-
Humberside Probation
Trust
21 Flemingate
Beverley
HU17 0NP

Tel: (01482)  867271

What are the MAPPA?

Sexual and violent offences are communities. Their impact can be profound and long-lasting, leaving victims feeling unsafe even in their own homes. The Government regards protecting the public from such sexual and violent crimes as one of its highest priorities.

The Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) form the basis of that public protection through a genuinely multi-agency partnership throughout the 42 Police and Probation Areas of England and Wales. They developed as formal arrangements out of local initiatives following legislation in 2000 and are now defined by the Criminal Justice Act (2003) which came into effect on 5 th April 2004. New National guidelines on implementing MAPPA were introduced at the beginning of this review year dreadful crimes that deeply affect the lives of victims and their families and inspire fear in local communities

MAPPA contribute significantly towards the integration of the work of a number of criminal justice agencies together with social care agencies such as health, social services and housing, in order to reduce serious offending, minimise serious harm to the public and assist in the early detection of repeat offenders.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 charges the Police, the National Probation Service and the Prison service with responsibility for establishing the MAPPA and refers to the three services as “the Responsible Authority”

In Humberside we undertake this joint work at two levels, through Local Risk Management Meetings (LRMMs, see later) and through Multi Agency Public Protection Panels (MAPPP, see later).

The bulk of the work in regard to administering the MAPPA is undertaken by the four Police Risk Management Units based in Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Market Weighton and the Probation Teams dealing with the high and very high risk offenders based in Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Beverley, Goole and Bridlington. Of course they could not carry out their work effectively without co-operation and input from other departments in their services or from other agencies.

The MAPPA are there to ensure the quality, timeliness and consistency of that co-operation and input.

Are all dangerous people covered by the MAPPA?

Currently MAPPA only applies to certain categories of individuals who have already been convicted of an offence.

Some potentially dangerous people are not known to any local agencies, including police or probation. Therefore, although the MAPPA represents a significant strengthening of public protection, they cannot provide an absolute protection. Research in 2002 has shown that 32% of the first time murderers and 36 % of serious sexual offenders had no previous convictions.

Operation Ore, the investigation into child pornography on the internet which you may have heard of, revealed that nationally a “significant proportion” of the 7,000 UK subscribers to a particular group of internet sites offering access to images of child abuse were previously unknown to police, in Humberside this figure was 80%.

Are all offenders covered by the MAPPA?

Not all offenders are covered by the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements so effective multi-agency public protection needs to start with the efficient identification of those relevant offenders. Prompt and accurate identification then allows all agencies to gather and share relevant information and chose the appropriate risk management strategies.

Three categories of offenders are defined as falling within the remit of MAPPA;

The statistics at the end of this report show the number of offenders in the three categories we have in Humberside.

How are those offenders who come under the MAPPA dealt with?

When offenders have been dealt with by the courts their assimilation back into the community is usually, but not always, overseen by the National Probation Service. This may start as soon as the offender leaves court if they have been made subject to a community penalty or it may be delayed until the offender is released from prison if a custodial sentence is given.

At the time an offender passes through the court process an assessment of the risk they present to the public in general or any individual in particular will usually have been undertaken by the probation service. If they are given a custodial sentence then that assessment will be reviewed during the time they are in prison. The review will take into consideration information from prison and probation staff involved in any work they have undertaken on their offending behaviour whilst in prison, information from the police, the probation Victim Liaison Officers and the home probation officer so that when the offender is released to the community, agencies working with them will have an up to date indication of the risk they pose.

Some offenders who do not come to the initial notice of the probation service are assessed by the police, e.g. Registered Sex Offenders moving into the area.

Risk assessment in our area of work can be considered as calculating how likely an event is to occur and, if it does, the likely impact of that event, upon whom or what and with what consequences.

The impact we are considering is serious harm to members of the public in general or to individuals in particular, that is harm which will be life threatening or traumatic and from which recovery, whether physical or psychological, can be expected to be difficult or impossible.

