Brochure of Probation Interventions – North West

Foreword

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to this new North West Judicial Brochure.

Our priorities within the North West Probation Service are to implement the sentences and orders of the courts, to protect the public, and to rehabilitate offenders. We believe people can change, and that our efforts to reduce reoffending make the public safer. 

Following our first successful year as a unified service, I have set out a single objective for the North West to achieve, and that is to build on our collective knowledge and experience to deliver an excellent service in all that we do. 

Court work sits front and centre of this objective through providing sentencers with quality assessments and offering bespoke proposals which target the risk and needs profile of the individual effectively.  

To ensure that we have appropriate options available to target reoffending through interventions which are focussed on rehabilitative approaches. In the last year the North West region has mobilised ten new Commissioned Rehabilitative Service contracts supporting people on probation to address needs relating to housing, employment, emotional wellbeing and social inclusion. In addition, we have successfully co-commissioned substance misuse provision in partnership with local authorities, and developed strong links with the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities to support future commissioning. 

As well as our existing interventions package which you will be familiar with (Accredited Programmes, Unpaid Work, etc.), part of our developed offer of interventions to the courts includes a new range of Structured Interventions and Approved Practitioner Toolkits. 

Probation Practitioners can deliver change work directly with people they are supervising with a RAR. To support this 1-1 work there is an Approved Suite of Probation Practitioner Toolkits that give a structure for addressing identifiable needs and supporting people to build personalised strengths and capacity for living a crime free, positive life.  

For individuals to access these bespoke interventions, which are fully detailed within this brochure, the starting point is that a PSR needs to be requested for probation to assess and make a recommendation based on the risk and need profile of the individual. As such, my plea to sentencers is to make full use of the probation resource available to you in your local courts.

By the end of 2022 we aim to be completing PSRs against 60% of community and custodial disposals, ensuring effective sentencing proposals support a reduction in offending and reduce the risk of harm to the public. To achieve this ambition, we need the support of our key court stakeholders in driving PSR requests up and allowing us the opportunity to provide you with quality assessments to support your sentencing decisions.  

As ever, we are keen to receive feedback from yourselves, so please continue to provide via your local identified Probation liaison leads. Many thanks for your continued support and I hope that you find this brochure both informative and beneficial.  

Andrea Bennett, Regional Probation Director, North West Probation Service

Click on the links below to see the full range of probation interventions available within your region.