Pan Dorset Reducing Reoffending Strategy 2018 to 2021

To cut crime, reduce harm and protect victims by reducing re-offending through joint working and rehabilitation.

There are currently three CSPs covering the pan-Dorset area.

Each one is a statutory partnership and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that legal duties and requirements placed on CSPs are met.

The Dorset Criminal Justice Board (DCJB) aims to deliver in partnership, the best possible criminal justice service to Dorset’s communities.

The Board’s priority is to provide an effective Criminal Justice System, focusing on offering a high standard of service to victims and witnesses, protecting the public, reducing crime and reoffending.

The pan-Dorset Community Safety & Criminal Justice Board (CSCJB) was established in 2016. The CSCJB co-ordinates the activity of community safety and criminal justice partners at the strategic level.

It carries out a number of functions on behalf of the three CSPs including the formation and implementation of a reducing reoffending strategy.

The Reducing Reoffending Strategy Group (RRSG) is a sub-group of the CSCJB and DCJB and is responsible for developing plans and strategies and delivering initiatives that reduce reoffending.

A separate group, the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategic Group, oversees work to reduce offending related to domestic abuse and sexual violence.

There are a number of services, programmes and initiatives operating in Dorset that specifically aim to tackle reoffending. They include:

The Dorset Combined Youth Offending Service

The Dorset Combined Youth Offending Service (DCYOS) works across Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth to provide statutory youth justice services, including advice to police and courts, and supervision of youth out of court disposals and youth court orders.

The service aims both to prevent offending and to reduce reoffending.

DCYOS is a multi-agency partnership between:

• the local authorities
• Dorset Police
• National Probation Service Dorset
• NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group
• Dorset HealthCare University H+NHS Foundation Trust

The Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company

The Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company (DDC CRC) was formed on 1 June 2014 as part of the government’s reform of probation services.

Now operated by Working Links, DDC CRC is responsible for the management of low and medium-risk offenders who have been sentenced to serve their order in the community. DDC CRC also manage and support low and medium-risk offenders who are released from prison on licence, as well as offenders who are sentenced to less than 12 months in custody via the ‘Through the Gate’ initiative.

DDC CRC work closely with the National Probation Service (NPS) which was created at the same time to manage high-risk offenders, advise courts on sentencing and work with victims. DDC CRC also provide rehabilitation interventions to some high-risk offenders managed by the NPS.

The National Probation Service

The National Probation Service (NPS) is a statutory criminal justice service that supervises high-risk offenders released into the community.

The NPS is responsible for:

• preparing pre-sentence reports for courts, to help them select the most appropriate sentence
• managing approved premises for offenders with a residence requirement on their sentence
• assessing offenders in prison to prepare them for release on licence to the community, when they will come under our supervision
• helping all offenders serving sentences in the community to meet the requirements ordered by the courts
• communicating with and prioritising the wellbeing of victims of serious sexual and violent offences, when the offender has received a prison sentence of 12 months or more, or is detained as a mental health patient

View more about the probation service 

Integrated Offender Management (IOM)

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 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

Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA)

Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) are in place to ensure the successful management of violent and sexual offenders.

There is a Statutory Strategic Management Board (SMB) which oversees the joint management of risk between partners.

Police, National Probation Service and Prisons are responsible authorities.

Other agencies have a duty to co-operate and can become involved in cases, for example:

• the Youth Offending Services in the case of young offenders
• health, including mental health and Specialist Services
• housing
• children’s and adults services provided by the local authorities

Management of Sexual Offenders & Violent Offenders (MOSOVO)

The MOSOVO Team are part of Dorset Police. They manage registered sex offenders (RSOs), violent offenders under MAPPA and offenders who are identified by Dorset police as being potentially dangerous persons (PDPs).

The Team work closely with partner agencies, especially the National Probation Service.

Drug intervention programme

Adult offenders with substance misuse issues can receive a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) or Alcohol Treatment Requirement (ATR) from court instead of receiving a custodial sentence.

As a result, the offender has to engage with both probation services and treatment services.

Failure to comply with this order results in the individual going back to court to be re-sentenced.

Local substance misuse treatment services offer multi-discipline interventions to drug users involved in the criminal justice system, managing them from the point of arrest to release and on to a programme aiming to reduce drug related crime throughout treatment.

Services also engage with multidisciplinary work such as Prolific and Priority Offender (PPO) and MAPPA meetings as required.

Out of Court Disposal

Out of Court Disposals (OoCD) allow the police to deal quickly and proportionately with low-level, often first-time offending which could more appropriately be resolved without a prosecution at court.

Using out-of-court disposals allows offenders to be directed into rehabilitative or educational services to tackle the causes of offending behaviour and reduce the likelihood of re-offending.

Youth out-of-court disposals provide the opportunity to assess and put in place interventions to prevent further offending.

Restorative justice

Restorative justice brings together people harmed by crime or conflict with those responsible for the harm, to find a positive way forward.

The approach gives victims the chance to tell offenders the real impact of their crime, get answers to their questions and get an apology.

Restorative justice holds offenders to account for what they have done.

It helps them understand the real impact, take responsibility, and make amends.

Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner has commissioned the Borough of Poole, through the Safer Poole Partnership, to deliver the Restorative Dorset Service for offences committed by adults (18 years old and above).

This has been in operation since September 2017 and provides both restorative mediation for anti-social behaviour cases and restorative justice for any crime type, including post-conviction, subject to a robust risk assessment process.

The Safe Schools and Communities Team also deliver restorative justice interventions. They have officers trained as restorative justice practitioners who take part in restorative justice conferences that deal with bullying, shoplifting and possession of drugs and also in retail and drugs workshops as part of the rehabilitative conditions of youth conditional cautions.