Using the recognised risk assessment tools of the particular agency, offenders are assessed as presenting low, medium, high or very high risk of causing harm. In essence these levels of risk are defined as;

The purpose of the MAPPA is to establish arrangements for the effective management of that risk.

Why aren’t all these offenders very high risk?

Remember, risk is about the likelihood of something happening and the consequences or impact if it does happen.

As past behaviour is a predictor to future behaviour, all offenders must be considered as presenting some risk of re-offending and causing harm. However the degree to which they pose a risk and the seriousness of any consequences of any further offending is something which is considered in the risk assessment process. Some may be considered as presenting a high risk of re-offending but the consequences of that behaviour, although perhaps causing nuisance, cost or indeed minor harm to the victim is not serious harm as we have defined it.

The majority of individuals who are assessed as possibly being a risk to others, willingly comply with any arrangements made to help them overcome problems and issues which led to offending.

Perhaps their risk is to a specific individual and there can now be no contact with that individual. Or it relates to particular circumstances, which no longer exist. The offender may genuinely want to change the behaviour which led to their offending and willingly undertakes programmes provided by the probation service. These programmes are in the main “c ognitive-behavioural programmes” which have been identified and evaluated as the most effective treatment of both sexual and violent offenders, looking at the way a person’s thinking and behaviour are connected, and how changing one can affect the other.

How are offenders managed under the MAPPA?

The structure of risk management is intended to enable resources to be deployed to manage the risks the above assessments have identified in the most efficient and effective manner.

Risk management is defined as harm reduction either through the reduction of the likelihood of a risk occurring or the reduction of its impact should it occur.

There are three levels of risk management used under the MAPPA. Although generally the higher the assessed level of risk the higher the level of management required, this need not always be the case. The risk management structure is based on the principle that cases should be managed at the lowest level consistent with providing a defensible risk management plan.

The three levels are;

You can see from the statistics that of all the cases considered under the MAPPA only 8 have needed to be managed by a full Level 3 MAPPP.

To date these MAPPPs have been held locally to the Division dealing with the offender – i.e. Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Beverley - and chaired by a local senior police or probation officer. However, in order to bring a more consistent approach to this work and to help maintain a central overview of all high and very high risk offenders in our area, future MAPPPs will be held centrally and be chaired by the police or probation Senior Management Team member having responsibility for MAPPA.

What are Risk Management Plans?

Risk management plans lay down specific objectives for the management of the risk the offender presents. Responsibilities and tasks are clearly defined and firm timetables established. The plan needs to be able to deal with changing circumstances of the case and should also integrate what are described as internal and external restraints on the offender.

Internal restraints are the offender’s self-management, often learned through participation in offending behaviour programmes.

External restraints can take the form of conditions placed on the offender to do or not do some specific activity. Some of these controls are set in place at the start of our work with an offender in the community e.g. conditions can be attached to a Community Rehabilitation Order by the court committing the offender to attend a programme or see a psychiatrist. Prior to an offender coming out of prison on a ”licence”, conditions can be attached to that licence laying down certain activities the offender must or must not do, places they must not go or contacts they must not make.

Other controls have been applied at a later stage if the offender’s behaviour indicated that the risk they present is increasing. These can include;

Sexual Offences Prevention Orders

Sexual Offences Prevention Orders are obtained on application to a court. They place restrictions on an offender to prohibit access to certain places (e.g. schools) and to certain groups of people (e.g. children). The Order remains in place for a minimum of 5 years.

Disclosure

There may, exceptionally, be some cases where management of an offender’s risk in the community cannot be carried out without the disclosure of some information to a third party outside of the usual MAPPA agencies. This may be, for example, where an employer, voluntary group organiser or church leader has a position of responsibility or control over the offender and other people who may be at serious risk from the offender. Disclosure to them of certain information about the offender may be the only way to manage that risk. Wherever possible the situation would be discussed with the offender and voluntary disclosure encouraged, with probation and/or police supporting them in this.

