If you have any feedback on how we can make our new website better please do contact us. We would like to hear from you.		HIGH SHERIFF'S PRIZE 2011 The High Sheriff's Prize is an annual award given to staff nominated by their peers for outstanding work. Nominations for this year’s High Sheriff Prize were better than ever, demonstrating very solid, focused work. As one of the judges, Board member Rob Everitt said of the huge numbers he read through: “They give a real snapshot of the staff and the myriad of ‘stuff’ that they have to deal with, and further demonstrate what excellent work is carried out by the folk working for Essex Probation.” Worthy finalists The Judges had a tough job on their hands, and were pleased to hear the positive reception the winners received from their colleagues. The retiring High Sheriff, Michael Hindmarch, was glowing in his praise of Essex staff. Board Chair Bill Puddicombe pledged his continuing strongest support. Mary’s commentary was highly appreciative. And Essex Probation staff whistled their approval. Well done winners, as well as those staff who didn’t make it to the ceremony. It’s been a tough year for everyone, and we did well. A happy event In a letter sent to Mary Archer following the awards ceremony, the High Sheriff said: “It was a very happy evening and it was so uplifting to hear of the high achievements and dedicated work of so many members of the Probation Service. “The nomination list was impressive and an indication of the team spirit within the organisation, and we loved the enthusiasm shown so genuinely by everyone present when the names of the winners were announced.” Read more about our winners... High Sheriff’s Prize: Unpaid Work RO Team The Unpaid Work Requirements Organiser role was created last year. The need to provide increasing numbers of individual Community Payback placements in each LDU was becoming progressively more important. The new team of six people – one per office – moved from entirely different roles to that of managing Tier One stand-alone offenders and seeking out large numbers of new placements in the community. A big challenge, but it is thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of this group that the project is thriving. In times of financial constraint, and ever increasing press interest in Unpaid Work, members of the team are working with a significantly large group of offenders in new and innovative ways. It is to their credit that performance in Unpaid Work has increased so significantly.   At the start of the financial year, individual placements were struggling to reach 20%. For the last three months this has been above 30%, with most cases coming from this team’s caseloads. Additionally they have become adept at motivating offenders to attend their Community Payback sessions, despite having limited contact with them. Mindful supervision is key to all Probation work. Every member of staff is aware of the rogue case that can come  out of left field, with no previous indications, to commit a serious offence.  The Requirements Organisers have proved to be vigilant, identifying cases where risk might need further research, and so contributing to the organisation’s reputation for managing risk well. To do this competently in the face of an increasing caseload requires alertness and commitment, which this team has in quantity. Probation staff are used to large caseloads. It is a tribute to this team that they are already reaching targets to increase their caseloads further, are managing cases that can be chaotic, and are contributing strongly to the team effort in the Interventions function. Flourishing, flexible and adaptable, there is a real buzz around this team that comes from energy and dedication. We look forward to their increasing success.   The Chair’s Award: Carol Parker Carol Parker received four nominations this year for her work as a manager. They represent the affection and respect felt for her by many of those she has managed. They routinely mention leadership skills, motivational strength, dedication, passion for the organisation and its values, her stout championing of her team, and her belief that we can change people’s lives. Her willingness to share her offender management experience, her ability to make people feel she gets the best out of them, and her support in the ‘down’ times has had a major impact on each individual team member, who see her as firm, but fair. Not afraid to make decisions, she will stand by these and by her team, and the positive atmosphere she has created around her is tangible in a visit to her office. For her dedication over many years, we thank her and congratulate her. The effect she has on her team is best summed up in this comment from one of her nominators: “It’s like the feeling you get when you are in an aircraft awaiting take off. You know it may be stressful, you know that things might not go as expected, but when the Captain’s confidant voice comes over the intercom, you know that things will be ok. Carol is my Captain and I am more than happy to be a member of her crew,” he says.     The Chief Executive’s Diversity Award: Kirsty Gibbons Kirsty Gibbons is widely recognised as an outstanding member of the team in Chelmsford for her efforts both in offender management and promoting the development of her colleagues. She is known for good work with offenders across the board, and several of her cases have expressed their thanks to her for the positive impact she has made on their lives. Her manager cites the case of a high-risk prisoner, who was released on an extended licence. He had mental health problems alongside previous drugs, child protection, employment, accommodation and general instability issues. At the end of his five-year licence he was drug free, with access to his children, stable mental health, an excellent job, and suitable accommodation. He still rings to ‘touch base’ and seek advice. He told her manager that Kirsty had saved his life. Significant to her winning the Diversity award is her capability with a range of cases, and particularly her multi-agency approach with a prisoner suffering from HIV. She first took the time with the health authorities to improve her understanding of the virus so as to support the offender’s return to the community. She later recognised that he was developing maladaptive coping strategies and that he posed a risk. Kirsty followed her contingency plan: that of recall proceedings in the interests of public protection. Once he was back in custody she ensured a joined up approach between his care plan and sentence plan, preparing for his re-release. Kirsty has not shied away from difficult decisions when considering public protection or victims. Her assessments are ‘spot on’ and partly as a result of this she has been threatened in the past by offenders. However, undeterred, she just gets on with the job. Kirsty is regarded as a ‘supporter’. She supports managers by deputising in Mental Health, MARAC and MAPPA forums. She supports colleagues with advice and the sharing of best practice. Her inclusive attitude to both colleagues and the people she supervises cannot fail to have positive results.     