Scheme to reduce re-offending a great success

 

A scheme to tackle Cheshire′s most prolific and repeat offenders continues to prove successful in reducing the re-offending rates of the county′s worst burglars, car thieves, and street and metal-theft criminals.

The NAVIGATE scheme brings together key partners, all of whom are focused on reducing re-offending throughout Cheshire.

Police, probation, youth offending teams, employment, health, housing and drug and alcohol agencies, work in partnership with offenders so as to change their behaviour and lifestyle for the good. That can mean giving offenders opportunities to get help with any addiction, finding them a decent place to live and accessing pathways into education, training or employment,

With official government figures showing that a handful of prolific and repeat offenders can sometimes be responsible for up to 30% of an area′s crimes, it is easy to see why the Home Office′s Integrated Offender Management (IOM) Programme, of which NAVIGATE is part, is so important and beneficial to communities.

Cheshire Police Assistant Chief Constable, Ruth Purdie, said: "NAVIGATE provides a local framework for agencies to come together to ensure that the offenders whose crime causes most damage locally are managed in a co-ordinated way, bringing greater coherence to the delivery of relevant local programmes and approaches to tackle crime, reducing re-offending and protecting communities."

Inspector Brian Green, who helps run NAVIGATE in Western Cheshire, admits he was initially sceptical of the ideals behind the scheme, but that seeing the difference it makes he has changed his original view.

He said: "I never really bothered to understand the science behind why people offend or how we can work differently with them to improve their chances of success in life by reducing their re-offending.

"My attitude was focused on what I wanted as a Police Officer and a tax payer with regards to how criminals should be treated, rather than looking at the bigger picture."

After having what he describes as a, "real education," about NAVIGATE however, Brian now sees the work it and its partners do as not only immeasurably significant, but also grossly underestimated.

He said: "A massive amount of time, effort and dedication is put in by all the agencies involved. They help deliver success on aspects of policing that are often immeasurable; these don′t result in high profile arrests or long prison sentences, but what the staff do achieve is keeping the most prolific offenders on the right tracks wherever possible. This not only protects the public through reductions in crime but also reduces demand at a time when all partnership agencies need to work within the constraints of reduced budgets."

As well as proving successful in reducing the offending rates for both prolific and repeat offenders, NAVIGATE also aims to tackle the social exclusion of offenders and their families and improve public confidence in the criminal justice system, with offenders who choose not to participate placed under close scrutiny.

Andy Griffiths of the Youth Offending Service said that those who choose not to participate open themselves up to being robustly and proactively targeted by all the NAVIGATE agencies involved. This means very close supervision and several planned, and unplanned, visits a week and poor engagement with the NAVIGATE scheme is dealt with as a priority.

This combined intelligence gathering approach by the police, Probation and Youth Offending Service is of paramount importance to the scheme as it allows police officers to intervene when someone is suspected of being criminally active. Under the initiative, surveillance and supervision are also increased.

When intelligence informs one of the services that an offender might be active again, probation or police officers visit the suspect′s home and warn them that they are heading for court if they do not change their behaviour.

For those who co-operate with the scheme however, the advantages are numerous and, in many ways, life-changing.

Sergeant Steve Hilton-Smith from Warrington said: "The key for a lot of the people we approach and work with on the NAVIGATE scheme is persistence. As you would perhaps expect, initially some offenders are sceptical and wary of police intervention. It`s a slow process but it does work. By looking at root causes and the recognised pathways to re-offending we can break the offending cycle."