Integrated offender management (IOM)
Information about IOM, which allows local and partner agencies to co-ordinate the management of offenders, including details of the Choices programme.
Integrated Offender Management (IOM) brings a cross-agency response to the crime and reoffending threats faced by local communities. The most persistent and problematic offenders are identified and managed jointly by partner agencies working together.
IOM helps to improve the quality of life in communities by:
- reducing the negative impact of crime and reoffending
- reducing the number of people who become victims of crime
- helping to improve the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system
IOM principles
The principles describe the main features of IOM and guide local arrangements and approaches. Local IOM models will vary to reflect local circumstances and priorities, but the common elements are:
- all partners manage offenders together
- a local response to local problems
- all offenders can potentially be included
- offenders face up to their responsibility or face the consequences
- best use is made of existing programmes and governance arrangements
- achieving long-term desistance from crime
Further detail about each of the principle headings is provided in the paper ‘Integrated offender management principles – supplementary information’
National integrated offender management conference: 2015
The Home Office and the College of Policing held a 2-day national conference, “Integrated Offender Management: meeting the future challenges” on 25 and 26 February 2015 in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry.
Over the course of the conference a wide range of speakers spoke about the success of Integrated Offender Management in cutting crime and the potential for the approach to go even further in the future.
Themes which emerged during the conference included the role that Integrated Offender Management can play in helping to prevent the onset, or escalation, of problematic criminal careers and how local Integrated Offender Management approaches will need to adapt to changes in the delivery landscape, including the transforming rehabilitation probation reforms. The event was well attended by a wide range of partners including police and crime commissioners or their representatives, police, probation, local authorities, youth justice, voluntary sector, health and others. The conference report and 2 supplements containing the presenters slides and workshop presentations are now available to download.
The 2013 IOM conference presentations and report and 2012 IOM conference presentations and report are also available.
For further information please contact the IOM team.
IOM and social enterprise
The Home Office, in partnership with Clinks and Social Firms UK has undertaken a short piece of work to explore the role of social enterprises and community interest companies in providing training and employment opportunities for offenders (both adult and young offenders).
The aim was to capture and share some of the current learning and effective practice through the development of a set of effective practice resources. A report of the work, and the 20 case studies have now been published. These materials are intended to provide a resource for local Integrated Offender Management arrangements, other local partners, who might be interested in establishing or using social enterprises to help offenders access training and employment opportunities as a route out of crime.
IOM Efficiency Toolkit (Phase 2)
Local areas can evaluate their IOM arrangements using the following resources:
IOM Efficiency Toolkit Phase 2: Value for Money Tool
IOM Efficiency Toolkit Phase 2: Break Even Analysis Handbook
IOM Efficiency Toolkit Phase 2: Value for Money Tool Self-Help Guide
IOM Efficiency Toolkit Phase 2: Revised Unit Costs of Crime and Multipliers
If you have any problems running the tool, contact:
Offender Strategies Team
Tackling Crime Unit
Home Office
5th Floor Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Email: iom.info@homeoffice.gov.uk
Building Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) involvement in IOM
Building VCS involvement in the IOM programme funded by the Home Office and managed by Clinks, aimed to build on and strengthen the role of the VCS in local IOM arrangements as an equal partner.
The Home Office and Clinks have also published jointly a series of resources that draw on the learning from this programme. These resources are primarily intended to help key stakeholders involved in local IOM arrangements to review the role of VCS partners, but may equally help VCS organisations to think about the range of roles they could undertake, individually or collectively. Resource 4, in particular, aims to help VCS organisations engage with local IOM arrangements and other CJS structures. An overview of the programme and the final reports can be accessed from the links to the right.
IOM Survey
The IOM Survey Executive Summary presents a summary of findings from a national survey of a broad range of partners engaged in the strategic development and operational delivery of local IOM approaches, incorporating the local Prolific and other Priority Offender (PPO) and the Drug Interventions Programmes (DIP).
IOM conference 2013
The report on the national conference (held 31 October to 1 November 2013) includes the transcript of the video address by Damian Green, the Minister of State for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, and summaries from the other keynote speakers at the conference.
The presentations were set in the context of police and crime commissioners, the serious and organised crime strategy and transforming rehabilitation. The conference report highlighted the opportunities and benefits of IOM in targeting new cohorts of offenders, the role of IOM in both supporting local action and preventing serious and organised crime, and its alignment with other significant reforms, such as the troubled families programme.
The 2012 IOM conference presentations and report are also available.
IOM workforce development programme
The Home Office has commissioned the Hallam Centre for Community Justice at Sheffield Hallam University to develop the IOM e-learning programme.
The programme aims to bring together all the current knowledge about emerging practice to help support local areas and develop the skills of key stakeholders at both the strategic and operational level to manage offenders more effectively as part of their local IOM arrangements.
The aims of the IOM workforce development programme are to:
- increase IOM awareness at all levels
- improve workforces’ IOM-related knowledge and skills
- contribute to the development of an agreed vision of IOM locally
- embed and communicate that vision to relevant organisations
- assist in the effective and efficient management of offenders
The IOM e-learning programme contributes to this by providing learning materials to meet the above aims, allowing local areas to construct curriculums to ensure coverage of all key IOM-related elements and providing an e-learning platform to deliver this. The e-learning platform consists of three main areas: knowledge repository, problem solving and toolkits.
If you are working within a local IOM partnership in either a strategic or operational role, then you may wish to register to join the IOM e-learning programme and access the e-learning platform. You can register for access through the Hallam Centre for Community Justice website or by emailing iom@shu.ac.uk.
