CRS Learning

For each need, PPs need to specify all activity under different headings, and make it clear what actions they want taken. This can be done under individual activities, or under 1 activity. The PPs need to be clear what actions they would like to take place, and the supplier needs to then translate these into outcomes in the SUAP. For example.

Required Outcomes:

1 – Service User is helped to secure a tenancy in the statutory or private rented sector

2 – Settled Accommodation is sustained for a period of 3 months

From Top Tips Issue 1 (10)

Men’s Personal Wellbeing and Women’s services meet a wide range of specific needs.

Only 1 referral form is required for either Men’s Personal Wellbeing or Women’s services, but this referral should indicate all of the need areas which you are asking the Supplier to address to reduce the PoP’s risk of re-offending. It is not currently possible to amend referrals in R and M (amendments to R and M will soon enable this) but, until then, if further needs are identified, this will require a new referral to be made and the old referral cancelled.

If you select more than one need, you may wish to indicate which you consider to be the priority criminogenic need(s) or you may want the CRS Supplier to form a view on this following their initial assessment.

Whether you choose 1* or multiple needs, ensure that you allocate a sufficient number of ‘enforceable appointments’ (See Top Tip Issue 1 (1)) and that the end date for the service considers how long it will take the provider to deliver those appointments (See Fig.1 in Top Tip Issue 1).

[08/10/2021 11:15] Darby, Paul

* The Women’s CRS is holistic, which means that it is a woman-centered integrated service that provides a range of support in one place. For this reason, referrals could include multiple service categories.

Outcomes which are linked to the chosen need areas and appropriate to the PoP should be selected. The outcome(s) selected should reflect what you consider to be realistically achievable in relation to each PoP. You will therefore need to select only the outcome(s) which are appropriate at this point in time and taking account of a range of factors, including their circumstances and the complexity of the need.

Many women have multiple complex needs (some of which my emerge during the course of the intervention) and care should be taken to ensure that both the number of enforceable days and the end date reflect the number of sessions and the length of time that may be needed to support women and to deliver services in a trauma-responsive and holistic way which offers the additional support women may need.

Yes

CRS cannot progress the service delivery until the PP agrees the Action Plan.

Point 12 from the last edition of Top Tips says:

• You should read it and ensure you sign it within 2 days of receipt. The PP will need to check their email alerts for when this needs to be done.
• This is to enable the Supplier to commence working with the Person on Probation (PoP) in a timely way.
• If you are on annual leave, please contact the Supplier to inform them of who will be reviewing and signing the action plan on your behalf.
• If you need to discuss any element of the Service User Action Plan (SUAP) with the Supplier, please contact them by phone/email at the earliest opportunity in order to enable any changes to be made and service delivery to commence.
• Working collaboratively with CRS staff will ensure the PoP feels supported and will contribute to achieving the best outcomes from the CRS.

An enforceable day is any day where a Person on Probation will be subject to enforcement action where they fail to attend without a reasonable excuse.

As such, these can be RAR days when subject to a Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order

Or

Any days on Licence or Post Sentence Supervision as directed by the Probation Practitioner.

a) All appointments with Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) which the Probation Practitioner has agreed are either RAR activity days on Community Orders/ Suspended Sentence Orders or planned appointments for those on Licence or Post Sentence Supervision are ‘enforceable appointments’.

The ‘maximum number of enforceable appointments’ is the number of days which the Probation Practitioner (PP) estimates delivery of that service will take. When the supplier submits the Action Plan, they will confirm how many sessions are planned, which cannot exceed the maximum the PP has specified in the referral. The number of sessions offered is likely to depend upon the service categories and complexity levels specified in the referral.

If subject to community orders or SSO’s, the enforceable appointments will be governed by the number of RAR days given at sentence.

The Effective Proposal Framework (both custody and community) includes a guide to the number of days that may be needed (RAR or Licence appointments) to reflect low/medium/high complexity levels.

b) If you are allocating e.g. 10 enforceable days, you need to consider an achievable timescale (e.g. 1 x appointment per week would take 10 weeks). The end date should take account of the fact that these sessions will commence after the initial assessment which will be within 10 days of receiving the referral – (unless it’s an urgent referral) and so this also needs to be factored in.

