Community Payback Order: Supervision

Interventions suitable for

Criminal Justice Social Work clients who have been formally assessed by a criminal justice social worker as being suitable to undertake a supervision requirement

Programme Title and Provider

Supervision requirement

Details of all Specific national or local scheme/intervention(s) available

Where the order contains an offender supervision requirement, the responsible officer will be a suitably qualified and registered social worker. Whilst accountability in such situations rests with the responsible officer, non-social work qualified staff (Criminal Justice Assistants) may, where appropriate, undertake work with the individual as part of the order.

Section 227G of the 1995 Act defines offender supervision as: ‘.. during the specified period, the offender must attend appointments with the responsible officer or another person determined by the responsible officer, at such time and place as may be determined by the responsible officer for the purpose of promoting the offender’s rehabilitation.The court must impose an offender supervision requirement in the
following situations:

where the individual is aged under 18

where the court imposes any requirement other than an unpaid work or other activity requirement

where the court imposes two or more requirements

The responsible officer has two key roles:

to work with the individual and relevant others to achieve change in the individual’s behaviour to encourage desistance from offending behaviour; and

to work with the individual to achieve compliance.

The responsible officer will use LSCMI for the effective planning, management and monitoring of the case management plan, throughout the length of that the order. Formal departmental reviews will maintain or vary the case management plan following a review of progress and outstanding outcomes.

One-Stop Women’s Learning Service (OWLS) and CPO Requirements

OWLS was developed for women offenders following the Women’s Commission Report in 2012. Providing a trauma informed environment enables an intensive and immediate suite of interventions for women who have experienced the criminal justice system.

OWLS Supervision Requirement – women who receive this Requirement are expected to engage with social work support to address underlying issues such as trauma, domestic abuse, mental health, relationships and substance issues which may be connected to their offending behaviour and criminogenic needs.

The aim of the intervention is to reduce offending behaviour and enable women to engage in a more positive way with their family and community. A crucial part of this work is supporting women to improve their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth.

Interventions are delivered on both an individual and group work basis and after an initial assessment which involves the woman and their keyworker, the areas of work can include the following:

Drug and alcohol issues;

Physical / mental health and wellbeing;

Offending behaviour including personal and victim impact;

Education / employment opportunities;

Mentoring;

Accommodation;

Finance issues and Welfare Benefits.

EVOLVE is a new project which is aimed at men who are given a supervision requirement. In a similar fashion to OWLS, mentioned above, the project is gender specific and aimed at the needs of male offenders. The Evolve project looks to work with men in a trauma informed manner using a combination of intensive one to one work, and a focussed programme of group work which will include activities designed to increase positive life chances and pro social decision making for males who offend, to help them find purpose, improve their wellbeing and rebuild relationships within their communities and families.

Currently based at Anchor House’s Neuk project, the project seeks to incorporate the latest theory and research into desistance and the impact of trauma into how we work with men who offend. By helping men find new, positive identities, research shows that men can move on from an offending past, and we aim to promote this using group work, and communal activities in an environment which is more trauma informed than traditional Criminal Justice settings.

Possible Outcomes

Supervision aims to motivate and support the individual to desist from further offending, and to support the individual to achieve the intended outcome of each requirement. The responsible officer also reviews progress, reports to court as required and helps the individual to deal with any obstacles to the successful completion of the CPO.

The responsible officer will be responsible for ensuring the level of supervision intensity is adhered to. This will be determined by regular assessment of the pattern, nature, seriousness, likelihood and imminence of offending. It should be stressed that in addition to deciding the level of contact, the responsible officer must give consideration to the purpose and nature of that contact. This will be determined by the assessed likelihood of offending and will be geared towards meeting the stated outcomes of the case management plan. The responsible officer must clarify the separate but related issues of risk of offending and risk of harm to others.

Process for Assessment and/or inclusion in scheme/intervention

A pre-sentence assessment is completed in the form of a Criminal Justice Social Work Report (CJSWR). The report will consider the pattern, nature, seriousness, likelihood and imminence of reoffending to inform decisions about whether a community sentence is feasible.

The assessment should also consider whether supervision/intervention is required to address the individual’s offending behaviour, or whether there are indicators of harm to others which warrant more in-depth, offence specific or specialist assessment (e.g. Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA), Risk Management 2000 (RM 2000) or Stable and Acute 2007 (SA07)).

A full risk of serious harm (RoSH) assessment at the presentence stage is unlikely to be feasible/possible unless the court allows sufficient time.