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PROBATION TRUST PLANS GAIN GOVERNMENT APPROVAL

Plans to bring together the Probation Services in County Durham and Teesside have been given Government approval.

A new Probation Trust covering the two areas will come into operation from April next year, building on the close collaboration which already exists. Although the Trust will cover both County Durham and Teesside, its service delivery structure will be aligned to the six police command units.

The confirmation of Ministry of Justice approval for the Trusts proposals was warmly welcomed by the Chairs of the current County Durham and Teesside Probation Boards who stressed that the move would be based on ‘evolution rather than revolution’with the aim to ensure that resources could be best deployed into front-line services.

The aim of Probation Trusts is to give local areas greater control over the management of their business and provision of services. The Government aims to complete the transition to Trust status across the country by next year.

Said County Durham Probation Board Chairman Sebert Cox “We are obviously pleased that we have been able to demonstrate to the Government that our plans for moving to Trust status and at the same time bringing together the two areas are well considered and robust.

“We see the move to bring our two areas together under a new Trust as a real opportunity to secure the future of a Probation Service which is viable in organisational terms and delivers increased value for money, yet is still able to reflect local needs and conditions.

“In fact, of course, we are not starting from scratch – as long as 12 years ago we began collaboration in areas such as Human Resources and Staff Development.  More recently this has been extended into Finance and Information Technology – and indeed we now have Directors responsible for our front-line services across both County Durham and Teesside.So in many respects this is a natural evolution of the process we have been developing over a considerable period.”

AddedTeesside Probation Board Chair Paul Harford “With Trust Status being introduced across the country we had to decide which is the best way forward for our Areas – and the Government made clear it would look favourably on locally-initiated proposals for voluntary mergers.

“It is important that as we move forward with our plans we keep our staff and all the many partners we work with – for example judges, magistrates, police, local authorities and local Members of Parliament – involved and informed.  Change is always challenging, but we do believe that our long record of working together can make the process very much easier – and it is vital to underline that amongst the most important benefits of the move to a single organisation will be maximising resources for front-line services and removing false geographical barriers, for instance between Hartlepool and Peterlee.

“Already our joint working has reduced administrative overheads by hundreds of thousands of pounds a year – and this should significantly increase with the move to a single trust and management structure.  But it is not just about money…what really matters is giving our staff the best possible opportunity to provide a quality service”.

Doing More to Keep you Safe…County Durham Leads the way with New promotional Campaign

All eyes will be on the Probation Service in County Durham today (Tuesday 3rd March) when a new public awareness campaign to promote the work of the Service is launched - the first of its kind in England and Wales.

The innovative campaign will see County Durham Probation Service take the lead out of 42 Probation Areas in proactively promoting the work it does with adult offenders in such a high profile way.
 
The ‘Doing More to Keep you Safe’ campaign will start in Darlington today and run for six weeks. Aimed at the general public with little or no knowledge of the Probation Service, the campaign illustrates different areas including work with victims of domestic violence, unemployed offenders and perpetrators of violent crime.

It will feature on illuminated bus shelter posters in prominent locations throughout the town and in ambient advertising in washrooms of pubs and bars. This will be complimented by an advertising campaign in the local and regional press and the Darlington Borough Council newsletter, the Town Crier.

Russell Bruce, Chief Officer, County Durham Probation Service, says: “This is an exciting step forward for the Probation Service in County Durham as it is the first time we have promoted ourselves in such a visible and proactive way. The aim is to make people aware of the scope of work we carry out with adult offenders – there is more to the Probation Service than Community Payback and supervising prisoners on licence, but few people realise this.”

Sebert Cox, Chairman of the County Durham Probation Board, adds: “Through this campaign we hope to raise the public profile of the Probation Service locally so that we are on a level with our Criminal Justice Agency partners, such as the Police and the Courts. For a long time we have been the silent service, working behind the scenes with adult offenders using programmes and supervision to address offending behaviour and reduce re-offending. The Board and I share the Chief Officer’s excitement and optimism as we move forward into this new way of raising awareness of the work of our service.”

Working closely with County Durham Probation Service, North West Durham based marketing and design company Virgo, researched, planned, designed and produced the awareness campaign.  Photography was undertaken by Mark Westerby.

David Virgo, Managing Director of Virgo, commented, “This has been a very different but exciting campaign to be involved with. Our team didn’t realise beforehand just how much, and varying work County Durham Probation Service does with both offenders and victims of crime. This was also borne out by research we undertook before planning the campaign.”