In determining an end date, some contingency for a delayed start, missed appointments or leave is advised. It is really important to allow CRS Suppliers enough time to deliver the interventions. See below – Fig 1.

Fig. 1

Enforceable days	Initial Assessment	PP to agree Service User Action Plan	Min Number of weeks	Contingency	Total end date from time of referral
10	Up to 10 working days after referral. (This is an enforceable appointment but is not included in the number of days needed to deliver the services).	Within 2 days of receipt	10 (based on 1 appt per week – this could be more or less)	E.g. 8 weeks (missed appointment – holidays etc)	20 weeks
5	Up to 10 working days after referral. (This is an enforceable appointment but is not included in the number of days needed to deliver the services).		5 (based on 1 appt per week – this could be more or less)	E.g. 6 weeks (missed appointment – holidays etc)	13 weeks

To note, where PoPs have high complexity needs, a significant number of sessions are likely to be needed to address these needs.

IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT EITHER THE NUMBER OF ENFORCEABLE DAYS NEEDED OR AN APPROPRIATE END DATE, DO CONTACT THE CRS SUPPLIER BY PHONE/ EMAIL TO DISCUSS THE NEEDS OF THE PERSON ON PROBATION. Working collaboratively with CRS staff will ensure the PoP feels supported and will contribute to achieving the best outcomes from the CRS.

a) Pre-planned appointments including the initial assessment where the Person on Probation (PoP) is in attendance physically or virtually will be recorded in Refer and Monitor (R&M) by the Supplier as will any failure to attend. This information is then automatically uploaded onto nDelius. Probation Practitioners are responsible for decisions about enforcement action but should liaise with the CRS provider in relation to any additional information that may inform this decision. PPs should contact the CRS Supplier to discuss next steps if there are multiple Fail to Attends.

b) CRS Suppliers will undertake other non-enforceable and non-contact activity on the PoP’s behalf e.g. referrals, phone calls and, in some cases, additional sessions which are not included within the allocated days within the SUAP.

Example 1. A CRS Supplier may suggest that the PoP calls in between planned appointments to get an update on progress made on a referral.

Example 2. Women’s Services in London have additional funding to enable women to be offered appointments for wrap-around support outside of the enforceable appointments captured in the SUAP.

The activity in the examples above will be captured in R&M in the End of Service Report.

When completing the ‘Additional Risk Information’ section, Probation Practitioners (PPs) should ensure that the information is sufficient for the CRS Supplier to manage any risk presented by the person on probation (as this is the only place where risk information is shared). This should therefore include:

1. Does the Person on Probation (POP) presents a risk to the Public; Children; Staff; Known Adult (name of known adult should not routinely be included)
2. The level of that risk (Low; Medium; High; Very High)
3. What is the nature of that risk? (violence etc)
4. What might increase the risk? (alcohol, drugs, failure to take medication)
5. What steps the Supplier can take to mitigate the risk?
6. Does the PoP present a risk to self? (of suicide or self-harm)
7. Is the PoP considered vulnerable? (why? Provide evidence)
8. Any exclusion zones/ restraining orders/ other restrictions that are relevant to the specific service being delivered. 3^rd party details e.g. name and addresses of victims should NOT routinely be shared.
9. Is the PoP at risk from anyone else? (name of person(s) should not routinely be included)

If the PoP does not present a risk of harm to self or others, then this should also be noted in this risk box (e.g. ‘Person on Probation does not present any known risk of harm to self or others’)

The risk section should not be left blank or with a request to contact the PP for further information.

Completion of the risk section provides evidence that you have supplied the relevant risk information to the CRS Supplier.

PPs should avoid jargons/ acronyms or anything that will not be clear to a CRS Supplier.

