table of contents - essexcrc.co.uk · and enhanced performance 4. organisational development &...

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Table of Contents Foreword………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Key facts ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Welcome from Director .......................................................................................................................... 5

Our Strategy, Values and Behaviours ..................................................................................................... 6

CRC Context ............................................................................................................................................ 7

3.1 Our locality ............................................................................................................................. …….. 7

3.2 Our caseload .................................................................................................................................... 8

3.3 Our staff ........................................................................................................................................ 10

Strategic Priority – Reducing Reoffending and Protecting the Public .................................................. 10

4.1 Key areas of work .......................................................................................................................... 10

4.2 Actions ........................................................................................................................................... 14

Strategic Priority – An Excellent Workforce .......................................................................................... 14

5.1 Key areas of work .......................................................................................................................... 14

5.2 Actions ........................................................................................................................................... 15

Strategic Priority – Achieving Growth and Enhanced Performance ................................................ 16

6.1 Key areas of work .......................................................................................................................... 16

6.2 Actions ........................................................................................................................................... 17

Strategic Priority - Organisational Development and Efficiency .......................................................... 17

7.1 Key areas of work .......................................................................................................................... 17

7.2 Actions ........................................................................................................................................... 19

Health and Safety .................................................................................................................................. 19

8.1 Actions ........................................................................................................................................... 20

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Foreword

Janine McDowell Chief Executive Officer Sodexo Justice Services UK & Ireland

Jacob Tas Chief Executive Officer Nacro

Sodexo and Nacro are pleased to be continuing the partnership into our fifth year of operation across six Community Rehabilitation Companies. The quality of our work on public protection and reducing reoffending remains the overriding priority of the organisation. The new HMIP standards set the benchmark the delivery of quality services to the communities we serve and we have attempted to structure our delivery and audit arrangements in line with these standards. This will be an area of continued focus in the forthcoming year, together with introducing changes to Through the Gate services which will improve service provision for those leaving custody. Whether service users are accessing our services after a custodial sentence or as a direct result of a community order, we are committed to supporting them to move beyond a life of crime and address the root causes of their offending behaviour. In delivering this, we are fortunate to have skilled, experienced and committed people in our organisations who we will continue to invest in as our most valuable asset. We look forward to another year ahead and working in partnership to achieve our ambitions.

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Key facts

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Welcome from Director As I look forward to our plans for 2019-20, it is a welcome opportunity to look back over the highlights of the last year. As ever, I am extremely proud of our staff and partners who are committed to our values, and our purpose of reducing reoffending, protecting the public and delivering the sentence of the Court. We have some powerful stories from service users of changed lives as a result of the work they have been able to do with us whilst serving their court order or licence. I am pleased to report that Essex CRC is performing well against the service levels set by the Ministry of Justice. For Quarters 1 to 3 of Contract Year 5 we have successful completion rates of: Community orders 74.6%; Licences 62.6%; Programmes 93.9%; and Community Payback 91.9%. Between 1st April 2018 and 11th February 2019, we delivered 162,748 hours of unpaid work to the communities of Essex, and we continually receive positive feedback from our beneficiaries regarding the work completed. During Quarters 2 and 3, our enforcement timeliness dipped, but is returning to expected levels during this final quarter. Essex CRC continues to deliver a full suite of accredited programmes to address thinking skills, domestic abuse, violence reduction, substance misuse and drink-driving. In addition, we have embedded the delivery of shorter interventions that form part of Rehabilitation Activity Requirements or licence supervision. These include courses for tenancy/accommodation support; finance, benefit and debt; and education, training and employment. Fearless Futures, is our young adults’ intervention; and we deliver a substance misuse course; and resettlement, victim empathy, and barriers to compliance courses. Our operational partners are contributing effectively to our services, with Nacro delivering our resettlement services in HMP Chelmsford and HMP Highpoint; and mentoring in the community. Ormiston Families are delivering a family relationships course, and Open Road are delivering our women’s intervention and mentoring, with real progress made on delivering this in the community settings of family hubs and children’s centres. User Voice continues to facilitate our Service User Council, which was present across the whole of Essex during 2018-19 due to co-funding from the OPFCC. I am also delighted with a new partnership that we have formed with the 4Front Project, who are working with us to develop and implement a bespoke intervention for our BAME service users, which will be piloted from March 2019 onwards. Our HMPPS audits and our HMIP inspection report provided balanced independent accounts of Essex CRC’s strengths and areas for improvement. We are proud of our partnership work, our range of services on offer (including community payback), our teams and our leadership; and we are working hard to improve the quality of our case supervision. This year, we will continue to place reducing reoffending, protecting communities from harm and working together to safeguard children and adults at the heart of our service. As an employer and service provider committed to equality and inclusion, we will continue to analyse the needs and protected characteristics of our service users, in order to more effectively develop more responsive services. Working in partnership with our criminal justice, local authority, district council, health, third sector and Ministry of Justice colleagues will always be critical to our success, and I look forward to continued collaboration with you. Alex Osler CRC Director

