REDUCING REOFFENDING
Merseyside VRP supports the critical need to pay attention to young people who incline towards reoffending. So by working with our VRP partners, we aim to find ways of identifying the reasons why – and how – to reduce patterns of offending.
The list below provides an overview of our work in the area.
- Identification and purpose.
- We’ll establish and implement a sustainable model to reduce violence offending with a focus on service users who are subject to licence or community sentences.
- We’ll raise awareness among Probation operational managers to ensure participation.
Supporting service partners to help them to build on the work they provide.
- We will work to encourage positive voluntary engagement from service users.
- Key areas will include families; substance misuse; accommodation; finance; mentoring; mental health.
Performance Framework
We regularly evaluate the impact of interventions to better understand the successes and features we need to learn from in the following areas:
- Re-offending
- Risk management
- Pathways progress
- Pre and post interviews
Sustainability
- To ensure longevity, we aim to establish greater partnership working between the Youth Offending Service and Probation services.
- All specific VRP funded initiatives aim to develop working practices with the view to becoming part of a natural transition into core Probation and Youth Offending business.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo - Unsplash
In 2020 POPS were commissioned by Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership to produce a short film promoting the landmark Farmer Review which demonstrated the importance of good family relationships to prisoners’ rehabilitation*. The report centred on a simple principle of reform: ‘Relationships are fundamentally important if people are to change.’
Lord Farmer described the importance of family ties as a ‘golden thread’ which should be woven through all prison policy and practice.
POPS partnered with Time-Matters UK to produce the film working with children from across Merseyside. The children shared their thoughts on what family meant to them and what they missed about their parent in prison. The children’s responses were woven into the final film entitled #WearetheGoldenThread.
*POPS and Time Matters UK recognise that not all children have contact with their imprisoned parent, by choice, or by circumstance. Sometimes it is not in their best interest. These children still need support and should not be forgotten.
Concept and Direction: Rebecca Cheung, POPS
Video Production: Northern Spark Productions https://northernsparkproductions.com/
Click here to watch the video.
POPS, MOMS, WHOLE FAMILY APPROACH
Read the Evaluation to Examine the Whole Family Approach to supporting those who have been imprisoned/people on probation, by clicking here.