If there are any risk issues in relation to contacting the PoP, e.g. not contacting a woman by a landline or at times when she may be with an abusive partner, please include this information in this section with alternative safe methods of communication.

An amended risk section in R and M is currently subject to user-testing with Probation Staff. Once tested, this will include some pulled-through risk information as well as clear guidance on the information needed to be included within the free text box.

Referrals to CRS in the new area should not be made until the transfer has been accepted by the new area in line with the requirement of PI 17/2010.

This referral should be made by the Probation Practitioner (PP) in the receiving area.

If the transfer is occurring mid-way through the delivery of a CRS intervention in the referring area, then the service would end at the request of the current PP and an End of Service Report (EoSR) written by the CRS Supplier. The EoSR can be passed to the receiving PP in the new area, to understand what services had been delivered and what outcomes have been achieved so far and also highlight what needs to be delivered to achieve the remaining outcomes. The PP in the receiving area will than need to make a new referral.

Pre-Release referrals for Women

 If a referral is being made by Probation staff in prison, it must be discussed with the Community Offender Manager (COM) prior to submitting the referral.

This is because there needs to be a single referral which includes both pre- and post-release needs. This referral should reflect needs identified via BCST and additional needs captured by the COM in the pre-release OASys and sentence plan.  The focus should be on those criminogenic needs which will support the journey away from offending. It is not currently possible to make changes to referrals in Refer and Monitor (R&M) (amendments to R&M will soon enable this) but, until then, if further needs are identified, this will require a new referral to be made and the old referral cancelled. It is therefore important to try to include all needs when the initial referral is made.

The CRS Supplier can only deliver accommodation and mentoring (Social Inclusion) services pre-release (maximum of 3 appointments for mentoring) but will consider all needs, including those that will be addressed post-release when completing the Service User Action Plan.

You will need to select Outcomes which are linked to the chosen need areas and are appropriate to the woman’s circumstances.

For women in prison at the start of a long sentence where a COM is not allocated but a POM is, the POM can refer to CRS accommodation providers at the start of sentence to support giving up a tenancy. POMs can provide risk information for the referral which could come from the Pre-Sentence report where completed. If limited risk information is available, this should be noted in the risk section of the referral form.

Many women have multiple complex needs (some of which my emerge during the course of the intervention) and care should be taken to ensure that both the number of enforceable days and the end date reflect the number of sessions and the length of time that may be needed to support women and to deliver services in a trauma-responsive and holistic way which offers the additional support women may need.

Pre-Release Referrals for Men

 If a referral is being made by Probation staff in prison, it must be discussed with the Community Offender Manager (COM) prior to submitting the referral.

This is because there needs to be a single referral which includes both pre- and post-release needs. This referral should reflect needs identified via BCST and additional needs captured by the COM in the pre-release OASys and sentence plan.

The COM has overall responsibility for the period of supervision and can ensure services for accommodation and social inclusion continue in the community once the individual is released.

If a COM wishes to make a pre-release referral for a service that will only commence post-release e.g. ETE, the referral should include information on engagement with prison-based services such as education to provide a complete overview of progress of the PoP for the information of CRS suppliers.

Details including prison where held, and date of release must be included in the referral to enable CRS providers to prioritise where release date is closest. The referral must also include the PDU where the PoP is due to be released to and the COM’s name and contact details, where known.

For people in prison at the start of a long sentence where a COM is not allocated but a POM is, the POM can refer to CRS accommodation providers at the start of sentence to support giving up a tenancy. POMs can provide risk information for the referral which could come from the Pre-Sentence report where completed.

If limited risk information is available, this should be noted in the risk section of the referral form.

The Social Inclusion services are solely to offer pre- and post-release mentoring. As such, they are suitable for People on Probation (PoPs) who will be released on Licence and who will need additional support to make a successful transition from custody to community.

Criteria for referrals should include information about the PoP’s lack of social support or networks, confirmation that they do not have a mentor via another service and an explanation of whether they require support to engage with community services.

