|
Making good…and making safer
Unpaid work has had a number of names since its introduction in 1974. For many years it was called Community Service. In recent years, this was changed to Community Punishment. The name was again changed, this time to Unpaid Work, by the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 in April 2005. Nevertheless, the important element has remained the same; this being that offenders are required to complete a number of hours of work, without pay, and for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Unpaid Work is a punishment imposed by the Court within a Community Order. Offenders are required to complete between 40 and 300 hours of work depending on the seriousness of the offence they have committed.
The type of work undertaken is as varied as it is useful. It includes graffiti removal, litter clearing, renovating neglected areas and churchyards, park keeping and gardening, working with local charities, painting and decorating and a range of other tasks and projects. Offenders supervised by Humberside Probation Trust complete around 160,000 hours of unpaid work in a year (a cash value equivalent of £800,000 based upon the minimum wage). Staff ensure that the work is completed to a high quality (with 97% of those commissioning work by offenders telling us that they would use this provision again).
In November 2005, the Home Office launched an initiative to make Unpaid Work more visible. The Government would like members of the public and local communities to know more about Unpaid Work, and to have a say in what projects are undertaken. This initiative, called ‘Community Payback’ encourages individuals or community representatives to contact us with details of work or projects they feel will be of benefit to the community and can be undertaken by offenders undertaking Unpaid Work. Of course, projects need to be suitable. This means:
- The work must be obvious benefit to the community (ideally by reducing the risk or fear of offending).
- The work must be physically, mentally or emotionally challenging for the offender.
- The work should go some way towards improving the offender’s employments skills.
- The work should not require specialist skills, but should be able to be completed by individual or groups of offenders under close supervision.
- The work must not expose offenders, staff, or members of the public to unacceptable or inappropriate risks (all projects are subject to a Health & Safety risk assessment).
- The work provided by offenders must not be used to replace that provided by paid employees.
If you know of work that fits this criteria, and would like to propose a project to be undertaken by offenders, please contact either of the following:
Unpaid Work Unit Managers
Bill Postill
01724 861222
email:bill.postill@humberside.probation.gsi.gov.uk
Dave Morton
01472 480000
email:dave.morton@humberside.probation.gsi.gov.uk
|
|
