South Central

Welcome from Gabriel Amahwe
South Central Regional Probation Director

“I want to welcome each of you to the new South Central Probation region. There would be various things for you to get to grips; I do hope you find the information and advice available useful for some of what you may need.

We are coming together to unite around our profession; bringing our pride, passion and experience together, and drawing upon accumulated knowledge and expertise across probation in South Central. I am excited by the opportunities this bring for the transformation of probation service.

Although there is much to learn and do for all of us, I believe, as someone that has worked in both CRC and NPS, that we are better and stronger together in our mission to turn people’s lives around. I am grateful for the great work you do and that will continue to happen across South Central region.

We are not the perfect probation region and we do remind each other of that. We are however setting aspirational goals in South Central region about being the best new region that works hard to do the right thing, support and challenge each other to keep improving our practice, always put staff’s wellbeing first, show mutual respect and appreciation for each other, reward and recognise the important work colleagues do and champion every voice in the region.

As you go through a period of familiarising yourself with some things that may look different to what you were used to, I hope you learn more about the opportunities we all have to create an environment that will inspire, support and empower you to be the best that you can be to deliver quality probation service in the South Central region.

Great progress on the vaccine gives us hope. I am therefore looking forward to personally meeting you all soon.”

About our region

• South Central NPS region covers a geographically and ethnically diverse area from Milton Keynes to Isle of Wight. This presents unique challenges and opportunities in working with Service Users from a broad range of backgrounds, ethnicities and communities which we aspire to meet through continued innovation and excellence, and strong partnership working at regional (Police Crime Commissioner) and local (local authority/voluntary sector) levels.
• Hampshire and IOW has a diverse geography including two National Parks; the New Forest and part of the South Downs and an Island, the Isle of Wight. These rural areas are contrasted with the large cities of Southampton and Portsmouth managed under unitary authorities and the historic county town of Winchester. The county is split into 3 PDU’s, Hampshire North and East, Hampshire South West including the New Forest and Eastleigh and Hampshire South, which includes Portsmouth and the IOW.
• Whilst Hampshire communities are largely white British there is a rich diversity in areas of Hampshire, specifically the district of Rushmoor in the North East of Hampshire which has the largest non-white British population in the county most of which is made up of the Asian ethnic group, Nepalese community. This diversity has resulted from legislation surrounding Ghurkha Armed Forces personnel and the settlement in the district of them and their families. Southampton city in contrast has substantial subset of White Other within the population which can be attributed to the migration into the city of Eastern European and in particular Polish individuals and families. (information taken from the 2011 Census)
• The Thames Valley region covers an area of 2,200 miles and is made up of the English counties that follow the River Thames between Oxfordshire and London. It is one of the wealthiest regions in the UK, with an ethnically diverse population of 2.3 million people.
• It welcomes 6 million visitors a year whether to study or visit. It hosts events such as Royal Ascot, the Reading Rock Festival and Henley Regatta and its stately homes and castles include Windsor and Highclere, the location used for Downton Abbey.
• Reading is a major commercial centre with strong links to information technology and insurance sectors. Microsoft, Oracle, ING Direct, Prudential, Cisco, Ericsson, and PepsiCo have their headquarters here. Oxford is a major economic centre in the Thames Valley. It is also home to leading research and development and the University of Oxford, with the University’s most recent co- development being the AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine.
• The aspiration of South Central NPS is to become the ‘best of both’ current NPS and CRC as we Transition into the new NPS. This means harnessing the innovation (both operational and technical), expertise, professionalism, knowledge, skills alongside the positive professional and rehabilitative culture of both organisations. We believe that by achieving this we will successfully Transition to a strong and unified service.

You can view the South Central interactive PDU map here.

Probation Delivery Units (PDU)

63. Hampshire North and East (Hampshire but excluding Eastleigh and New Forest)
64. Hampshire South West (Southampton and includes lower tier LAs in Hampshire – Eastleigh and New Forest)
65. Hampshire South and Isle of Wight (Portsmouth and Isle of Wight)
66. Oxfordshire
67. Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes
68. East Berkshire
(Bracknell Forest, Windsor & Maidenhead and Slough)
69. West Berkshire
(Reading, Wokingham & West Berkshire)