Whilst the Social inclusion services are not available for PoPs who are on Community Orders or Suspended Sentence Orders with a RAR, the following elements of the Men’s Personal Well-Being Services or the Women’s Services will be suitable:

1. Emotional Well-Being – for PoPs who lack self-esteem and an ability to cope with daily life/ attend appointments
2. Lifestyle and associates – for PoPs who need support ether to disengage from negative peer groups or support to engage with pro-social activity or leisure interests.
3. Family and Significant Others – for PoPs who need help improving positive engagement with statutory services such as children’s service, or support to develop positive coping strategies and new positive networks following breakdown of relationships.

The outcome(s) selected should reflect what you consider to be realistically achievable in relation to each PoP. You will therefore need to select only the outcome(s) which are appropriate, and which take account of a range of factors, including their circumstances and the complexity of the need.

The CRS Supplier will then consider what interventions they can deliver to secure the desired outcome(s). Following the initial assessment, if the CRS Supplier thinks that the selected outcome(s) are unrealistic/ insufficiently ambitious, they will contact you to discuss this.

Working collaboratively with CRS staff will ensure the PoP feels supported and will contribute to achieving the best outcomes from the CRS.

(Any revisions will currently require a re-referral to be made but we are looking at amendments to R and M so that this is not required.)

Men’s Personal Wellbeing and Women’s services meet a wide range of specific needs.

Only 1 referral form is required for either Men’s Personal Wellbeing or Women’s services, but this referral should indicate all of the need areas which you are asking the Supplier to address to reduce the PoP’s risk of re-offending. It is not currently possible to amend referrals in Refer and Monitor (R&M) (amendments to R&M will soon enable this) but, until then, if further needs are identified, this will require a new referral to be made and the old referral cancelled.

If you select more than one need, you may wish to indicate which you consider to be the priority criminogenic need(s) or you may want the CRS Supplier to form a view on this following their initial assessment.

Whether you choose 1* or multiple needs, ensure that you allocate a sufficient number of ‘enforceable appointments’ (See top tip 1) and that the end date for the service considers how long it will take the provider to deliver those appointments (See Fig.1 in Top Tip 1).

* The Women’s CRS is holistic, which means that it is a woman-centered integrated service that provides a range of support in one place. For this reason, referrals could include multiple service categories.

Outcomes which are linked to the chosen need areas and appropriate to the PoP should be selected. The outcome(s) selected should reflect what you consider to be realistically achievable in relation to each PoP. You will therefore need to select only the outcome(s) which are appropriate at this point in time and taking account of a range of factors, including their circumstances and the complexity of the need.

Many women have multiple complex needs (some of which my emerge during the course of the intervention) and care should be taken to ensure that both the number of enforceable days and the end date reflect the number of sessions and the length of time that may be needed to support women and to deliver services in a trauma-responsive and holistic way which offers the additional support women may need.

There should be only 1 referral that starts pre-release and continues post-release for Accommodation and Social Inclusion and Women’s Services (Accommodation and Social Inclusion). This referral needs to include services that are needed pre-release and those that are likely to be needed post-release. (The one exception to this is where a referral is made at the start of a long sentence to give up a tenancy.) This ensures a smoother service delivery for the Person on Probation (PoP).

For pre-release referrals to the Men’s Personal Well-Being Services for Social Inclusion and to Women’s Services for Accommodation and Social Inclusion, these referrals should include any additional elements of the overall service that may be needed post-release e.g. Personal Well-Being (Lifestyle and Associates) or Women’s Services (ETE).

If a referral is being made by Probation staff in prison, it must be discussed with the Community Offender Manager (COM) prior to submitting the referral.

This is because the referral should reflect needs identified via BCST and additional needs captured by the COM in the pre-release OASys and sentence plan.  The COM has overall responsibility for the period of supervision and can ensure services for accommodation and social inclusion continue in the community once the individual is released as well as identifying other needs.

Referrals for ETE should be made post-release but should include information on engagement with prison-based services such as education to provide a complete overview of progress of the PoP for the information of CRS suppliers.