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Proposed Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust

Plans to seek approval to bring together Probation Services in County Durham and Teesside have been announced today (Friday 12th December 2008)

Already the two Areas collaborate on many aspects of their work.  The proposed move to a single structure as part of the Government’s programme for establishing new-look Probation Trusts has today been described by the Chairs of the two current County Durham and Teesside Probation Boards as ‘evolution rather than revolution’.  Its aim is to ensure that together we are better able to deploy our resources to the benefit of front line service delivery.
The new organisation – provisionally called the Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust – would continue to operate at a local level with services based on the relevant local authority or police basic command unit boundaries.

The aim of Probation Trusts is to give local areas greater control over their budgets and provision of services.  The first wave of trusts was established in April this year and the Government aims to complete the transition to Trust status across the country by 2010.

It is intended that the proposal for the Durham Tees Valley Trust will be submitted for Government approval in May next year, with the new structure coming into operation in April the following year.  A project team to develop the plans is being established and briefings are being organised for staff. 

Says County Durham Probation Board Chairman Sebert Cox OBE “We see the move to bring our two Areas together under a new Trust as a real opportunity to secure the future of a Probation Service which is viable in organisational terms and delivers increased value for money, yet is still able to reflect local needs and conditions.

“In fact, of course, we are not starting from scratch – as long as 12 years ago we began collaboration in areas such as Human Resources and Staff Development.  More recently this has been extended into Finance and Information Technology – and indeed we now have Directors responsible for our front-line services across both County Durham and Teesside.

“So in many respects the proposal we are announcing today is a natural evolution of the process we have been developing over a considerable period.  Obviously there is a great deal of preparatory work to undertake before we submit our plans to Government but we are convinced that this is the right way forward is to build in our exiting links in order to deliver effective services to our local communities and our partners in the Criminal Justice System”.

Adds Teesside Probation Board Chair Paul Harford “With Trust Status being introduced across the country we have to decide which is the best way forward for our Areas – and only recently the Justice Minister David Hanson made clear in Parliament that the Government would look favourably in locally-initiated proposals for voluntary mergers.

“It is important that as we move forward with our plans we keep our staff and all the many partners we work with – for example judges, magistrates, police, local authorities and local Members of Parliament – involved and informed.  Change is always challenging, but we do believe that our long record of working together can make the process very much easier – and it is vital to underline that amongst the most important benefits of the move to a single organisation will be maximising resources for front-line services and removing false geographical barriers, for instance between Hartlepool and Peterlee.

“Already our joint working has reduced administrative overheads by hundreds of thousands of pounds a year – and this should significantly increase with the move to a single trust and management structure.  But it is not just about money…what really matters is giving our staff the best possible opportunity to provide a quality service”.

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Local Partnership Makes a Dent in Subway Graffiti

Offenders have made a Pelton subway a safer, more attractive place to be thanks to an innovative partnership between County Durham Probation Service, County Durham Council, County Durham Environmental Trust (CDENT) and local youngsters,

Offenders sentenced to Unpaid Work Community Orders have been working on the High Handenhold subway under the A693 in Pelton, removing graffiti, recoating and repainting the walls and clearing the surrounding area. A professional ‘graffiti artist’ then sprayed a unique mural onto the walls which was designed by children from Chester-le-Street Youth & Community Centre and a local school.

The new mural depicts the area’s mining history and includes the Durham Miners’ Association Handenhold Lodge emblem, the names of the children involved in the project, coal carts, miners’ cottages and important dates.

Funded jointly by CDENT and Durham County Council, the project is one of a number in the Chester-le-Street area which began as a three year trial that was extended thanks to its success. Over the past five years around 6,000 offenders have been involved in the scheme working for approximately 40,000 hours, which amounts to a staggering £200,000 worth of labour.

It is the third subway mural project completed jointly by the partnership over the last three years in the Pelton area, and a further two are planned for Stanley in the near future.

Roger Elphick, Acting Director of Environment for Durham County Council, said: “Subways attract ongoing problems of graffiti and anti social behaviour but this initiative involving young people and offenders is helping to make them more user-friendly for children and older people.

“By incorporating colourful images into the mural depicting important local heritage, we’re hoping it will also encourage pride in the work and discourage the more offensive type of graffiti it replaced.”

Ken Hounam, Unpaid Work Manager for the County Durham Probation Service said the benefits of the project were huge: “Our offenders can quickly reduce their unpaid work hours while learning new skills,” he added. “In return, their hard work contributes to community safety, increases public confidence and makes the places where we live cleaner and nicer places to be.”

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