The High Sheriff's Prize is an annual award given to staff nominated by their peers for outstanding work in one or more of the following categories:

High Sheriff's Prize Winner - Malcolm Werry

Approved Premises are audited annually by NOMS Public Protection Unit against a range of criteria. Felmores’ performance, based on a careful gathering of evidence, has given us a ‘Green Star’ rating on the IPPF, the national performance scorecard.

Malcolm has consistently accepted referrals at Felmores both of Essex offenders and those from other probation areas, taking pride in maintaining the right profile for the resident group.  At the same time he ensures that residents move on from the hostel in a timely manner so that offenders being released on licence have a place to go.  This is one less headache for offender managers and for staff from all agencies involved in the MAPPA, the multi-agency public protection arrangements under which serious offenders are managed; he ensures that this vital resource for rehabilitating offenders taking their first steps into the community remains consistently open for business.

Approved Premises are not a warehouse for offenders, nor are they prisons by another name.  Malcolm has taken pride in the fabric of the building itself, ensuring that it provides a decent place to live.  He has also overseen the introduction of a ‘constructive activities’ regime so that residents, the majority of whom are unemployed, can learn new skills and use their time at the hostel usefully.

Together with his hands-on style at Felmores, Malcolm has been active at a regional and national level, including reviewing the national rules for all approved premises.

In September we had a ‘roof top protest’ by a disgruntled resident who caused extensive damage. Malcolm dealt with the situation expeditely and coolly, afterwards working tirelessly with the Home Office Property Group and the contractors to speed up repairs and keep the hostel open. Very little phases Malcolm, whose judgment and professionalism, demonstrated over many years and now in use in this important role, ensure a safe transition into the community for many an offender released from long prison sentences.

Hayley has demonstrated skills across the board in her area of work, that of Programme delivery. Although she has done well in her role as Treatment Manager, it is for a more unusual piece of work that she received nominations this year.

A good part of her year was spent promoting, delivering and selling the Thinking Skills Programme to the Military Prison in Colchester.

This work obviously took up a great deal of her time, and called heavily on her skills as a tutor, treatment manager and crucially her sales skills. Despite the many hours of work she put in during this promotion which included assessing the funding needed, gathering information, statistics and the necessary support for the venture, providing a full demonstration of the programme,  and putting together a highly professional and creative team to deliver it, she was able to accomplish this without it impacting on her day to day probation work.

Hayley has shown that probation has services that are in demand and are saleable. Moreover, she has demonstrated that she can produce the goods by her creativity in programmes work; deliver the goods; demonstrate and sell the goods through her outstanding work with the MCTC.

With the imminent advent of Trust Status, these are important skills in dealing with the more competitive environment Essex Probation is entering.

Hayley’s work with The Probation Experience is another example of her willingness to get stuck in. She is nominated for her dedication, organisational proficiency and proactive approach.

Having made a very successful transition into her new role of Offender Manager and court semi-specialist, Rachel has gone on to show all-round capability in her dealings with offenders.

Her enthusiasm and energy, and willingness to go the extra mile with her caseload, is demonstrated in her work with a young woman from the travelling community who had four young children and another due to be born.

Rachel worked around childcare necessities to ensure that compliance was possible with the Unpaid Work element of the order; reminder letters were followed up with phone calls to accommodate the offender’s poor reading skills; she organised a volunteer to work alongside, expanding her access to local provision, including the Sure Start centre; both Rachel and the volunteer worked extremely hard to engage the offender in learning to read. She used her own initiative to create large alphabet letters for the offender so she could sound them out and copy them; she provided her with a student pack to make learning easier. When the young woman became too ill to attend, Rachel undertook home visits to ensure compliance with the Order. She liaised closely with Thurrock Travel Achievement, who raised concerns that the Order might founder due to the offender’s ill health. The Order had to be revoked, but Rachel undertook two home visits per week to maintain continuity and engagement. Apart from the practical help this afforded a deprived young woman, it demonstrated Rachel’s enthusiasm and commitment to her, and gave her the motivation to carry on learning, despite other difficulties.

She is now able to look forward to a life change and a move away from crime.

Before Jack joined Essex Probation he was a software engineer. After concern that the software used to support the Programmes function was not adequate, Jack was asked to design some software that could do the job better.

What he has achieved has exceeded all expectations.  Initially he was asked to solve the problem of predicting when vacancies would occur on Programmes that are rolling, i.e. participants join at different times. This was done quickly and it became apparent that it could do so much more. The system has evolved into the ‘Essex Area Scheduling Tool’.

It enables Treatment Managers and Tutors to keep track of the progress of groups, easily produces management information and allows for information concerning risk to be quickly referred to. It has been expanded to include other functions such as Unpaid work and ETE. The software has attracted the attention of NOMS and only financial constraints have stopped this going further.   

Its use is now beginning in Essex. The potential savings to staff in time and effort are enormous. Jack has done this for little extra reward and a good deal of it in his own time. Combining his knowledge of computing with his knowledge of Programmes and Probation he has produced something unique – software that works and didn’t cost a fortune!

Through his efforts, this is a bespoke, adaptable, piece of equipment built from the user perspective, fully meeting our needs in looking at a massive range of information about resourcing, scheduling and any other related query. 

It is robust, and totally reliable.  It is easily searchable and produces admirable quality data – it will pull off reports at the touch of a button. A piece of work that took Essex probation two weeks to do two years ago using other computer software can now be done in 10 minutes as a result of Jack’s work.

Best Practice Award - Jenni Hogg

Jenni was nominated for a wide range of work, by four different colleagues. Her work with a Registered Sex Offender; with a Prolific Offender; with a Domestic Violence perpetrator, with a complex mental health case; her court report writing; her willingness to support colleagues, and the esteem in which she is held by offenders under her supervision, all demonstrate a member of the Probation Service who regularly goes above and beyond the tasks of a busy Offender Manager with a high caseload.

As a result of her work, the Prolific Offender – who has been in and out of custody for most of his life – has been given the confidence that she will remain committed to his rehabilitation, and in return he gives her truthful accounts of his behaviour and thoughts, thoroughly trusting the honest and straightforward way she deals with him.

The offender whose mental health problems are now stabilising as a result of the work Jenni has done, is starting a college course, and has formed a new relationship.

The Domestic Violence perpetrator values her work to the extent that, since his supervision ended, he still calls the office and Jenni continues to provide support over the telephone.

The Registered Sex Offender needed exceptionally hard work to both deal with the offending and with the complex menu of related issues: poor coping skills, lack of attachments, propensity to self harm, problematic alcohol use and limited community integration. Jenni’s patience, her knowledge and use of other agencies has contributed to a complete package of support both during and after supervision which enhances public safety.

Her assessments and report writing are regarded as exemplary by her colleagues, who rely on them to provide a solid basis for the beginning of a new case.

Jenni’s work represents both the skill and commitment characteristic of the best in Probation.

Safe accommodation holds the key to preventing an offender committing more crime. Claire Perrott, as the Accommodation Officer for Colchester has the responsibility for supporting around 40 members of Probation staff who might need accommodation for their offenders.

The role can be both rewarding when someone is safely housed, and extremely frustrating when trying to find housing for someone whose risk is increased when none is available. Claire’s three nominations describe her hard work, patience and the positive way she goes about a challenging job.

On many occasions, Claire will drop everything to see offenders who arrive in the office feeling quite desperate. She remains calm in any situation, and is well able to deal with the anger that fear and frustration can produce in people who are homeless.