You should read it and ensure you sign it within 2 days of receipt. This is to enable the Supplier to commence working with the Person on Probation (PoP) in a timely way. If you are on annual leave, please contact the Supplier to inform them of who will be reviewing and signing the action plan on your behalf.

If you need to discuss any element of the Service User Action Plan (SUAP) with the Supplier, please contact them by phone/email at the earliest opportunity in order to enable any changes to be made and service delivery to commence.

Working collaboratively with CRS staff will ensure the PoP feels supported and will contribute to achieving the best outcomes from the CRS.

It’s important to check that the information that will be pulled through from nDelius is accurate. This includes for the:

Person on Probation:

• contact phone numbers
• Release prison and date of release (if required)
• additional information/ needs e.g. ethnicity, disability, interpreter language requirements.

Probation Practitioner:

• Contact phone number
• Email address
• Office address

In flight cases are cases that were receiving a service prior to the CRS commencing on 26.01.21.

In flight cases need to be referred through Refer and Monitor (R&M) so that services can be monitored in the same way as all referrals receiving a service.

When referring an in-flight case, staff must ensure that they highlight that this is an in-flight case in one of the free text boxes within the referral.

In the referral, outline what services have been received to date and what aspects still need to be addressed. PPs can seek guidance from Suppliers on suggested service categories based on what is currently being delivered with the PoP, if required.

When allocating enforceable days for those on Community Orders or SSO’s with RAR days, please ensure that the referral take account of the number of RAR activity days remaining.

The PP will need to go into R&M and cancel the referral.  A provider cannot end a referral in this way. The responsibility lies with the PP, who should undertake the following actions:

• In the R & M referral section there is a ‘Progress’ tab. At the very bottom of this screen select “cancel this referral’.
• You will then be required to select from a drop down list the reason for cancellation. (If ‘Professional Judgement’ option is selected because all outcomes have been achieved early, record the justification in the free text box).
• This will then cancel the referral in R&M which, in turn will terminate the NSI within nDeli

The CRS NSI should under no circumstances be manually closed down in nDelius.

• When a referral is ended in R & M it automatically changes the status of the NSI in nDelius.
• When a PoP has an order revoked and is resentenced, any referrals linked to the revoked sentence must be cancelled in R & M in the first instance before terminating the sentence in nDelius.
• Please also ensure that the referral is ended on R&M before terminating orders.

The probation practitioner must ensure that the case is allocated to them on nDelius to ensure automated email notifications can be received from R & M.

To notify the provider access the case in R&M and send a case note to the provider outlining the new probation practitioner’s details including email and phone number.

The process is the same as when accessing R&M with your own caseload.

• Choose event
• Choose NSI from left hand screen banner
• Choose appropriate NSI
• Click the referral link

This takes you to R&M

• Enter log in details (same as nDelius log in)

You can then view the case, approve a SUAP, end a referral, send a case note.

Note: It would be helpful to send a case note advising the CRS provider that the case holder is away and provide the details of the officer covering.

In the ‘Progress Tab’ in R&M, at the bottom is an ‘end service’ button.

Once this is activated, the CRS provider can complete the EoSR.

Good practice would be to discuss this in advance with the Provider as well as to confirm this via case notes so they can cancel any planned appointments with the PoP and discontinue any supplementary work.

The sentence end date will pull through.  Where there is a PSS end date this should be included in the additional information box. You should confirm if the PSS is the date that you want the Provider to use as the end date for intervention delivery.

Further information for the provider’ – is the section of the referral form where the PP needs to ensure that the referral fully reflects the needs of  the person being referred. This should not be left blank or say ‘N/A’. Further information might include:

• What work/support the PoP has had in this area previously?
• What was/wasn’t successful?
• How ready is the PoP to work on the issues identified in the referral?
• What does the PoP hope to achieve?

Gender Identity (and Sexual Orientation) are not included in the ‘Service User’s Needs’ below but it may be helpful for some PoPs and some services to include this information in this section.

Service user’s risk information – this is specific risk information about the PoP.

