in all cases where sentencers feel that a Community Order may be suitable, and this will identify the areas of concern which may be usefully addressed with a RAR.

“The RAR will offer a flexible framework within which the provider will be able to identify the areas of concern in a person’s life and create bespoke interventions to address these.

“At this early stage of implementation we are working with courts and CRCs to arrive at the most appropriate approach to the new requirement that will offer the best outcome for offenders and communities.

“We look forward to working with sentencers to arrive at a shared understanding of these new provisions.”

3. Update from the Deputy Director - NOMS in Wales

In line with national NOMS strategy, NOMS in Wales will work with its partners both in Wales and beyond to implement the fundamental objectives of:

• reducing reoffending
• protecting the public
• making our communities safer for everyone

NOMS in Wales has been established because of the unique relationship that exists between NOMS and the Welsh Government – which is responsible for carrying out a wide range of public services such as health, education and social care.

We will work hand-in-glove with the NPS and HMPS to ensure that NOMS is represented at this level and ensure we support an integrated approach that lends itself to the aims of not only Crown functions; but those of the devolved administration also.

Building upon this unique relationship, NOMS in Wales will carry out a seamless offender journey through custody and into the community.

We will continue to use our strategic functions such as IOM Cymru to ensure that specific Welsh interventions such as the Wales Reducing Reoffending Strategy are implemented with our partners. We will continue to work closely with HMCTS in servicing the provision of the courts and provide the end to end journey for offenders.

Ian Barrow, Deputy Director, NOMS in Wales

4. The IOM Cymru Women’s Pathfinder ‘Diversion Scheme’

The Integrated Offender Management (IOM) Cymru Women’s Pathfinder is a partnership initiative aimed at developing a whole system approach to how we work with women who come into contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) in Wales.

It covers all stages of the CJS, from early intervention and prevention, through to ensuring we have robust and effective options for women in the community. We also work with those women who do go into custody to enable successful resettlement on release.

As part of our work around prevention and early intervention we have developed the ‘Diversion Scheme’. This diverts lower risk women away from the CJS and into voluntary community interventions and support at the earliest opportunity.

The scheme is overseen by the Pathfinder Board, which has representation from both Deputy Clerks to the Justice from Wales who have been able to bring a court and sentencer perspective to our work.

Since August 2014 we have been piloting this approach in Cardiff in partnership with South Wales Police and a range of third sector partners. Women with complex needs, often victims themselves, will receive the support they need to help them address any underlying issues, avoid future contact with the police and build positive relationships with their families and wider communities.

From April 2015, we will be holding events for court staff, sentencers, police staff and other partners to raise awareness about the specific needs of women and the work of the Pathfinder.

We will be building on the experiences of Intensive Alternatives to Custody (IAC), which is a relatively new type of community-based sentence for those who are on the verge of going into custody. We hope to use this to improve the provision of effective community sentencing options.

So far over 120 women have been diverted into a range of services, including housing support, debt advice, mental health services, domestic abuse support and substance misuse interventions.

One of the women currently engaging with the Diversion Scheme said: “Unfortunately people find them self in a bad situation sometimes and without the help of the pathfinder my situation would have been a lot worse. It is a good idea to give people a second chance because sometimes a mistake can change your life”.

In collaboration with the four Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) four additional pilot sites in Newport (Gwent), Merthyr Tydfil (South Wales), St Asaph (North Wales) and Haverfordwest (Dyfed-Powys) are due to launch in April 2015 and will be subject to an evaluation delivered by an academic partner.

5. Give us your feedback

NOMS has always valued a good working relationship with Sentencers and we appreciate any feedback received about any of our communications.

Please could you take a few moments to answer the following questions which will help us to evaluate this publication and shape future versions.

Give us your feedback