Probation protects the community. Our aim is to manage all people given community sentences, suspended sentence orders or prison licenses to ensure they complete them successfully and stop committing crime.
We monitor the people that we supervise, assessing their needs and offering them support for areas such as accommodation, substance misuse, education, training, employment and parental skills. We also deliver programmes that address offending behaviour, and supervise higher-risk offenders on initiatives such as the Intensive Community Order.
Probation case managers and senior case managers strive to manage the risk that some offenders pose. Staff work in partnership with a wide range of agencies across the criminal justice sector, third sector and public sector to achieve this aim.
Typically some of the problems people on probation may face include:
- accommodation issues and homelessness
- substance misuse problems
- mental health issues
- unemployment
- debt
Supporting people to help them overcome sometimes complex, engrained and interlinked problems can only be achieved in partnership with agencies such as the police, housing support, social services and training providers. Our staff are skilled and work to provide the right network of support to facilitate rehabilitation.
The Interchange Model focuses on what strengths the service user has. While probation case managers and senior case managers are responsible for the punitive elements of any order or licence, and can breach offenders and return them to court, rehabilitation lies at the heart of our approach.
There are two grades of staff who carry out this work; probation case managers and senior case managers. They are responsible for:
- holding offenders to account
- ensuring the punitive elements of the sentence are imposed
- managing the risk the offender may pose to others
- developing more responsible behaviour
- developing more positive attitudes
- fostering the individual’s link with the wider community
- providing value for money in the cost of organising and running the order
We assess people’s needs and offer them support for areas such as accommodation, substance misuse, education, training, employment and parental skills.