Humberside Probation Trust
Humberside Probation Trust is a criminal justice agency which protects the public by ensuring offenders are punished and rehabilitated. Humberside is one of 35 probation trusts within England and Wales that are part of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and a Department Of the Ministry of Justice.
Humberside Probation Trust employs 450 members of staff, and manages over 7,500 offenders each year. The caseload total at anyone time is approximately 4,500 offenders, and the trust writes over 3,900 pre-sentence reports each year for the court.
Vision and values
The statement of purpose for Humberside Probation Trust is: “To make the diverse communities safer by working with others to reduce re-offending, protect the public and support the victims of crime”. It is responsible for the delivery of reports about offenders to the courts and the supervision of offenders in the community. It also delivers programmes and interventions to rehabilitate offenders and reduce the chance of them committing crime in the future.
In the community
Humberside Probation Trust provides the following services to offenders based in the community:
- Community Payback
- Integrated Offender Management
- Interventions
- Offender Management
- Programmes
- Women Offender Services
In courts
In Humberside Probation staff work in each of the Magistrates’ Courts and Crown Courts. The trust provides a range of services both for the sentencers (Magistrates and Judges) and the offenders who appear before the courts.
When an offender pleads guilty, the Sentencer has the option to order a report from the probation trust. This is a formal report that includes details on why the offence occurred, the circumstances, the offender’s personal background and an assessment of the risk of harm and risk of reoffending they may still pose to the public. The Sentencer will then consider the report and the proposals made within it when making their sentencing decision. The report assists the court to determine the most suitable way of dealing with the offender.
Probation staff are available within the Courts to handle enquiries and give advice to sentencers, including providing further verbal information to complement a written report.
In prisons
Humberside Probation Trust has some of its staff based in public and private sector prisons. These staff deliver a number of services and interventions which vary from prison to prison to suit the differing needs of the prison inmates. The work of Probation staff in each establishment is specified in a written agreement between the Governor and the Chief Executive Officer.
Prisons use the skills of Probation staff in working with offenders, particularly around risk assessment, risk management and the delivery of offending behaviour programmes. Prisoners are assessed for interventions according to their sentence plan and, if there is evidence of risk to the public being reduced, will in most cases transfer to category ‘C’ training prisons before release where they will receive resettlement support to help them return to the community without reoffending. As part of preparing for release, prisoners can learn new skills, complete educational courses, and complete offending behaviour programmes. Some prisoners are serving Life sentences and may not ever be released.
Public protection
MAPPA is the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements – a set of arrangements to manage the risk posed by the most serious [...] and violent offenders. A statutory requirement, they bring together the Police, Probation and Prison Services in Humberside into what is known as the MAPPA responsible authority. A number of agencies are under a duty to co-operate with the responsible authority. These include: Local Authority social services, Primary Care Trusts and strategic health authorities, Youth Offending Teams, local housing authorities, registered social landlords, local education authorities, Jobcentre Plus, and electronic monitoring providers. The purposes of MAPPA are: to ensure more comprehensive risk assessments, taking advantage of co-ordinated information sharing across the agencies, and to direct the available resources to best protect the public.