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Our Strategy, Values and Behaviours

Our Strategic Priorities for 2019-2020

Delivering Operational Excellence by

1. Reducing Reoffending & Protecting the Public

2. An excellent workforce

3. Achieving Growth and Enhanced Performance

4. Organisational Development & Efficiency

a. Case Management b. Public Protection c. Interventions d. Our Priority Cohorts e. TTG f. Employing Service

Users g. Service User

Engagement

a. Recruitment & Retention

b. Training and Development

c. Engagement d. Empowerment and

Accountability

a. Contract performance

b. Inspections, Audits and Stakeholder Input

c. Services to the NPS d. New Business

a. Public Service Pledge and Corporate Social Responsibility

b. Continuous Business Improvement

c. ICT Systems and Digital d. Estates e. Transition Planning f. Financial

underpinning all domains

Equality and Diversity, Innovation, Health and Safety

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CRC Context

3.1 Our locality Essex CRC operates across the same boundaries as Essex Police and the three local authority areas of Southend, Essex and Thurrock. We contribute to the safeguarding children and adults boards in the local authority areas, as well as the SET Essex Criminal Justice, Reducing Re-offending, Safer Essex and Domestic Abuse Boards. Our resettlement and ‘Through the Gate’ teams work within HMPs Chelmsford and Highpoint; whilst BeNCH CRC delivers these services to our women service users in HMP Peterborough. Our office locations, and their purpose, are explained below:

The Hub is the central point for all our administration, performance and corporate services activity; as well as the case management of our single requirement Unpaid Work cases and our cases in custody. Hub Staff undertake a number of key processes that support service delivery including case allocation, prison liaison, reporting instructions, dealing with breaches and the allocation of interventions. The Senior Leadership Team is also based at the Hub.

Local Management Centres (LMCs) are our primary offices within our areas of operation where services users report in person for one to one appointments and group work. Staff work on a ‘hot desk’ arrangement supporting the new approach to mobile working.

Neighbourhood Centres (NCs) are smaller offices and do not have a dedicated reception facility, but staff also ‘hot desk’ and meet service users in these locations.

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3.2 Our caseload

Essex CRC Workload Snapshot 12 February 2018 12 February 2019

Allocated Service Users – Community

Order/Suspended Sentence Order

2626 2536

Allocated Service Users –

Custody/Licence/Post Sentence

Supervision

1641 1705

Allocated Service Users - total 4151 4110

Active Unpaid Work requirements 1479 1388

Rehabilitation Activity Requirements

(RAR)

1712 1752

Accredited Programme Requirements 720 645

Other requirements:

Drug Rehabilitation Requirements

(DRRs), Alcohol Treatment

Requirements (ATRs), Mental Health

Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) and

Curfews

75 DRRs

25 ATRs

7 MHTRs

83 Curfews

98 DRRs

48 ATRs

6 MHTRs

153 Curfew requirements

48 HDCs on licence

Average number of case

commencements a month

2978 CO/SSO allocations

(accepted transfers from NPS)

in 2017

1306 Custody allocations


in 2017

Total 4284 new allocations in

2017

357 case commencements

per month during 2017

2862 CO/SSO allocations


in 2018

1406 Custody allocations


in 2018

Total 4268 new allocations in

2018

356 case commencements per

month during 2018

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Analysis of our sentencing (and case allocation) trends during calendar year 2018 indicates no significant

change in total cases allocated to the CRC compared with the previous 12-month period. The split between

community and suspended sentence orders, and short (less than 12 months) and longer-term custody

orders has changed, with an increased proportion of custodial allocations, primarily short term (<12 month)

custody.

