A major conference has been held in Darlington to address the issue of female reoffending in the area.

Held at the Darlington campus of the University of Teesside it was organised by Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) and a number of other agencies such as the Darlington Youth Offenders Service (DYOS). The aim was to seek to develop ways in which the organisations involved can better co-ordinate in order to improve their service delivery.

Anna Capstick, DTVPT Probation Manager said:

“There isn’t a particularly bad problem with female reoffending in the Darlington area, but we just felt it was a good chance for us all to put our heads together and see in what ways we could improve the support and guidance we give to female reoffenders.”

Jo Benson, head of DYOS, said:

“This conference was an opportunity to raise awareness around female offending in Darlington.  Not enough is available to support young females that may have many factors which affect their lives.  It is not just about reducing their offending behaviour, but also supporting young females through a difficult transition in their lives.  I hope that by raising awareness of some of the issues that young females face, we can now work in a multi agency way to support and guide them to relevant service provision.”

One approach already trialled in various parts of the DTVPT area seems to be paying off – women only reporting sessions for those on Probation.

“The overwhelming message we are getting is that they are of benefit to women,” said Christine Hill, Probation Officer. “They tell us that they feel less intimidated with no men around and that they feel they have different problems to those of male offenders.”

Offenders on community payback schemes run by Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) have made a huge difference to the lives of fitness fanatics in County Durham.

Community payback teams have been called in to Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre in Bishop Auckland to give it fresh new look for spring. The Centre had become a little dowdy and down at the mouth when Centre Manager Mark Harley asked for assistance from the payback programme.

Under the supervision of Gary Hopper teams have completely stripped walls in the former relaxation area turning it into plush offices before moving on to tackle the entire gym area.

“I had a look at the job on the Monday and by the following Monday the staff were moving into their new desks,” said Mr Hopper. “We saved them some money too, because they thought they would need a new carpet but we were able to complete the work without damaging it.”

“The standard of work has been terrific, in my eyes,” enthused Mr Harley. “And 99.9% of our clients have commented on much better it looks and how well the work has been carried out. They’ve done a really good job.”

All that remains is for the team to move on and carry out similar work on the upper gym, reception and cafeteria areas for the job to be complete.

“It was pretty dilapidated when we first arrived,” said Mr Hopper. “But I had a couple of lads who know a bit about decorating and they showed the others how to get on. The walls were stripped, repaired and painted and I reckon they’ve done a really good job.”

The community payback team has also been carrying out similar work at the Methodist Church in Wolsingham, County Durham.

Anyone can apply to have work done under community payback, which looks for projects that are demanding while, at the same time, being community based for the good of a charity. The aim is to force the offender to repay the community for the wrong they have done.

You can nominate a community project by clicking here.

Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) has been highly praised following the latest inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP).

In a report published today (February 28th, 2012) it states that, “…strategic leadership was strong, with a cohesive management team that was clear about the direction it was taking the Trust.”

The inspection focused on three main areas of service provision and compared DTVPT results with the scores from other English regions already inspected. DTVPT came out well on top with the highest scores in two of the categories and was just one percentage point behind the leader in the other:

 
Russell Bruce, the Chief Executive of the Trust, was delighted with the performance:

“I am extremely pleased with the findings contained within this report. They demonstrate that Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust is performing better than the National average in a number of areas; managing safely the risk of harm an offender presents; changing an offenders attitude and behaviour; and engaging the offender to comply with the requirements of their sentence.

“These positive results reinforce the commitment of our Trust Board, Managers and staff in delivering services that have a demonstrable impact on the offenders we supervise. I am proud of our achievements and welcome this very positive appraisal of our practice.”

The Chairman of the Trust Board, Sebert Cox OBE said:

“The Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust is recognised as one of the highest performing in the country. This HMIP report provides proof that our staff deliver their work to the highest quality. It also praises the leadership provided by the Trust Board and Management team,and acknowledges our ability to develop innovative services that demonstrate real value for money whilst delivering the best possible outcomes for the communities we serve.”

In summing up Liz Calderbank, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation said: “Overall,we consider this an extremely creditable set of findings.”