• All PP’s must ensure that they follow the current guidance issued to ensure that sufficient information is provided to ensure that the CRS provider can deliver the service safely.
• PP’s MUST ensure that they do not include sensitive information such as medical information without permission of the PoP or where the PoP does not give permission but sharing is necessary for the safe management of the case, the decision must be in line with probation information sharing protocols.
• Victim/children specific information such as names and addresses, where its not relevant or safe to do so
• Where co-defendant non association is included, make sure this is clear and necessary.

Information should be free from acronyms and probation jargon.

Service user’s needs – ensure that were available, these areas are completed in nDelius so that they automatically pull through into the referral. Where they do not automatically pull through, ensure that you add sufficient information for the provider to be aware of the PoP needs.

Identify needs;

Other mobility, disability or accessibility needs

Interpreter required

Interpreter language

Primary language

Caring or employment responsibilities (manually)

Provide details of when referred person will not be able to attend sessions (manually)

Gender Identity (manually) for referrals to women’s providers details about the PoP’s gender identity should be included, if the Women’s provider will need this information prior to conducting the assessment.  Additionally, information about a PoP’s sexual orientation should be included if helpful in enabling the provider to avoid re-asking potentially sensitive or re-traumatising questions.

Referrals for ETE cannot be made pre-release as it is difficult for Providers to undertake an initial assessment within 10 days of referral. ETE services cannot be delivered pre-release service under the CRS contracts.

However, for women’s services, if ETE is part of a referral which does include a pre-release service such as accommodation or social inclusion, then it may be included as part of that referral for initial assessment purposes but no ETE sessions will be delivered until after release.

The legal framework for the enforcement of Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders is set out in Schedules 8 and 12 respectively of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which applies to: Community Orders and, Suspended Sentence Orders (SSO’s).

PPs have oversight and responsibility for all appointments with all agencies detailed on a PoP’s supervision plan. Where there is a failure to comply or concerning behaviour, the PP needs to assess whether or not this is acceptable or indicates whether or not risk of harm has become unmanageable. The PP then makes an informed decision on what, if any, action needs to be taken.

This will include concern for the PoP eg if there are concerns for their welfare, as well as concerns about any risks they present to others. But the PoP will always be given an opportunity to explain the reasons for non-attendance or failure to comply before any action is taken.

If the issue is to do with the R&M IT system, then it must be referred through the help desk.

If it is a practice issue, then speak with your line manager who may wish to raise it with the regional Contract Manager.

No. If the initial appointment is a failure to attend, then the provider simply notifies the PP on the initial appointment feedback screen of the failure to attend and offers another appointment. ‘Alert OM’ should be selected.

The PP should notify the CRS supplier if they don’t want any further attempts made. This is the same principle for any subsequent appointments after the initial assessment.

If it is a short-term recall, best practice would be to discuss with the PP the best action to take to ensure continuity of service delivery at the point of release.

Activities may need to be reviewed if the situation is significantly different at the point of release.

Some may have already noticed; case notes are now available in the service! This allows service providers and probation practitioners to add important notes about the intervention outside of the enforceable appointments.

It’s currently a very simple process. Alongside “Progress” and “Referral details” – you’ll now see a link to “Case notes” where there’ll be a list of the existing notes, and a button to create a new one.

You can add a title for convenience, and then there’s a free text box for the note itself. Once typed, you can save the note and it’ll appear in the record. Time, date and author are recorded automatically. There’s currently no process to edit case notes or add attachments – but these features may be added in future.”

There are a couple of tweaks that will be made to case notes over the coming week or so, such as adding in some more explanatory guidance and notification messages when a case note is added.

Please note that Case Notes can be used to record if a PoP is in prison, or the community, their prison location, and likely release, as well as if the referral is urgent. The functionality for these things in Refer and Monitor is still being worked on, but in the short-term Case Notes is a good place to record this information.

Please note that Case Notes is not a messaging service and should not be used to replace a phone call or email where this is necessary.

A reminder that the personal Wellbeing service is there for you to refer to.