2017 2018

Community and Suspended Sentence Orders 736/quarter 78% 716/quarter 67%

Short term custody (less than 12 months) 145/quarter 15% 263/quarter 25%

Longer term custody (12 months and over) 65/quarter 7% 89/quarter 8%

Community Payback volumes have increased by 12% averaging 639 (570 in 2017) requirements per quarter

amounting to approximately 67,000 (60,000 in 2017) hours of Community Payback sentenced each quarter.

Sentencing of Accredited Programmes has increased by 21%, with an average of 151 (125 in 2017)

programmes allocated per quarter, and RAR sentencing has increased by 2.3%.

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3.3 Our staff Essex CRC currently employs 187 FTE staff. Our operational delivery is supported further by the staff and

volunteers employed by our operational partners. In addition, we are supported by Sodexo UK and Ireland

for the delivery of business support and central services.

Our organisational structure is outlined below:

Strategic Priority – Reducing Reoffending and Protecting the Public

4.1 Key areas of work

Case Management and Case Supervision Good case supervision starts with an accurate assessment of risk of harm, need and vulnerability and takes into account diversity and individual circumstances, so that our interventions have the best chance of reducing re-offending. This year we will continue to improve the quality of our assessment work through the greater use of the Offender Assessment System (OASys), and will deliver services, internally or in partnership with others, to reduce the risk of reoffending and harm. We will focus on the continuity of assessments, in particular ensuring that risk and needs assessments in custody (Basic Custody Screening Tool) inform community assessments and subsequent interventions and that criminogenic needs are reflected in both sentence and risk management plans.

Regional CEO

Emma Osborne

CRC Director

Alex Osler

Deputy Director

Henry Griffiths

North LMC

Manager - Service Delivery

Adrian Saward

Kirsty Gibbons

Jenny Gibson

Greg Kennedy

Simon Ablitt

Deputy Director

Martin Lucas

South LMC


Carolyn Butlin

Natalie Davison

Ben Childs

Beth Lunn

Deputy Director

Katie Castle

Administration and Central Case Managment


Zoe Kennerson

Admin Manager

Ami Corrigan

Manager - Community Payback

Owen Dickenson

Head of Contracts and Partnerships

Steve Sadler

Head of Performance

Andy Pickering

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We will also ensure that other needs which may impact on an individual’s ability to engage in criminogenic interventions are captured and used to inform sentence plan delivery. Our responsible officers will ensure that they broker effective interventions from both operational partners and internal delivery staff to ensure the steady progress of the service user through the plan for their sentence. Strategically we will introduce regular analysis of the workload management tool to ensure that staff are working within prescribed limits, have sufficient time to complete their core tasks and are able to see all service users face to face weekly for 12 weeks and then at least once a month thereafter for the first year of their court order or licence. Public Protection Our work to safeguard others and protect the public is both strategic and operational. We are engaged with our safeguarding children and adults boards, affirming our buy-in to these multi-agency arrangements and procedures, as well domestic abuse and MARAC and MASH partnerships and PREVENT. This includes engagement with Case Reviews, Domestic Homicide Reviews and Serious Further Offence processes. At an operational level, our teams engage with police, social care and partners to ensure plans to safeguard others are delivered. We are strengthening our own risk management practice through enhanced training for staff on risk and domestic abuse; and through improved quality assurance and observed practice. We will build on the good relationships we have with the NPS to ensure that where risk escalates we transfer cases at the appropriate time.

