Probation

The National Probation Service (NPS) is a law enforcement agency and public authority, committed to the rehabilitation of offenders given community sentences and those released from prison and to enforce the conditions of their court orders and release licences. The NPS will have up to 200,000 cases at any one time of which 70% will be on community sentences and of those one quarter will be between 16 -20.

NPS work will combine continuous assessment and management of risk and dangerousness with the provision of expert supervision programmes designed to reduce re-offending.

In your work you may hear of the following two abbreviations, Mappa and Noms.

Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements ( MAPPA ) are a proven way to identify and manage violent and sexual offenders. The fifth Mappa annual report published in October 2006 showed that nearly 48,000 offenders fell within Mappa that year and that of those 14,000 higher risk offenders were actively managed on a multi-agency basis. Mappa is the term used to describe the arrangements set up locally to assess and manage offenders who pose a risk of serious harm. Agencies placed under a duty to co-operate with the Police, Prison and Probation Services (the Responsible Authority) under legislation in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act (2000) and the Criminal Justice Act (2003) include:

Local Authority Social Service
Primary Care Trusts
Youth Offending Teams
Local Housing Authorities
Local Education Authorities
Registered Social Landlords

There are three levels of management

Level 1. Involves ordinary agency management
Level 2. Inter Agency management, where active involvement of more than one agency is required to manage the offender, where management plans do not require attendance or commitment of resources at a senior level.
Level 3. Activity meetings at this level are known as Multi Agency Public Protection Panels and are for the few cases where the management of those offenders is so problematic that co-operation and over-sight at a senior level is required with authority to commit exceptional resources to strengthen the risk management plan.

There are also three categories of offender:
- Category 1. Registered Sex Offenders
- Category 2. Violent or other sex offenders
- Category 3. Other Offenders who are considered to pose a risk of serious harm to the public.

National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is the bridge between custody and community. There will be service level agreements and contracts for commissioning with a wide range of services for offender management from the public, private and voluntary and community sector. There are nine Regional Offender Management (ROMs) areas in England. The NOMS aims are to protect the public, to punish and rehabilitate offenders, to reduce re-offending and to ensure victims feel justice has been done.

Information taken from and further information available from www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk and www.noms.homeoffice.gov.uk.

ROCC does run training courses in related issues. Please see Training section for Introduction to the Criminal Justice System, Child Protection Issues, Working with Sex Offenders, Services for ex-offenders and MAPPA.