This can be for community cases, and also Custody cases.

For Custody cases, suitability criteria for PWB includes;

• History of non-engagement with services or likely to not engage.
• Lack of social support in community.
• Those who have a mentor via another source are not eligible – e.g. via Reconnect to support engagement with primary health care, via a substance misuse provider or a faith group.

The aim is to support transition from prison to community including supporting to engage with community services including statutory services such as probation. This includes supporting building a social network e.g. via community groups such as further education, faith groups, culturally appropriate groups to reduce isolation and enable integration into the community.

Accommodation and Social Inclusion are the only services that can be started pre-release.   Referrals need to reflect Urgent and Standard timescales as outlined in Top Tip ‘What are Urgent and Standard Referrals?

Referrals for ETE and other services within Personal Well-Being (Emotional Well-Being, Family and Significant Others) can be sent Pre-Release, but the PoP will not be seen until the very earliest, on the day of release. However, as the PoP will be required to attend the Probation Office on the day of release and will have other obligations, the proposed start date should be realistic.

Where there is a referral for a Woman for Accommodation and/or Social Inclusion, but which also requires outcomes in other CRS pathways e.g. ETE, these needs should be included in the referral even though work will start post-release

Where there are more than 15 days left to serve, best practice is to discuss with the CRS provider when to make pre-release referrals. This will enable the provider to consider how much time is needed to secure the outcome but equally to ensure PoPs are not on a waiting list before the provider can sensibly start working with them.

When making a referral pre-release, it is important that the Probation Practitioner informs the CRS provider of:

• Name of prison where release is expected (where known)
• Name of current prison (where different)
• PDU area for release (or borough for London)
• Date of expected release (including HDC Eligibility Date)
• Prison number or reference
• Prison visits phone number

Until this function is available in Refer & Monitor (R&M) , this information should be included in the ‘Further Information for the Provider’ Text Box.

Urgent and Standard Timescales are for custody cases only

For both Social Inclusion and Accommodation CRS activities (for men and women), referred by the PP to start pre-release, there are two timescales:

 

Standard Timescale

For men and women who are being referred to CRS providers with at least 15 days or more left to serve, before their date of release / Home Detention Curfew Eligibility Date –

 

It is best practice for PPs to send referrals to CRS providers using the Standard Timescale, before the final 14 days of the custodial element. The timing of the referral should reflect the complexity of the issues face by the PoP.  Where there are additional complexities in either obtaining or sustaining accommodation, the CRS provider will need sufficient time pre-release to address these issues.

 

Urgent Timescale

For men and women who are being referred to CRS providers with 14 days or less remaining to serve, before their date of release / Home Detention Curfew Eligibility Date –

There will be some occasions when the PP is made aware of a person’s release date / Home Detention Curfew Eligibility Date in the final 14 days of the custodial sentence.  When this happens, it is important to record in the Referral that the Urgent Timescale applies.  By informing the providers this is an Urgent Timescale, the provider will make an initial response to the referral within 24 hours of receiving it.  This does not mean the provider will be able to complete all the activities and outcomes indicated in the Referral at speed, before release – it takes time to complete the Service User Action Plan and engage with partner agencies and people in custody.

See Top Tip – How do I notify the CRS Provider that the Referral is Urgent or Standard Timescale?

PPs need to indicate the Release Date / HDCED in the ‘Further Information for the Provider’ Text Box and state if this is an Urgent / Standard Timescale Referral in the same box.

There is work underway to add the function of amending the referral in R&M. Once available (anticipated early 2022) R&M will ask the Referrer to confirm the Date of Release.

Cases cannot be closed early without first discussing with the Probation Practitioner.

If the Probation Practitioner (PP) agrees that a referral should be cancelled or ended early, an end of service report is only required if 1 or more sessions have been delivered. (This is in addition to the initial, assessment). An End of Service Report (EoSR) is therefore needed if:

• all sessions have been delivered or
• all outcomes have been achieved or
• when the CRS provider asks the PP to end a service early, where even 1 session has been delivered (in addition to the initial assessment)

Where the provider needs to end a service early (before delivering any planned sessions but in addition to the initial assessment appointments) they can ask the probation practitioner to end it early and no EoSR will be required.

