Achieve North West Project

Cheshire Probation in a consortium with the 5 North West Probation Trusts, headed by Merseyside Probation Trust, successfully bid to deliver Round 1 of the National Offender Management Service European Social Fund Project “Services to improve the employment prospects of offenders”. The project has been named Achieve North West and runs in all 5 Probation Trusts and in 10 prisons across the region. A total of £7.8m in funding is available with the project running until 31 December 2011. More than 5,500 offenders will become participants during the first 2 years of the project.

The consortium has recently successfully bid to deliver Round 2 of the project, which will extend delivery until December 2014, and will include an additional 6 prisons across the region. Round 2 will also involve delivery of Belief in Change, a faith informed accredited programme, which will be delivered in HMP Risley. Round 2 funding is over £10m across the region, and will involve over 8000 participants.

The delivery model focuses upon a case management approach to the offender journey towards employment, and is designed to bridge the gaps between offenders and existing mainstream education, skills and employment services. The project will complement rather than duplicate existing provision.

The North West team comprises the project director, finance manager, two finance assistants and administrative support. There is a project manager within each of the 5 Trusts who manage a total of 42 case managers located in community and prison based settings. Those in community settings are co-located within Local Delivery Units. Within Cheshire Probation, they are located in Offender Management Units, HMP Styal and HMYOI Thorn Cross and work is also carried out in Linden Bank and Bunbury House Approved Premises.

Additionally, Achieve North West works with 23 sub-contractors on both a regional and individual Trust basis. These include a variety of voluntary and private sector organisations, as well as social enterprises. These providers deliver a range of interventions, all designed to assist participants on their journey towards employment. Within Cheshire Probation the subcontractors are Train to Change, the Salford Foundation and Barrowmore Training providing a range of Education, Training and Employment (ETE) qualifications and skills, work tasters, volunteering and employment.

Achieve North West works with a consortium of subcontractors who deliver employment brokerage. These include CXL, Work Solutions and Connexions in Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria.

Contact details:

Project Director - Chris Bennett