Supervising Offenders

Enforcement

Our priority is to protect the public in supervising offenders who are subject to

• community sentences (Community Orders imposed by the Courts)

        and

• licences (upon an offender's release into the community from prison custody)

Supervision of Community Orders or post-custody Licences is aimed to:

• address and reduce re-offending
• challenge the offender to face up to their crime and its consequences
• contribute to public protection
• aid reintegration of the offender to be a law-abiding member of society
• not prevent an offender from being available to seek or take up employment
• not disrupt an employed offender's working hours or full-time education

Core parts of our work are to:

• assess and manage the risk that an offender may present of causing harm or danger in order to protect the public. The National Offender Assessment System ( OASYs) has been developed jointly by the Prison and Probation Services
• enforce the National Standards which apply to all offenders aged 18 years or over and include our work jointly with the Prison Service. Our performance is inspected and we are held accountable to these standards. The National Standards are clear so that offender knows what is expected and, if he or she fails to comply with the terms of their Order or Licence. what action Probation will take: returning an offender to Court or custody.
• deliver interventions  with offenders to reduce re-offending. This means that all our work with offenders must be based on effective methods and interventions that are proven successful by their results of less re-offending and lower rates of re-conviction. The National Probation Service is introducing and delivering nationally accredited treatment programmes which are based on evidence of their effectiveness in reducing re-offending.

Information which we provide to offenders about probation services is availiable in the publications section