The Combined Dorset Youth Offending Service offer restorative justice to victims of more serious crimes.

To reduce reoffending, it is important to understand the ‘criminogenic needs’ of offenders, address the underlining causes of criminal behaviour and provide the best support possible to progress offenders’ recovery back into the community.

Needs, causes and support include:

Accommodation

A lack of secure or appropriate accommodation can have a significant impact on an individual’s likelihood of reoffending.

Having a clean, dry and safe place to sleep at night provides a solid base to start reintegrating back into society.

Stable accommodation also allows offender managers to provide the vital building blocks for a range of support services and employment.

Education, training and employment

Having a job can reduce the risk of reoffending and teaching an individual the necessary skills to seek employment offers them an avenue away from reoffending.

Finance (including benefits and debt)

For many offenders, having the necessary finances to cover their living essentials and debt is an issue.

Around half of prisoners report a history of debt, which gets worse for about a third when they are in custody.

More than 80% of prisoners claim benefits upon release.

Relationships

Maintaining strong relationships with families and children can play a major role in assisting prisoners make and sustain changes that help them avoid reoffending.

Health

Offenders are disproportionately more likely to suffer from physical or mental health problems than the general population.

These issues can often be undiagnosed and needs unmet.

Alcohol and drugs

Around two-thirds of prisoners use illegal drugs in the year prior to imprisonment.

Intoxication by alcohol is linked to a significant proportion of crime, particularly crimes of violence (almost 50%), whilst drug misuse is linked to significant proportions of theft and acquisitive crimes, such as burglary, vehicle crime and shoplifting.

Attitudes, thinking and behaviour

Offenders can struggle with negative social attitudes and poor self-control.

Successfully addressing such attitudes, thinking and behaviour can help reduce reoffending.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

ACEs are traumatic events that affect children while growing up, such as suffering child maltreatment or living in a household affected by domestic violence, substance misuse or mental illness.

Partners’ approach to reducing reoffending is based on a number of strategic principles.

The principles recognise the importance of understanding the negative influences on the lives of offenders and their needs to prevent them reoffending.

The principles are:

• localised - delivering at a local (borough, district and unitary level) supported by countywide agencies when appropriate, to reintegrate offenders back into their local communities
• integrated - working together to reduce re-offending using co-commissioning where possible, to increase joint accountability
• targeted - effort and resources are used efficiently and are targeted to where they can make the most impact
• holistic - working with not just those who offend, but their families and the communities in which they live, which is crucial in supporting offenders to stop offending
• restorative - adopting a restorative approach designed at repairing relationships, fostering social responsibility and shared accountability
• evidence-based – local re-offending priorities will be based on evidence of local issues, such as the annual Pan-Dorset Strategic Assessment. Work to reduce re-offending should use evidence-based interventions and practice methods
• preventative - supporting preventative approaches including evidence based early years intervention and parenting to reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences on offending and reoffending behaviour

The principles enable a focus on offenders but recognise that there will also be a positive benefit to victims. They also allow for a preventative as well as a reactive approach.

Partners have agreed a number of objectives which direct their work to reduce reoffending.

Promote joint working and assess the effectiveness of services

Partners will ensure a coordinated approach that focuses on offenders and their families, concentrating on outcomes which are shown to reduce re-offending, and considering the bigger picture of family support.

In doing this partners will assess the effectiveness of services and interventions, including how they work together to reduce reoffending.

Work will be undertaken to enable multi-agency identification of offenders and their families so agencies know if they are working with the same family and better understand and develop ‘Through the Gate’ services for offenders leaving custody.

Develop the IOM approach

The RRSG provides an oversight role for IOM, enabling a multi-agency perspective on the work and ensuring a focus on the issues that matter most in the area.

The intention is to prioritise those offenders with highest risk of reoffending and causing harm, to map existing multi-agency mechanisms and identify possible gaps.

Reduce the number of prisoners being released with no suitable accommodation

Accommodation impacts hugely on the success of other interventions aimed at reducing reoffending.

Partners will undertake a multi-agency needs assessment to help better understand issues, determine current provision and identify gaps in relation to accommodation.

Monitor the supervision and compliance of Dorset offenders

Partners’ aim is to assess performance data from the NPS and DDC CRC on successful completion of court orders and custody release licences.

Monitoring this activity will help determine whether partners’ interventions and activity are being successful.

Partners will use the following performance measures to assess progress against their objectives. All measures are for the pan-Dorset area.

Further measures may be developed.

Completion rates:

• positive completion rates of community orders NPS / CRC
• positive completion rates of licences NPS

Accommodation:

• in settled accommodation on release (%) CRC
• positive total number in settled accommodation on release CRC

Youth:

• first time entrant rate (per 100,000 young people) YOS
• YOS reoffending rate
• YOS YOS reoffending frequency
• YOS Positive completion rates for YOS sentences/cautions YOS

Arrest:

• proportion of CRC caseload re-arrested
• CRC Total CRC caseload CRC
• quarterly IOM Cohort Reconviction Data Police data

Domestic abuse:

• number of Building Better Relationships programmes sentenced or imposed and percentage successfully completed NPS and CRC
• repeat incident rates Up2U Project

Timeliness:

• days from first hearing to trail MC HMCTS
• days from offence to charge Police data
• days from charge to first listing Police data
• days from offence to delivery of out of court disposal Police data

The RRSG is responsible for the day to day delivery of this strategy.

The RRSG reports regularly progress to the CSCJB and DCJB.

The CSCJB provides regular reports to the CSPs on progress including in relation to reoffending.

Although the Reducing Reoffending Strategy runs for three years, it will be reviewed annually.

This strategy was last reviewed in 2018 and is currently under review.