Our Priority Cohorts This year we will continue to work closely with other agencies to identify and respond to priority cohorts of those who re-offend. This will include ensuring our focused IOM work continues, as well as developing our approach to those that re-offend most frequently. This latter group is now a distinct ‘red pathway’ within our operating model, which evolved during 2018-19. We will continue to develop information sharing arrangements with the police and others, to enable us to respond quickly when people re-offend, which will include working closely with organisations that provide services to those with complex needs. We will be working in partnership across the system to improve the use of mental health, drug treatment and alcohol treatment requirements. In Essex we will continue to engage with the multi-agency projects called Horizons. These arrangements operate in 5 of the 14 districts across Essex and are funded by Essex County Council Public Health, the OPFCC and the Department for Work and Pensions. The projects focus on service users with severe, multiple, disadvantage (substance misuse, homelessness and offending) and provide mentoring support to engage with services to address these barriers to desistance. In Southend, we engage with multi-agency teams through the Complex Needs Panel. In addition, in Colchester this year, the CRC will pilot a specialised case management approach with our high frequency re-offenders as a comparison pilot. Interventions We are proud of the range of services and interventions that we have on offer which cover all criminogenic pathways. This year, we will continue to strive for optimal commencements of accredited programmes and rehabilitation activities, both for NPS and CRC service users. We will develop our interventions to meet the commissioning intentions of the NPS and other commissioners, whilst ensuring that the quality of delivery for Accredited Programmes is within the parameters of the Integrity Framework and monitored by

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Treatment Management. We will develop interventions for in custody work both in conjunction with CRC and operational partner staff. We will ensure that every contact matters and staff will model pro-social behaviours. In Essex our focus will be on further developing our Community Payback scheme, so that 35-40% of unpaid work is completed through individual placements, and for more of those who are unemployed to have the opportunity to work intensively, as well as utilise up to 20% of their required hours in education, training or employment activity. In addition, we will implement the 4Ward programme for BAME service users, and increase access to gambling interventions, and extend counselling services for all service users.

Through The Gate In April 2019, we will implement an Enhanced Through the Gate (TTG) service. The new specification strengthens the in-custody offer, creating three levels of service, so that service users with more complex needs can receive more intensive interventions. As well as the current pathways linked to housing; finance, benefit and debt; education, training, employment; domestic abuse and those exploited by the sex industry, there will be an additional pathway called personal, relationships and community designed to address physical and mental health needs and build relationships and social capital. We will also be responding to the specific needs of particular groups including young men, women, Foreign Nationals, Lifers/IPPs, Sex offenders, Learning Difficulty/Disability. Importantly, we will ensure that assessments and interventions completed in custody are followed up in the community on release, and that we work closely with other teams and initiatives in the prison such as Offender Management in Custody (OMiC).

Partnerships We know that it is critical to work in strategic partnership to develop alliances that improve the whole system, and operationally to deliver the services that make a difference. As well as maintaining our current commitment to working in partnership, this year we will be working with: our operational partners to ensure that the specifications for their work have sufficient local variation to meet service user need; the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge and Evidence Works to evaluate our newer services; and enhancing our regional approach to performance management, communication, and learning and development to harness best practice in these areas. We will ensure that operational partners play an active part in Enhanced Through the Gate and the future arrangements following the Strengthening Probation re-tender exercise.

Employing Service Users Securing and maintaining employment is fundamental in reducing reoffending, and there are two aspects to this for us. Firstly, we will continue to lead by example, embracing Sodexo’s Public Service Pledge for the employment of ex-offenders within our own company through the active promotion of peer mentoring, which can later lead to other roles. Secondly, we will further develop links with local employers to provide a range of job opportunities, aligning with their social responsibility, including a partnership with the organisation Only a Pavement Away, who specialises in being a conduit between organisations such as the CRC and jobs in the hospitality industry. In Essex this work will be supported by the development of a new Education, Training and Employment (ETE) strategy, which will outline how we will work with our service users to increase employability, and

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support them in gaining and maintaining employment. This will include how we will integrate our Community Payback and ETE delivery for greater outcomes.