Best Manager Award: Neeve Bishop   Regarded as an exceptional manager, Neeve Bishop demands a high standard of practice from those she manages. Equally, she puts a lot of effort into developing practice in a supportive and creative manner, with a highly motivational management style. She both celebrates staffs’ achievements with them and holds them accountable to her, driving them to perform to the best of their ability. Neeve’s energy and enthusiasm is infectious – supervision with her is regarded as energizing and re-motivating. She combines a gift for common-sense analysis with the humanity necessary for understanding and motivating people, be they colleagues or offenders. Neeve makes a point of recognising and celebrating excellence whenever it occurs in the West Essex Delivery Unit. She will go to great lengths to boost morale when issues appear to be difficult ones. Her involvement has undoubtedly helped to create the positive feel to the changes in practice in West Essex, as well as its improvement in performance. She is a valued member of the Essex Probation management group.     Innovative Project Award: Alan Pedley Any Offender Manager knows of the difficulties of providing assistance to people in crisis at the time they need it. Apart from the humanitarian aspects of giving help in an emergency, it is often the small things that can tip a wavering offender into more crime. Worrying about where the next meal will come from is an obvious catalyst to yet more petty crime and more victims. Essex Probation for obvious reasons does not act as a routine provider of essentials for offenders. However, knowing how to access them at short notice is useful. A nifty piece of work by Alan Pedley ensured that Essex Probation was able to provide access to a food bank local to his Delivery Unit in West Essex. He set up the systems for Probation to become Voucher holders for the Harlow Food Bank. This project assists individuals and families in crisis, by providing free emergency food until appropriate agencies are in a position to assist. Alan worked to arrange for all the relevant information to be available and for a simple system to approve the giving of a voucher to the Offender to go and collect a food hamper. With the limited resources in the Harlow area, this has been beneficial to our offenders in crisis at no cost to Essex Probation. To date around thirty individuals and families have had assistance from the scheme. Alan also arranged for some Offender Managers, in their lunch hour, to assist with the collection of food. This is only one example of the excellent community work that Alan involves himself in, which fits perfectly with PATCH working.     Interventions Award: Vanessa Comiskey Vanessa Comiskey has been a Community Payback placement manager in the South East for a number of years. Throughout this time she has delivered many a piece of work to a tight deadline, quietly getting on with the job speedily and efficiently. A period of six weeks, earlier this year, offered an apt demonstration of her all-round competence and good organisation, which form the basis of this citation. It was through Vanessa stepping up to the plate during the absence of a Community Payback Coordinator that the work not only continued systematically, but was extended in various ways. Attending meetings on behalf of colleagues, she took away action points and dealt with them incredibly quickly, she was proactive in increasing the average Payback group size to 8.1, the highest level for her LDU this year, and she picked up quickly on ideas put to her, and immediately carried them out, saving Essex Probation significant expenditure on fares to report. Vanessa would modestly say that she had done nothing out of the ordinary, but even on her non-working days, she offered the other supervisors support and demonstrated time and again her commitment to the job and ability to deliver with cool efficient assurance.       Offender Management Award: Fiona Bearman Fiona Bearman’s work in persuading a prolific offender to put effort into his rehabilitation has been acknowledged by his subsequent Offender Manager. Probably the most challenging and difficult aspect of offender management is that of motivating those who are reluctant to engage with what looks like a tough programme, and for whom reverting to old habits is a more attractive option. Fiona met a very difficult challenge with one of Basildon’s more serious prolific offenders, whose high level of violence and poor attitude indicated a worrying future. The impact of Fiona’s persistence and tenacious hard work on this young man, however, was long-lasting. Even when a case transfer (which is a risk factor in itself) eventually proved unavoidable, the offender made a decision to carry on working hard with his new Offender Manager because, as he put it, “That’s what Fiona would want him to do.” His attendance was 100%, and he went on to complete 60 days at the intensive project, The Bridge. Such an achievement, in such a case, is a strong reflection on the work done with him earlier on. He has been de-registered as a Prolific Offender due to the reduction in his offending patterns. He is not totally out of the woods, and a further, lesser offence took place recently. But perseverance in the face of the odd set-back is one of Probation’s strengths, demonstrated amply here by the dogged nature of Fiona’s work in successfully turning this young man around. He now has a future.     