Reduction in crime and public protection cannot be achieved without partnership working between criminal justice agencies and local communities.
Wales CRC works in partnership with the National Probation Service, courts, police, prisons, local authorities, substance misuse action teams and housing and advice organisations and with many voluntary and charitable organisations.
All of these organisations contribute to putting in place plans, services and actions to ensure the victims and the community are protected from any risk posed by offenders living in the community and contribute to changing the behaviours of offenders so they do not reoffend.
Examples of our partnership working:
Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA)
Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements protect the public, including previous victims of crime, from serious harm by sexual and violent offenders.
This requires police, probation, the prison service and other bodies dealing with offenders to work together in partnership to share information and to develop a joint risk management plan for dealing with such offenders.
Not all MAPPA offenders present an immediate risk of harm to others and in most cases the offender will be managed under ordinary arrangements, however, a number do require active multiagency management and their risk management plans will be formulated and monitored via MAPPA meetings attended by various agencies. Probation managers, MAPPA coordinators and senior Police officers co-chair local MAPPA meetings across Wales.
Other agencies which could be involved include:
- Children’s social care
- Adult's social care
- Youth offending teams
- Health service providers
- Local housing authorities
- Registered social landlords who accommodate MAPPA offenders
- Jobcentre Plus
- Electronic monitoring providers
- UK Border Agency
A strategic management board oversees the work of each area MAPPA: Dyfed; Powys; North Wales; South Wales and Gwent, according to statutory national guidelines.
Integrated Offender Management: IOM
Integrated Offender Management is a multi-agency approach to managing persistent offenders who commit a lot of crime, causing damage and nuisance to communities.
The approach recognises that repeat offenders have multiple problems which contribute to their offending which cannot be addressed by a singe agency. Probation works with police, local authorities, drug and alcohol services and health providers.
IOM Cymru spans:
- 4 police forces
- 22 Community Safety Partnerships
- Probation
- Welsh Government
- 6 prisons and 7 local health boards
Women’s Pathfinder
The Pathfinder has been specially designed to meet the needs of women. It brings together existing services such as domestic abuse support, drug abuse agencies and housing in a way that makes best use of the services and steers women away from further offending.
The Diversion Scheme is designed to divert women away from the Criminal Justice System at arrest stage by giving them support for needs ranging from domestic abuse to debt, developing their problem solving skills and providing victim awareness work and Restorative Justice.
Community sentencing options are available to courts and a multi-agency approach is applied to women approaching resettlement following a spell in prison.
Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA)
COSA is an organisation which recruits volunteers to support people who have been convicted of sexual offences successfully reintegrate back into society.
Volunteers receive specialist training before creating circles of support around offenders when they are released from jail into the community. A group of four volunteers, supervised by public protection professionals, meet the offender regularly.
The volunteers provide a structured support network to help offenders feel less isolated and assist them lead an offence free lifestyle. An atmosphere of trust helps offenders share their feelings.
COSA is run by the National Probation Service and works closely with prisons, the police and social services.