The strong performance of the Trust was underlined by a further inspection by Ofsted, which assessed the provision of opportunities for offenders to improve their education and learn new skills in a bid to increase their chances of finding work. Overall effectiveness of these services was rated as good, only one level down from the highest grade, outstanding. The quality of the provision, achieving and sustaining outcomes, and leadership and management was also rated good.

The Ofsted report says:

“Processes for referring offenders to learning and employability skills provision were good. Unemployed offenders were given good help to improve their employment prospects. They received good information advice and guidance and good support to develop their job seeking skills. The number of offenders finding sustainable employment was particularly good.”

It was found that in 2010/11, 343 DTVPT offenders gained employment, greatly exceeding the regional target.

In areas where a small level of improvement was called for, e.g. making a priority of tests for basic skills and learning disabilities, and providing more access to courses for offenders to improve their basic skills, an improvement plan has already been put in place by the Trust.

Offenders carrying out unpaid work under the supervision of Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) are helping make a big improvement to an unkempt area in the centre of Stockton.

The land, owned by Northern Rail, is near Stockton Railway Station and had become quite dilapidated and, in the past, people living locally had complained about the area being used by drug takers and prostitutes.  However, steady improvements, culminating in the work now underway, have resulted in a vast improvement to the area.

Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Community Safety, said: “We are always happy to work with landowners to support them in improving the environment of an area.  In this case, it is especially pleasing to see the bulk of the work being carried out by Community Payback workers, keeping the cost to a minimum and helping them to steer away from re-offending.”

Stockton Council linked up with partners in the Probation Trust, the police and Northern Rail to help make the improvements come about.

A team of eight unpaid workers on Community Payback first joined council workers to begin the work.  They were followed by a group of five who helped carry on the work of clearing the dense undergrowth and tidying up the whole area.

David Egglestone, lead manager at DTVPT, said:

“This was an area which attracted considerable anti-social behaviour in the past so completing this work has provided a real benefit to the community as well as demanding and hard physical work for offenders to complete as part of their Community Order.”

A scheme to support staff to enjoy happier, healthier lifestyles and help them tackle the demands inherent in their work has led to the Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) picking up a Bronze award.

Last night’s ceremony comes after the Trust signed up to the North East ‘Better Health at Work’ Awards run by NHS Public Health North East. The programme has been developed to give recognition to workplaces in this region that actively promote workplace health.

The decision to take part recognised the very pressurised situations that are everyday occurrences for probation staff dealing with offenders, protecting the public and trying to reduce reoffending.

Emma Bell co-ordinated the Trust-wide initiative; “We started by carrying out a staff health needs assessment and this showed that healthy eating and weight management was high on the agenda across the Trust. Another key issue for a lot of people was managing pressure and developing and maintaining a better work-life balance,” she said.

Health advocates volunteered to deliver the three campaigns in seventeen Trust offices from Teesside to Hartlepool, Darlington to Durham and Bishop Auckland to Consett. Last September a variety of approaches were launched – people were encouraged to eat a healthy lunch together, lunchtime walks were organised and weight management sessions arranged.

In November, with Christmas looming, stress awareness training sessions were scheduled, a series of five steps to well-being were issued and guidance booklets distributed to staff. All members of staff were also all offered a healthy heart check.

Other issues that were tackled during October were arthritis, back pain, women’s health and emotional well-being. The aim of the award is to have a constructive impact both in the office and at home.

“We hope to improve health, ensure optimism and maintain high staff morale,” said Emma. “As well as reducing staff sickness rates, the benefits of workplace health improvement can spread to have a positive effect upon our families and our wider community.”

The Teesside awards were handed out at a ceremony at the Thistle Hotel in Middlesbrough last Thursday (9th February).

Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust (DTVPT) has joined forces with Durham Constabulary to issue a further warning to people in the county about bogus callers.

This time the West End is being targeted with reports of the scam artists preying on vulnerable residents in the Southern Avenue and Coniscliffe Road areas. They are knocking on doors and attempting to sell household goods such as tea towels, flannels, dishcloths etc., often from a duffel bag.