Great caution is exercised when making such a disclosure and it is seen as an exceptional measure as the disclosure may be to individual members of the public. If such a course of action is required it is always as part of a risk management plan, which has been agreed at either of the two highest levels of MAPPA management, i.e. LRMMs or MAPPPs.

Recall to prison

An ultimate external restraint for offenders who are subject to supervision under “licence” following their release from prison can be a recall to prison if they break their licence condition or it is felt the risk they present is becoming unmanageable in the community.

What about the victims of serious crime?

The probation service has a statutory responsibility to contact all victims of sexual and violent crime where the perpetrator has been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison. In our area we have 2 specialist Victim Liaison Officers in the probation service covering the two geographical areas north and south of the Humber . The duties of those officers are to;

• Make contact with relevant victims,
• Consult the victim about the release arrangements for the offender and make the victim’s views known to the supervising probation officer, the local MAPPA co-ordinator, the prison authorities and, where relevant, the parole board;
• Make recommendations about licence conditions or other aspects of the offender’s release;
• Advise probation colleagues and the MAPPA co-ordinator about any victim concerns relevant to the management of the individual offender
• Keep victims informed about any significant developments during sentence or after release, including notification of release dates and any additional measures being taken to increase their safety.

Naturally, it is up to victims to decide whether they wish to take up the offer of contact with the probation service and, if they do, how much and at what stages. The duration of contact with individual victims can last for several years.

The probation service does not offer specialised counselling in regard to the physical and emotional effects the crime may have had on the victim, this is left to organisations better able to deliver this
e.g. Social Services – child care, Victim Support and NCH the children’s’ charity.

Therefore, although the primary focus of the MAPPA is properly placed upon the risk and behaviour of the offender as you can see from the above, the victims’ concerns are considered and reflected in risk assessments and risk management plans under the MAPPA.

Oversight of the MAPPA - The Strategic Management Board

The duties and obligations of the Responsible Authority are discharged through the Strategic Management Board. The current membership of the Humberside

The broad brief of the SMB is to;

“keep the arrangements [i.e. the MAPPA] established by it under review with a view to monitoring their effectiveness and making any changes to them that appear necessary or expedient.”

Overarching these activities is the role the SMB has to shape the MAPPA framework within the Area. This involves determining the role and representation of different agencies within the framework. It also includes brokering the protocols and memoranda of understanding which formalise those roles.

While some margin of discretion in defining the role is left with Area, the following core features are common to all SMBs:

1. monitoring (on at least a quarterly basis) and evaluating the operation of the MAPPA, particularly that of the MAPPPs;
2. establishing connections which support effective operational work with other public protection arrangements, such as Area Child Protection Committees, local Crime and Disorder Partnerships and local Criminal Justice Boards
3. preparing and publishing the Annual Report and promoting the work of the MAPPA in the Area;
4. planning the longer-term development of the MAPPA in the light of regular (at least annual) reviews of the arrangements, and with respect to legislative and wider criminal justice changes; and,
5. identifying and planning how to meet common training and developmental needs of those working in the MAPPA.

MAPPA Co-ordinator

In Humberside we have a MAPPA Co-ordinator in post as a secondment jointly funded by Humberside Police and National Probation Service – Humberside. The person currently in post is a Senior Probation Officer with experience of managing high risk violent and sexual offenders in the community.

Whilst the responsibility for the operational management of the offenders subject to MAPPA remains with the field police and probation officers the co-ordinator works with those field staff to establish a consistency of approach in the way offenders are referred to, and handled by, the MAPPA. The co-ordinator chairs the Level 2 Local Risk Management Meetings and is accompanied by a minute taker who prepares and distributes the minutes centrally, again seeking to establish a consistency of practice across the area.

The MAPPA Co-ordinator liaises with colleagues from the Responsible Authority and ”Duty to Co-operate agencies developing and gate keeping the referral process, acting as a central point of contact for MAPPA issues both in the area and for out of area enquiries and arranging and delivering multi agency training on risk and the MAPPA process.

Strategic Management Board Members