Cheshire Probation - from Area to Trust

01 Jan 1970

New era heralds fresh campaign targeting prolific offenders

A probation boss has promised that a crackdown on prolific offenders in Cheshire will be stepped up.

Steve Collett says that targeting the most active criminals will be one of the priorities of the new Cheshire Probation Trust when it comes into being next month.

According to Mr Collett, the campaign can have a big impact on the crime rate and make local communities even safer.

The Trust will replace the Cheshire Probation Area on April 1 after their application was approved by the Ministry of Justice.

Mr Collett, currently Chief Officer of Cheshire Probation Area, will become the Chief Executive of the Trust, which will be one of 35 Trusts across England and Wales.

He’s confident the change will enable them to concentrate resources of frontline services.

The Trust will operate under a three-year contract with the National Offender Management Service.
The building blocks of theTrust will be four Local Delivery Units based on the boundaries of the unitary authorities – Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington.
Mr Collett revealed that 10 per cent of offenders are estimated to account for half of all crime.

He said: “We’ve already had success in this area and the bald statistics are an eloquent explanation why we’re intending to increase our efforts in relation to targeting prolific offenders.

“The idea behind the Prolific Offender Schemes is that the police and ourselves work with the offenders who are the most prolific in terms of reoffending.

“We try and target the top 25 to 50 offenders depending on the size of the locality.

“Our figures are very good locally. We are reducing reoffending by between about 35 per cent and 55.

“In other words, in the best programmes we are getting about 50 per less crime than we would have expected because of the way we’re working with those offenders.”

“The work with the prolific offenders is very intensive and focused so we put more resources into those offenders.

“We adopt a carrot and stick approach, beginning with an assessment of their needs related to their offending.

“Their needs often revolve around things like drug and alcohol misuse, problems with accommodation and low skills.

“We pull in partner agencies that can provide support and do it in an intensive way.

“When necessary, we also wield the stick if they don’t avail themselves of those opportunities.

“There’s very tight surveillance about what they’re up to in the local community so that if they do start committing offences again they get picked up very quickly.

According to Leslie Robinson, who will chair the new Trust, one of the main benefits will be working more closely with partner agencies and local authorities.

Mr Robinson added: “Probation cannot make communities safer by itself. We have to work with the police, local authorities, health services and many other partners. We have a shared aim with them to drive down reoffending rates.

“We also have a very important role in working with the victims of serious crime and we will continue to give that priority within the Trust structure.

“Two key responsibilities are to reduce the reoffending of known offenders and to protect the public – and also ensuring that dangerous offenders do not commit further serious offences.

“We all want to live in communities that are crime free and where we aren’t in fear of our personal safety.

“Through working with offenders we can reduce the number of victims. This is what will be driving the new Cheshire Probation Trust.”