Choices
Choices was a £4 million programme funded in 2011-12 by the Home Office targeted at the voluntary and community sector aimed at preventing and reducing substance misuse and related offending by vulnerable young people aged 10 to 19.
The programme was about building on proven approaches but with an emphasis on developing more innovative ways of working, delivering more effective local solutions and adding value to existing local services.
The Home Office funded 11 national voluntary and community organisations to deliver Choices in partnership with around 195 local voluntary and community organisations and engaged over 10,000 young people.
The successful national voluntary organisations who delivered Choices were:
| Organisation | Location | Details |
|---|---|---|
| The Prince’s Trust | Hackney, Kennington, Bath, Merseyside, Newcastle, Kent and Teesside | Provided intensive support and interventions for 152 vulnerable young people aged 13-19. Provided bespoke training and resources to 24 staff from 8 local voluntary sector organisations to develop their skills and abilities to work with vulnerable young people. |
| Action for Children | Rotherham | Focused on children of drug misusing parents. Two groups of 10 young people aged 10-13 and 14-16 and provided issues-based sessions and diversionary activity and one-to-one support. Created two e-learning modules to be available to 320 paid staff and 450 volunteers through the Voluntary Sector Consortium’s e-learning platform on substance misuse and offending. |
| Compass - Services to Tackle Problem Drug Use | Enfield, Harrow, Coventry, Lambeth and Hull | Diverted around 200 young people who were engaged on or were at risk of substance misuse into positive and sustainable diversionary activities. Provided support from a peer mentor and one-to-one interventions tackling self-esteem, offending behaviour and substance misuse. |
| Catch22 | Waltham Forest, Haringey, Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark, Islington and Lewisham | Focused on supporting high harm violent young people (10-19) involved in gangs across London as identified by the Metropolitan Police through Operation Connect. Provided training to local voluntary organisations and statutory partners in drug awareness and local screening tools to ensure they could identify signs of substance misuse and make appropriate referrals to substance misuse agencies. |
| Barnardos | Bradford | Established a multi-agency panel in order to identify and monitor the progress of two key cohorts (10 young people and their families) that were on ‘the edge’ of statutory intervention in relation to substance misuse and related offending behaviours. |
| Active Communities Network | London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Brighton, Southend, Birmingham, Hull, Portsmouth, Southampton, Coventry, Sunderland and Newcastle | This was a consortia approach led by Active Communities Network, the Metropolitan Police and the Premier League. Engaged around 5,000 young people through arts, media, youth work and sports-based activities to enhance protective factors and their resilience to avoid substance misuse. The project also delivered issues-based workshops and accredited and non-accredited training (for participants, parents and carers). |
| DrugScope | Birmingham | Provided intensive preventative interventions to young people affected by parental substance misuse. Around 500 young people were provided with alcohol and drugs awareness sessions and one-to-one support. |
| Developing Initiatives for Support in the Community (DISC) | Leeds | Targeted work with young people whose parents were already involved with adult substance misuse services to address the impact of intergenerational substance misuse and criminal behaviour. |
| Mentor | Central Lancashire, Halton, Cornwall, Brent and Bournemouth | Project Street Talk embedded measurable brief interventions into the work of 20 local voluntary and community sector organisations who engaged around 3,000 young people. |
| Youth at Risk | Sunderland, Southend and Plymouth | Provided intensive support for 75 young people at risk of or already engaged in substance misuse and offending. Trained 60 staff from the voluntary and statutory sector and 75 volunteers from local communities to equip them with the skills to be able to work with the identified young people. |
| Groundwork | Bridgend, Corby, Nottingham, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, Leeds, Bradford, Tees Valley and Essex | Tested out a range of local approaches and interventions among young people and delivered a number of local projects aimed at reducing substance misuse and offending. Groundwork provided support and expertise to local networks. |
Local evaluations
We are encouraging projects to develop their local evaluations of the various approaches funded under Choices to ensure that the learning helps to add to the evidence base on prevention and early intervention.
Barnardo’s have published their evaluation of the Choices project in Keighley which worked with vulnerable young people and their families who did not qualify for statutory intervention in relation to their substance misuse and related offending behaviour.
The evaluation looked at whether the project increased the capacity of local organisations to identify and respond appropriately to children and young people at risk of substance misuse and/or offending; and assessed short term outcomes on safer thinking and behavioural factors known to correlate with offending and substance misuse in young people.
The findings showed that a key worker approach was a successful way of engaging vulnerable young people and their families, and the use of a multi-agency panel was effective in bringing statutory and voluntary organisations together to work to common outcomes. Young people reported enhanced skills with respect to recognising risky situations, walking away from arguments, stressful situations or anti-social behaviour; improved family relationships, higher self-esteem and respect for others; and a number had re-engaged with education and training.
Contact
For further information on Choices, please email the offender strategies team.
Debut offences and future offending
The Home Office has published a research report looking at the relationship between an offender’s debut offence (first proven offence) and their future offending.
The study reviewed whether the type of crime committed as a first offence predicted chronic or serious offending. It also looked at how the numbers and types of first offences have changed over time.
The study considered the potential impact of changes in the numbers of first-time offenders committing major debut offences on the levels of future offending and then put forward suggestions for policies to reduce levels of crime.
Updates to this page
Published 26 March 2013Last updated 19 March 2015 + show all updates
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Updated national IOM Conference 2015.
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Updated key principles documents published.
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First published.