ACTIONS Taken by Staff	STATUS If PP requests and end to service	EoSR?	Shown in complete  cases
Referral sent	Cancelled	No	No
Caseworker Assigned	Cancelled	No	No
Initial Assessment Booked	Cancelled	No	No
FTA Initial Assessment	Cancelled	No	Yes
Initial Assessment Attended	Cancelled	No	Yes
Action Plan Submitted	Cancelled	No	Yes
Action Plan Approved	Cancelled	No	Yes
At least 1 session appt booked	Cancelled	No	Yes
1st session appt FTA	Cancelled	No	Yes
At least 1 session appt attended	ended early	Yes	Yes
All sessions delivered	concluded/completed	Yes	Yes

Case notes must not be used for session feedback updates as they do not automatically write in to nDelius. 

Session feedback should be captured in ‘Additional information about X’s attendance’ and should include activities undertaken in the session and which outcomes were being worked towards. This will then link in nDelius. 

Case Notes should be used for information that we want the Provider/ Probation to be aware of but don’t require an immediate response:

Probation staff (not exhaustive):

Update information/change in circumstances about the PoP (significant risk information should also be shared by phone/ email) – change of address or times when appointments should be avoided.

Prison location and/or release date including changes to either.

Member of staff off sick/leave to notify of covering officer details.

CRS (not exhaustive)

Update information about the PoP (significant risk information should also be shared by phone/ email)

Details about work carried out on behalf of the PoP outside of the scheduled meeting e.g. forms filled in, positions applied for, accompanying visits not included in a session,

Information from any drop in session or unplanned contact.

• When nDelius is down R&M is Read only.
• An error message will appear, as a banner on the top of the R&M screen.
• Any work completed in R&M during nDelius downtime time will NOTread across to nDelius.
• Once the outage is over, please ensure that downtime entries are completed.

The PP may choose several options such as asking the CRS provider to consider applications for housing with the local authority or private sector.

Clearly accommodation can only be secured through one route. If this occurs, the relevant outcome should be recorded as complete and the other incomplete with an explanation of why this was not needed.

The CRS provider must ensure that;

They Record on Refer and monitor by the end of the same Working Day as the activity is undertaken any offered appointment, attended or not, and highlight where there has been any behaviour of concern which may indicate that the PoP may be at risk of harm, or that they may present a risk of harm to others.

This must be recorded in the session feedback section where there has been a planned session, and this will write into nDelius. ‘Alert OM’ should be selected.

However, where this has come to the providers attention via others means, this can be done via email or under the new functionality of Case Notes (see below) which will be in R&M.

Suppliers should contact the PP to discuss the best way forward. Often the best way forward will be delaying the start of the service for the PP to undertake motivational work with the PoP in advance of the service starting.

No decision with regards to service termination should be made without first discussing with the PP.

If all outcomes are achieved in fewer days than have been allocated, then the extra days available do not have to be used. Discussion between CRS and the Probation Practitioner must then take place to request that they end the referral prior to the End of Service Report (EoSR) being submitted

‘A Probation Practitioner has the statutory role of managing people on probation (PoP), subject to community orders and suspended sentence orders. The role of supervising officer for licences and supervisor for post sentence supervision mirror the duties of the responsible officer in the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014.’

A referral to CRS provider is made to enable the PoP to address certain aspects of their behaviour linked to offending or to stabilise them so that they can move forward in addressing that behaviour.

The PP has an overview of the case and the PoP’s engagement in all other requirements of the sentence. This ensure that all aspects are considered when any decision is made about ending a referral to a CRS provider.

CRS Providers must make all reasonable efforts to contact a PoP to inform them of an appointment. including all phone numbers available, address, emails.

If it is proving difficult to contact the PoP, please liaise with the PP about other options.