Service User Engagement We proactively welcome service user feedback in a number of ways including our annual service user survey, exit questionnaires in unpaid work, feedback at the end of courses and programmes, and our service user council, which is led by User Voice. This feedback is then utilised to improve service delivery. This year we will engage our service user council as we implement the Enhanced Through the Gate specification, and we will also track all proposals brought by the council and the subsequent actions taken by the CRC. In Essex, service user engagement is a foundational part of the development of the 4Ward programme. This includes focus groups, feedback throughout the programme, and also empowering participants to co-facilitate later sessions and future programmes. Equality and Diversity Our Equality and Diversity plan outlines in full the CRC’s commitments in this area. However, as a headline, ensuring that we have taken individual service user’s protected characteristics into account when making our assessments and delivering our interventions is foundational to our work. Therefore, this year, as well as ensuring that we have full Equality & Diversity data sets, we will be utilising a learning disability screening tool which will be incorporated into the current induction process, and piloted during quarter 1. In addition, in Essex our focus will be on the implementation of the 4Ward programme, and improving our knowledge and work with service users who are part of travelling communities. Innovation Our innovation budget has now been fully committed across the region. This year we will continue to support the Peterborough Housing Project and aim for this to be self-financed going forward. In Essex we will continue to fund a service user council across the whole of Essex, fund practitioners who can deliver Mental Health Treatment Requirements, implement the 4Ward programme for BAME service users, seed funding on accommodation project, extend our counselling project, fund research through the Institute of Criminology and Evidence Works, and pilot a reducing reoffending project in North Essex. Health and Safety The duty of keeping others safe is a priority for the CRC, and ensuring the health and safety of our staff and those we work with forms part of this duty. Seven Safety Nets (see section 8) underpin our safety culture, which aims to prevent accidents. Where incidents or accidents do occur, we will continue to report on these, and investigate where appropriate. This year we will continue to ensure that our local, regional and national Health and Safety arrangements, which include safety walks and audit, drive a safe environment for all. We will ensure appropriate usage of Solo Protect by all staff who work in remote or solitary working environments.

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4.2 Actions

No Objective/Action By when Who

1 Deliver risk assessment and risk management practice to a good standard and integrate our assessments with our interventions.

March 2020 CRC Director

2 Implement the Enhanced Through the Gate specification. March 2020 TTG lead

3 Track actions taken as a result of service user feedback to influence policy and procedure.


4 Implement 4WARD programme. December 2019 RAR lead

5 Deliver improved access to mental health treatment and learning disability services.

March 2020 Health lead

Strategic Priority – An Excellent Workforce

5.1 Key areas of work

Recruitment & Retention Our workforce is our most valuable asset, and the recruitment and retention of skilled staff is a priority for the CRC. We aim to broaden and speed up our recruitment mechanisms to ensure that we attract a staffing group that reflects our service user profile, and enables new recruits to take up their job offer promptly. This year we will complete quarterly workload reviews to inform future workforce planning. We will monitor the stakeholder landscape, by our comparing recruitment with others’, to ensure that pay in aligned sectors is congruent where affordable. Training and Development Each role within the CRC requires both core and specialist training. Our training and development plan outlines in full how the learning and development needs of all staff will be met, including the delivery of our core training offer, our Practice Enhancement Programme for VQ4 staff, our accredited programmes training, and our Community Payback supervisor training. In addition, this year, the CRC will train staff in PQiP (the Probation Officer qualification) and develop Practice Development Assessors to support this, and we will be devising a management development programme to improve succession planning.

Engagement Our staff charter sets out the CRC’s management pledges and has staff engagement at its heart. This is facilitated by a strong middle management group, a regional staff engagement group, engagement ambassadors, local listening events, leadership forums, and our communication arrangements which includes our intranet, website and staff publications. The consistent application of policy provides the framework for empowerment and accountability, as it provides clarity of expectation as well as guidance for our day to day work. Staff recognition is a key to staff engagement and empowerment, and this year, we will continue to celebrate our staff achievement through our ‘recognising you’ scheme and award nominations.

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Equality and Diversity Our Equality and Diversity plan, which is underpinned by our duties under the Equality Act and our drive for an inclusive culture, outlines Essex CRC’s commitments in this area. In addition to improving recruitment arrangements to create a workforce that reflects the diversity of our local area, we commit to proactively enabling staff to participate in training, national and local staff network groups, mentoring schemes, and succession planning. We will ensure our offices are compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, and will make reasonable adjustments as appropriate. We will reach out further to challenge ourselves with differing perspectives and use these inputs to influence our policies and procedures. In Essex our focus will be on identifying and enhancing our culture, so that we truly create an environment where difference is welcomed, valued and celebrated, in order to enable all staff to be their whole selves at work and feel their place of work is a genuine place to belong. Innovation Through our core values and behaviours, we ask all staff to ‘dare to think innovatively’, particularly as we seek to deliver the best services possible, within the resources we have. As well as a range of strategic and operational groups that staff participate in, such as staff engagement, RAR development, women’s services, equality and inclusion, health and safety, our ‘Bright Ideas scheme’ is a vehicle for any member of staff to promote an idea they have directly for the senior leadership team to consider. This year we will continue to actively encourage cross functional working, so that experience, skills and ideas can develop.

