Partnerships

Probation has clear aims which interlock with other agencies dealing with offenders and victims

We deliver services alongside, and jointly, with partners in the criminal justice system and with agencies and organisations in the statutory and voluntary sectors. We plan how we can work most effectively together to reduce crime and disorder, to promote community safety and to represent and support victims of crime.

In the context of changes in the delivery of criminal justice services, Lancashire Probation Area is developing strategy to extend the role of the voluntary and community sector in the deliver of services to offenders, recognising the value that these sectors contribute.  This strategy has been developed through a process of engagement with partners via  local consultation events, one-to-one meetings and consideration of national and regional documents. In this process, we published our draft strategy proposals for wider consultation  during the period September 2006 - 31st October, seeking views on our proposals and aiming to begin implementation of the strategy from November 2006.

We are involved in the development of strategic community safety initiatives in Lancashire and in campaigns at local level. We work with many organisations and agencies that provide opportunities for offenders under our supervision to make changes in their lives away from crime and towards their rehabilitation within society

This co-working approach is planned and achieved through a range of statutory partnerships and formal contracts with other services and agencies in the statutory and voluntary sectors. For example we share statutory work with the police in leading multi-agency public protection panels for the management of dangerous offenders in the community

We contribute to Youth Offending Teams and Drug Action Teams. We contributed to a pioneering new initiative: an enforcement protocol for punishing offenders. Courts, police, crown prosecution, probation, youth offender teams and defence solicitors are all parties to the agreement which identifies the roles and responsibilities of each agency in clamping down on offenders who fail to comply.

We have contractual partnerships with the six prisons in Lancashire. Probation staff are based in the prisons contributing to the planning of how offenders serve their time in prison and in planning for release and for supervision under licence in the community after release.

We are active in a wide range of inter-agency work for public protection and safe communities. For example our shared local schemes with the police in Burnley and Pendle areas which target persistent offenders with clear results in reducing burglary. In these schemes police officers and probation officers work together combining police intelligence and surveillance of known offenders with intensive probation supervision to tackle an offender's behaviour. Probation's focus is on why an offender commits crime, such as drugs misuse. Our work is steering offenders into a range of interventions: treatment to tackle addiction, to improve basic skills for employment and to providing for housing needs.

We work in partnerships that support our probation practice by providing specialist work in

• assessment and treatment for offenders whose offending is linked to their use of alcohol and drugs
• employment, education and training assessment and advice to increase offenders' employability
• placement of offenders serving Community Punishment Orders
• accreditation of skills by offenders on Community Service
• risk assessment and work with sex offenders.

About 5% of our Lancashire area budget is spent on partnership work with voluntary sector agencies - providing specialist services and supported accommodation for offenders.

Community Safety Partnerships

We actively contribute through representation on all 14 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships covering Lancashire's local districts and the boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. Our Service contributes local knowledge of crime patterns and offending to inform local discussion and local decision-making about how best to tackle and prevent crime.

We are involved a broad range of county initiatives and links with a shared objective of a safer Lancashire.