Interventions

We use a variety of 'interventions' to help reduce re-offending:

Offender Unpaid Work

Offenders pay a price for their crimes whilst putting something back into the community.

Wiltshire Probation supervises offenders who are carrying out Unpaid Work as part of a Community Order. The value of this work is equivalent to £3/4 million every year — contributed free to local community projects. Through the Community Payback scheme, local people help decide which community projects benefit from this investment. The scheme is helpful because it enables offenders to make reparation to the local community for their crimes.

All projects that offenders work on are subject to standards laid down by the Home Office. These projects are carefully assessed and are both rigorous and demanding whilst also providing the opportunity for offenders to develop a better understanding of the impact their behaviour may have had on the local community and the wider public.

Through Community Payback Projects we aim to reduce the fear of crime felt by members of the public and reduce reoffending. We do this by helping offenders to acquire new work and life related skills, increase their empathy with victims and thus grow their sense of community responsibility.

By engaging with the local people we aim to ensure that offenders are making direct reparation to the communities against which they have offended

Recent projects have included painting and decorating, outdoor practical work and caring projects. For more details visit our website at www.communitypaybackwiltshire.co.uk

Accredited Programmes

Accredited Programmes are structured and planned Interventions with offenders, which are often group work based. The purpose of these Interventions are punishment, rehabilitation and public protection. In Wiltshire and Swindon, they include the following:

Think First – a 22 session general offending behaviour programme which teaches problem solving skills and how to apply those skills to offending behaviour in order enable offenders to stop offending.
Aggression Replacement Training – an 18 session group work programme which aims to reduce aggressive behaviour through teaching social skills, anger management techniques and improved moral reasoning.
Drink Impaired Drivers Programme – a 14 session group work programme which focuses on changing attitudes and behaviour in respect of drink driving and other motoring offences.
Sex Offender Group Work Programme - a programme which runs for up to 40 weeks which aims to reduce the risk of future sexual offending by adult male sex offenders.
Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme – a programme which works with domestic violence perpetrators and aims to reduce the risk of violent crime and abusive behaviour towards women in relationships by enabling perpetrators to change their attitudes and behaviour

The delivery of Accredited Programmes is based on the ‘What Works’ strategy which is intended to reduce re-offending by ensuring that all probation work is solidly based on evidence of success. Accredited Programmes respond to up-to-date evidence on what works from this country and abroad. We ensure the Programmes are delivered to a consistent standard across Wiltshire and Swindon and are accessible and effective for all groups in the community.

Sex Offenders

The key aims of our work with sex offenders are as follows:

For the offender to accept full responsibility for their offending.
Detailed sessions examine what the offender did to create the opportunity to offend and what they can do in the future to avoid offending.
Relapse prevention - recognition of high-risk situations. The first steps towards committing sexual assaults on children are likely to have arisen from offenders discovering that dwelling on thoughts of sex with children makes them feel better when they feel depressed, threatened, angry, sad or helpless. Offenders report feeling in control, powerful and positive during sexual offending behaviour.
Raise awareness of the effects of sexual abuse on victims. While they are offending, sex offenders use 'thinking errors' to psychologically con themselves that their behaviour is acceptable.
Understanding past patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour.

The sex offender programme, where properly targeted, can reduce reconviction rates (our best measure of re-offending rates) by up to a third. All community programmes are backed up by stringent court orders, which if breached, could well result in the offender being sent to prison.

The greatest risk from violence or sexually violent behaviour is from people known and often trusted by the victim. Organisations such as the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and the NSPCC can provide you with more information.

Drug Rehabilitation

National Probation Service - Wiltshire: What We Do: Interventions Planning the best course of action for offenders on drugs is a vital role. By helping people come off drugs, we help reduce the effect of one of the biggest causes of crime.

Wiltshire Probation Area manages drug treatment and testing orders as well as offenders’ drug rehabilitation requirements. Our aim is to eliminate dependency on and or propensity of offenders to misuse drugs. Drug interventions are delivered alongside other partners and stakeholders in the community including: drug treatment providers, drug intervention teams, community safety partnerships and criminal justice partners.

Alcohol Interventions

For offenders with alcohol related offences and issues, Wiltshire Probation Area provides pre-sentence assessments for the courts as well as for the prison service and parole board before offenders are released.

Wiltshire Probation Area has entered into a contracted partnership with Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership who provide offenders with specialist advice, assistance, counselling and support as part of a community order or prison release licence.

Education, Training & Essential/Basic Skills

National Probation Service - Wiltshire: What We Do: Interventions There is a strong link between crime and standards of literacy and numeracy. Education and training in basic skills can help people turn their lives around.

All rehabilitative interventions delivered by Wiltshire Probation Area and its partners can help offenders prepare for employment. In particular, through contact with probation and learning partnership support staff/tutors, offenders can access basic skills qualifications in literacy and numeracy in addition to gaining skills which can lead to greater employability thus help to significantly reduce the risk of re-offending.

During 2005/06, 580 offenders commenced Essential/Basic Skills provision which led to 120 recognised awards being made to at least Key Stage 2 literacy/numeracy level (the level that an 11 year old commencing secondary school should be at)

Accommodation

Evidence shows that where offenders are resident in unsettled or unsatisfactory accommodation they are more likely to reoffend. Wiltshire Probation Area employ staff whose role it is to assist offenders into appropriate public and private sector accommodation, referring offenders to specific hostels, projects and approved premises where necessary.

Wiltshire Probation Area does not run its own Approved Premises (probation hostel), although we do work closely with other probation areas in the south west region whose hostels can be used to place the highest risk Wiltshire offenders.

For information on finding accommodation for people who need support to help them live independently please visit the Supporting People Directory of Services website www.spdirectory.org.uk.

Debt

Wiltshire Probation Area has entered into a contracted partnership with Alabaré who provide debt counselling support and assessment services for offenders under supervision.