5.2 Actions


1 Refer to management development programme to improve succession planning.

March 2020 Senior Leadership Team

2 Celebrate staff success through the recognising you scheme and award nominations.


3 Proactively enable staff to participate in national and local network groups, mentoring schemes, succession programmes or training courses.


4 Proactively enable staff to engage with the Bright Ideas scheme, ensuring we track ideas and responses.


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Strategic Priority – Achieving Growth and Enhanced Performance

6.1 Key areas of work Contract performance Essex CRC has a track record of meeting service level performance, and strives for continuous improvement. Our performance is underpinned by our Quality Assurance Framework and Quality Plan which directs activity to deliver ongoing performance improvements, including the quality of recording, which strives to get things right first time. A priority area of work this year is to enhance performance on the assurance metrics, notably the newly introduced measure for minimum levels of face-to-face contact. Inspections, Audits Under the National Quality Assurance Group (NQAG), the Sodexo CRCs work together on internal auditing arrangements. This year we will implement a consistent and revised audit tool, which is more closely aligned to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) framework. This will underpin our monthly inspection programme, and will support our internal thematic audits. This year, NQAG will complete thematic audits on community payback, risk management, assessment quality (OASys), Through the Gate, SFO/DHR/SCR/DUS learning, and Operational Partners across our six CRCs. In addition to our internal audit, CRCs are subject to significant external inspection from HMIP and HMPPS. Essex CRC received a whole service HMIP inspection in the summer of 2018. We are implementing actions to bring the required improvement and can expect a follow up inspection in the autumn of 2019. HMPPS will schedule audits as well. For Accredited Programme Delivery we work to the standards outlined by the Integrity Framework and co-operate fully with the HMPPS Interventions Unit. We will continue to use the learning from our own and other’s inspections to drive improvement, and will proactively deliver any action plans required to address the recommendations given. Stakeholder Input Working closely with our criminal justice, local authority/district, police, health, voluntary sector and business partners is important for two important reasons. Firstly, stakeholder feedback continues to be highly valuable as we hear from key partners about the positive impact of our work as well as our areas for improvement. It will be important that stakeholders and sentencers are able to engage with the Strengthening Probation arrangements as these develop and this year we will refresh our communication bulletins to facilitate this. Secondly, working closely together enables us all to deliver better services – particularly when working with people with complex needs, higher levels of presenting risk, or those that frequently reoffend. This year we will continue to explore ways of developing services in partnership and will ensure that our priorities align to stakeholders’ strategic plans, through our commitment to the delivery plans that flow from our partnership arrangements across Southend, Essex and Thurrock. Services to the National Probation Service (NPS) Essex CRC is proud to deliver services to the NPS through the rate card, and on receipt of NPS intentions for minimum levels of purchase we will make arrangements to ensure the relevant programmes, unpaid

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work and RAR activity can be delivered. We will continue to use our operational interface and strategic service integration arrangements to build joined up, effective probation services in our area. New Business & Innovation Essex CRC recognises that our services, interventions, areas of expertise and staff training opportunities are not only applicable to the criminal justice setting. We already deliver Building Better Relationships to the Families Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). In Essex we will continue to deliver domestic abuse perpetrator work as part of the Thurrock Brighter Futures programme and work commissioned by the Southend, Essex and Thurrock Domestic Abuse Board. Our training offer for Social Care teams on working with perpetrators of domestic abuse continues to be available.

6.2 Actions


1 Meet the performance level for assurance metric K – minimum levels of face to face contact.


2 Improve HMIP score from previous year. In line with HMIP Inspection timescales

CRC Director

3 Implement an updated and consistent internal audit tool within the Sodexo CRCs.

March 2020 National Quality Assurance Group and Quality lead

4 Refresh our stakeholder and sentencer bulletins to ensure relevant information is shared about CRC delivery and the Strengthening Probation arrangements as they develop.

