This active offender population is not static, 20,000 individuals leave this pool every year and are replaced by another 20,000 offenders. The most active 5,000 of this group are estimated to be responsible for one in ten offences.
In July 2004, the Government introduced the Prolific and Priority Offenders scheme to tackle these prolific offenders who are committing the most crime and causing the most harm within our local communities. It placed responsibility on Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) to work in partnership with other statutory agencies including the Police, the Probation Service, Youth Offending Teams and the Prison Service to introduce a local PPO scheme in every CDRP area.
There are three strands to the Tackling Prolific Offenders Framework:
- Prevent and Deter – to stop young offenders escalating into prolific offenders and to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in criminality in the first place.
- Catch and Convict - approach with all partners focusing on the same key groups of offenders who are causing the most crime.
- Rehabilitate and Resettle - to provide prolific offenders coming to the end of their sentence with a choice: ‘Reform or face a very swift return to the courts’.
For more information on any of these strands follow the relevant link in ‘Further Information’ below.
In the South West
There are currently about 1,000 Prolific and Priority Offenders in the South West, who are managed by local CDRPs. The role of the GOSW Safer & Stronger Communities Directorate is to support and advise these partnerships on the development and successful implementation of local PPO schemes.
We monitor the progress of local PPO schemes on a monthly basis through a Performance Management Framework (PMF). This framework provides details on the number of offenders within a local scheme area along with details of where they are in terms of their PPO journey through the Criminal Justice System. You can view the latest PMF collection tool at ‘Related Documents’ below.
South West Regional PPO Programme Board
In the region GOSW has established a regional PPO Programme Board. This is a multi-agency forum which includes representatives from the five Criminal Justice Service areas in the region, whose aim is to assist in the development and implementation of local PPO schemes. The Board also oversees a Regional Network Group, which brings together key PPO practitioners enabling them to share best practice and address common issues.
The Board is also responsible for ensuring the refinement of PPO scheme performance and provides an essential link to the Home Office PPO Board and Regional Reducing Re-offending Partnership (RRP) Project Board. You can view further information on the RRP by following the link from the Related Documents page below.
