HLNY interchange manager Becky Bailey attended the National Probation Awards in Leeds on Wednesday, June 20 after being shortlisted in the Partnership Working category of this years’ Probation Awards. The winners will be named at a special ceremony in Leeds on June 20.

On the night Angie Powell from Exeter NPS won the award but Becky said she had a fantastic evening, meeting others working in the criminal justice system including prison and probation officers.

Becky said: “The awards were amazing! I was thrilled to be nominated and to reach the finals. What was most overwhelming was the support and good luck messages from friends and colleagues which made me feel like a winner regardless of the outcome on the night.”

Becky’s nomination was in recognition of Becky’s work on the successful launch of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) in Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire – which has garnered significant media coverage including the BBC.

The AAMR pilot was first launched in June 2017, funded by the Police & Crime Commissioners for Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire, involves using electronic ‘sobriety tags’ as part of community-based sentences.

The tags monitor the consumption of alcohol and alert case managers if an offender has been drinking. To date, the pilot has been active in York, Grimsby and East Lincolnshire, but has now been rolled out across all courts within Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.

Head of operations Amy Gilbert, nominating Becky for the award, said: “Becky has managed to build confidence and engagement within the partnership and with key stakeholders to implement (over a very tight timescale) and successfully deliver an AMMR pilot.

“At the heart of successful implementation of this pilot is stakeholder confidence and engagement – at an operational and strategic level. Without achieving this, then this pilot would not have been possible.

“From April 2017 Becky developed local multi-agency implementation groups in the three pilot sites and has achieved good buy-in and engagement from National Probation Service colleagues, courts, domestic abuse partners, substance misuse providers, representatives from the offices of the Police and Crime Commissioner, local police teams and other wider delivery partners.”

Commenting on the AAMR pilot Becky said: “There’s a cohort of offenders who are more likely to commit crime when they are under the influence of alcohol, creating more victims and harm to individuals and themselves. In the pilot scheme 70 offenders have been sentenced to the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement for a range of offences including theft, drink driving and violent offences.

“To date the compliance rate has been around 90 per cent and offenders who have completed the requirement say it has had a positive impact upon their lives and helped them to reduce their use of alcohol.”