March 2020 CRC Director and Communications Manager

5 Grow and develop services in partnership with others. March 2020 CRC Director

Strategic Priority - Organisational Development and Efficiency 7.1 Key areas of work

Public Service Pledge and Corporate and Social Responsibility Sodexo’s Public Service Pledge and Corporate Responsibility Statement outline how our values, ethical principles and subsequent commitments demonstrate that we are a company that intends to provide additional benefit to our communities. We seek to reduce the impact on the environment, through the services we offer and the way in which we work. As well as our equalities commitments, our passion for working in partnership, our staff engagement initiatives, and our track record for employing ex-offenders and service personnel, this year we will develop and formalise relationships between our local homeless charities and Sodexo’s Stop Hunger Charity. This will open up grant funding opportunities for our homeless charities.

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Continuous Business Improvement This annual service plan has already stated many of our intentions and objectives for business improvement over the next year. These include improved assessment and risk management, the implementation of the Enhanced TTG specification and improved information from in custody to in the community, the development of a BAME intervention, workforce planning activity, and the implementation of a workload measurement tool. Underpinning many of these improvements is the need for better recording of our work. This year we will develop a culture of compliance with recording instructions, focusing on accurate recording that is right first time. We will also be developing the hub model to facilitate increased levels of face-to-face contact. ICT Systems and Digital We expect ICT developments to be minimal over the coming year, as staff have access to either static or mobile IT equipment relevant to their role, and we have taken the decision to remain on HMPPS IT systems for assessment, case management and accredited programme recording. However, we continually seek to improve the engagement and compliance of service users with their Court orders, and developing communication methods that assist this is an objective for us. As such, we will explore the use of mobile phone application technology to improve the exchange of messages between staff and service users. Estates We keep our estates in review on a regular basis. We will develop a strategy for the future that harnesses what has worked well in our current arrangements, and where we could improve leasing arrangements to provide the optimal space for operational delivery. We have experienced some excellent co-location arrangements and very much see working closely with partners and stakeholders in this way in the future. Transition Planning The Strengthening Probation consultation indicates that the area operated by Essex CRC will form part of the Eastern Region CRC. We are fortunate that BeNCH, Essex and Norfolk and Suffolk CRCs, which currently comprise this area, already work closely together, with governance arrangements in place through the regional leadership team. This year we will continue to ensure our regional approach is fit for purpose as the new arrangements emerge, and we will review lessons learnt from the Transforming Rehabilitation mobilisation. We will also ensure that we have robust exit and transitions plans in place ready for the next contract award. Financial Essex CRC will continue to manage our financial resources effectively. Our priority is to keep staffing vacancies to a minimum, and therefore we will recruit to the maximum levels that our budget allows.

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7.2 Actions


1 Increase and formalise the links between our local homeless charities and Sodexo’s Stop Hunger initiative to enable grant funding.

March 2020 CRC Director and Stop Hunger champion

2 Create a culture of compliance to improve the quality of recording practice across whole CRC service delivery.

March 2020 CRC Director and Head of Performance

3 Explore the use of mobile phone application technology to improve the exchange of messages between staff and service users.

March 2020 SJS Community Head of IT

4 Complete a review of our current estates as we develop an estates strategy for the future competition.


5 Develop robust exit and transition plans ready for the new contract award.

March 2020 CRC Director and Head of Contracts

Health and Safety The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and service users is of paramount importance to us. We are all accountable for, and have responsibility for, ensuring our employees and service users are safe at work, and return home safe and well each day. The South Region CRCs Health, Safety and Wellbeing Strategy outlines how we will deliver a safe and supportive work environment. Our staff take personal responsibility for using the personal protective equipment that is issued to them. This includes protective clothing for unpaid work, as well as lone worker devices. Our staff are required to work within the boundaries of professional conduct which will ensure they do not impact detrimentally on their colleague’s health and wellbeing. We believe that the safest organisations are typified by a sustainable positive safety culture. Safety culture is about people and the way they behave and impacts on all of our Strategic Objectives. Our overarching objective this year is to improve our positive safety culture & safety compliance, which is supported by our Seven Safety Nets.

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8.1 Actions


1 Embed safety behaviours and reduce staff absence through lost time injury

March 2020 CRC Director and H&S Manager

2 Improve health and wellbeing, through the implementation of our strategy and campaigns

March 2020 CRC Director and H&S Manager

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