In a recent incident a man said he was from ‘Stockton Probation’ and carried fake ID, an A5 size laminated card. One householder was unable to get him to leave and he only did so when her husband arrived home.

This is the return of an old scam that has been operated in the same area quite recently and over the last few months has been worked in the Consett and Hartlepool area. Russell Bruce, Chief Executive of the DTVPT, said:

“We want to make it completely clear to everyone that the Probation Service would never get involved in any such activity. We do not have people knocking on doors or cold-calling to sell anything to the public.”

He went on to warn how householders can be spun a hard luck story:

“The stories these individuals tell can range from claiming they are on a course run by Probation to ‘raise their confidence’, to saying they have been told by Probation to do it as a means of improving their employment prospects,” Mr Bruce explained.

“But if anyone does receive an approach of this kind we would urge them to politely refuse to purchase anything and to contact the Police immediately.”

Inspector Mick Button, Neighbourhood Inspector in Darlington for Durham Constabulary said: “Bogus cold callers prey on vulnerable people hoping to make money from the tales that they tell. “This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and we will deal with those caught in the appropriate manner. I hope members of the public take notice of this warning and think twice before they open the door or entertain speaking to these people.

“I would urge anyone targeted by these tricksters to call the new non-emergency number 101, which has just been brought into operation and is an ideal way of reporting this type of activity. We take all reports of such activity very seriously and will act on information provided.”

The Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust has joined with police forces throughout the region to issue a warning about a door-to-door scam being operated in a widespread area.

It’s the return of an old trick that often crops up at this time of the year during the run up to Christmas. Conmen hope to trade on the good nature of members of the public by getting people to knock on doors and try to sell the resident household wares such as tea towels, flannels and other cleaning products.

Their ‘pitch’ is often accompanied by a story about being on a course run by Probation to ‘raise their confidence’, or saying they have been told by Probation to do it as a means of improving their employment prospects,

This is categorically not true as Russell Bruce, Chief Executive of the DTVPT, explains:

“We want to make it clear to everyone that the Probation Service is never involved in any such activity. We do not have people knocking on doors or cold-calling to sell anything to the public.

“Should anyone receive an approach of this kind we would urge them to politely refuse to purchase anything and to contact the Police immediately.”

In the past few weeks reports have come in of the scam being operated in the County Durham area, especially Consett, and even up into Northumberland. Earlier in the year Hartlepool was targeted.

Acting Inspector Peter Howarth of Cleveland Police said: “Bogus cold callers prey on vulnerable people hoping to make money from the tales that they tell. This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and we will deal with those caught in the appropriate manner. I hope members of the public take notice of this warning and think twice before they open the door or entertain speaking to these people.

“I would urge anyone targeted by these tricksters to call the new non-emergency number 101, which has just been brought into operation and is an ideal way of reporting this type of activity. We take all reports of such activity very seriously and will act on information provided.”

DTV Probation Trust has been named as the only four-star provider of probation services in the country. It comes following the most recent report carried out by the Performance Unit at the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).

At the end of each quarter NOMs produces a Probation Trust Rating System (PTRS) in which a range of targets are assessed. These can change, dependent on current priorities, but they are grouped under three main headings:

• Public protection

• Reducing reoffending

• Sentence delivery

Individual targets and overall trust performance is rated on a 1-4 star basis – lowest to highest.

For the quarter July – September 2011 Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust is the only one nationally to have attained the top 4-star rating in every category and a 4-star overall!

Delighted officials have been quick to point out that it demonstrates that the Trust is delivering excellent levels of performance in terms managing offenders and protecting the public.

Russell Bruce, Chief Executive, said:

“The most recent PTRS report places us as the top performer amongst the 35 Probation Trusts across England and Wales. This is a major achievement by our staff. Performance like this is one of the major ways in which our credibility as an effective public sector organisation is defined.

“I am proud of what our staff achieve in making a difference to the lives of local communities.”

Under PTRS performance against targets is not the only factor, Trusts are also judged against the performance of other Probation Trusts. Meeting a target alone does not result in a high rating!