Public Protection Award: Rich Curtin Rich Curtin demonstrates in his work a strong commitment to protect the public, which has been sustained over the whole of his career to date. His work with high-risk cases, including detailed risk assessments, regular use of ViSOR, and excellent liaison with the Police and other agencies, has been of a consistently high standard. He is cited for a particular piece of work in relation to a set of high-risk factors and complex inter-personal relationships, spanning a range of offenders, serious crimes, and dysfunctional family relationships. In essence, he has highlighted an established network of high-risk offenders in South Essex. Following an allegation of sexual abuse which split the family in two, the offender in question had made threats to kill certain members of the family. Rich called a professionals’ meeting, including the Police and other colleagues, to map out the risks posed by the offender. This meeting ultimately produced a document outlining the details of who was at risk and why. Rich dedicated personal time to collating a raft of information. With the support of a colleague, this enabled the creation of a genogram which successfully showed the inter-relationships between several warring families, mapping the past and present associations of hitherto unconnected offenders. He illustrated the risk to prisoners, offenders in the community and members of the public, and subsequently informed prison-based security staff of the potential for serious harm to prisoners and staff alike. The family tree was distributed to colleagues supervising offenders who were part of the extended family, or who were at risk. This piece of work, which proved invaluable in managing the risk posed, is an illustration of this officer’s commitment to his work with high-risk offenders.     Supporting the Work Award: Andy Pickering In his role as Senior Information and Systems Officer, Andy Pickering has been instrumental in creating a Unit that is more responsive and customer focused than it has ever been. He is industrious, innovative and a leading example to his colleagues and those he supervises. During the year he has also been instrumental in creating three tools that will be central to the work undertaken by staff: TIM – an excellent tool for assisting with the timeliness and reporting of OASys assessments and CRAMS commencements. It provides early warning to staff that an assessment is expected whilst recording all failures which provide invaluable learning points. This database has been instrumental in improving some measures on the scorecard by over 10%. Automated NSMART – Andy has been central to designing and facilitating the creation of a tool that has removed laborious processes usually undertaken by Inspections staff on a monthly basis. This has not only driven up performance, which is reflected in an ever improving scorecard, but has also allowed staff to focus their attentions on improving quality. NWMT – National Workload Management Tool. This is a tool that monitors the workload of practitioners and is used by SMT to assess staffing levels within each LDU. Whilst on face value this tool may seem simplistic, the front end belies the complexity of the work that has gone into creating such a sophisticated application. This is true of much of the work Andy completes and we count him as one of Essex Probation’s hidden but much-appreciated assets.     Working in Partnership Award: John Hawkins Working in partnership is fundamental to reducing re-offending and managing risk. It relies on effective communication and a coming together of often opposing values and objectives. The tenacity of those involved, in retaining the offender as the central focus at all times, is critical to achieving successful outcomes. John Hawkins became responsible for the supervision of a woman offender who had committed offences of Violent Assault and Battery. Sexually abused as a child, raped as a teenager, Dana was entirely distrusting of others, particularly professional workers. Her alcohol consumption was described as “seismic”. She would frequently fail appointments, often because she was too intoxicated, the very reason she had lost custody of her three-year-old child to her mother. Repeated self-harming was evident through blade marks on Dana’s arms and ankles. She disclosed having attempted to overdose on anti-depressants on three occasions. John immediately referred Dana to the Criminal Justice Mental Health Team, arranging for her to be assessed that very afternoon. The two-hour gap between her supervision appointment and the CJMHT assessment was unsustainable and she instead disappeared to the nearest pub. John accordingly arranged a Police welfare visit for that afternoon, where she was found holding a knife to her wrists. Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain her. This eventful beginning to John’s supervision of this young woman was only the start of a busy period of hard work which involved liaison with solicitors; explaining to magistrates her drunken assault on a police constable, then a court official; constantly re-negotiating contact with partner agencies, and breaking down their resistance to her flouting the rules, lacking commitment, failing appointments and being abusive. He encouraged them to share his integrity and commitment to a joint goal. They agreed a treatment plan of constructive daily activities including basic skills, CDAT & ADAS interventions, alternative therapies, psychiatric and probation appointments. Over a despondent Christmas period, when Dana’s mental health caused real concern, John persuaded Dana to Section herself, then again set about making new arrangements for supporting her in the community on discharge from hospital. When she eventually became sufficiently stable, contact with her mother and son was re-instated. Dana continues on her programme of recovery. She is supported by a network of agencies from her local community, and ultimately by the relentless and inspiring work of her offender manager.

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