SINGLE EQUALITY SCHEME 2009-12

STAFFORDSHIRE PROBATION AREA

DOCUMENT HISTORY

Document Title: / Senior Manager/Directorate Ownership:
Staffordshire Probation Area Equality Scheme / Director of Interventions and Business Development
Version / Date / Author / Reason for Change
Draft v1.0 / 2 March 2009 / Clive Palmer / First draft
Draft v2.0 / 9 March 2009 / Clive Palmer / Second draft post-collaboration at regional meeting
2.1 / 27 March 2009 / Clive Palmer / For publication post-SPA board ratification
2.2 / 13 July 2009 / Bob Simpson / Revision following REAG compliance check
2.3 / 16 September 2009 / Bob Simpson / Revision following REAG compliance check feedback.
2.4 / 28 October 2009 / Bob Simpson / Revision following REAG compliance check feedback.

Contents

Foreword / 4
Introduction
1. Background / 5
2. Human Rights / 5
3. Our Vision / 5
4. Our Commitment / 6
5. Leadership / 6
Our Business and Functions
6. Staffordshire Probation Area / 8
7. National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Agency / 8
8. Structures, Roles, and Responsibilities under the Scheme / 9
9. Organisational Core Functions / 9
Developing the Scheme
10.General and Specific Equalities Duties / 12
11. Involvement and Consultation in Developing the Scheme / 13
12.Monitoring Policies and Functions for Adverse Impact / 13
13. What Happens Next / 15
14. Providing Us with Feedback / 15
The Scheme
15. Gathering Evidence, Involvement and Consultation / 16
16. Employment and Development of Staff / 16
17. Staff and Employment Monitoring
18. Service Delivery / 19
23
19. Procurement and Partnerships / 27
20. Publication and Review / 30
21. Assessing the Impact of Policy and Functions
22. Glossary / 31
36
Appendices
Equality Impact Assessment Toolkit (see separately published document)
Policy Review Schedule (see separately published document)
Action plan and impact assessment tool kit (see separately published document)

Foreword

This Equality Scheme sets out how Staffordshire Probation Area will meet its duties under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, and the Equality Act 2006. It meets the requirement in each piece of legislation to develop a specific Single Equality Scheme, bringing the three areas together without losing focus on the specific needs of any community.

Though Staffordshire Probation Area is only required by law at this time to publish a scheme relating to race, disability and gender, Staffordshire Probation Area’s commitment to equality is wider. It also encompasses age, religion and belief, and sexual orientation. The scheme will embody Staffordshire Probation Area’s Equal Opportunities Policy Statementmakes explicit that:

“Equality of opportunity applies to the provision of services, recruitment and the employment of staff. No person should receive less favorable treatment on the grounds of gender, marital status, dependants, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, disability, AIDS or HIV antibody status, age, religion, trade union or political beliefs or activity, sexual orientation, or spent offences”.

Promoting equality and respecting people’s differences must be at the core of an open, impartial and trusted Probation Service. Staffordshire Probation has a crucial role to play in building the confidence of the diverse communities it serves. Promoting equality is more than just a statement of how Staffordshire Probation Area will meet its statutory requirements. It must be an integralpart of the way it conducts its business. This Scheme therefore encourages us to think beyond constraints and barriers, to challenge ourselves to find new ways of working that enable Staffordshire Probation to deliver real and lasting change for the offenders we supervise, in the environments in which we work, and for the communities that we serve.

Progress against the Scheme will be reported annually, aligned to the Area’s business planning cycle.

West Midlands and Staffordshire Probation Areas are currently making a joint bid for Trust status. If the joint bid succeeds, it is our intention to have one Single Equality Scheme for the newly merged Area in April 2010.

Rob Mandley
Chief officer, Staffordshire Probation Area / John Ryan
Chair, Staffordshire Probation Board

October 2009

Staffordshire Probation Area Equality Scheme |1

Introduction

Staffordshire Probation Area Equality Scheme |1

1. BACKGROUND

Staffordshire Probation Area’s Single Equality Schemedescribes in a single document how our organisation will fulfill its statutory duties to promote equality of opportunity and avoid discrimination, placing the promotion of equality and diversity at the centre of our work, both inthe building of an excellent National Offender Management Service,and in our endeavors to be an employer of choice and a beacon organisation for best practice in diversity issues. The Scheme will be effective as of 1 April 2009.

The Scheme is intended to meet our duty previously contained in separate race, disability and gender equality schemes, using the work undertaken in preparing these. It uses the common ground between the three to create a consistent approach, whilst ensuring that the distinctive requirements that were a focus of the individual schemes and the individual duties, are also included.

The Scheme also begins to take account of the requirements of the Employment Equality Regulations relating to Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation and Age, and other relevant legislation. Although the requirements flowing from these new regulations are more limited, we are committed to implementing this Scheme in an inclusive way, beginning with the Board (Action Plan 1.1, 2.1 and 2.4) acknowledging that further action will undoubtedly be required in these areas.

Staffordshire Probation Area is committed to ensuring that in all its functions it avoids discrimination on these grounds. We also accept that we should treat these areas in the same way as we do race, gender and disability and pro-actively seek to promote equality and diversity. We have therefore given these areas recognition in our Action Plan.

2. HUMAN RIGHTS

This Equality Scheme, like the schemes for race, disability and gender which it encompasses, has at its core a commitment to human rights. The creation of a single body, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, will integrate institutional support for human rights and equality. This follows the Human Rights Act 1998 which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.

For public authorities such as Staffordshire Probation, the Act makes it a legal duty for its practices and procedures to be compatible with Convention rights. Staffordshire Probation recognises that failure to comply and respond appropriately to the Act could seriously harm the reputation and image of the service.

3. OUR VISION

Staffordshire Probation Area sees equality of opportunity and the valuing of diversity as central to the aims of protecting the public and rehabilitating offenders. We will make fairness and inclusion fundamental to everything we do to ensure:

  • Support of our core aims of protecting the public, reducing re-offending, the proper punishment of offenders in the community, ensuring offender’s awareness of the effects of crime on victims, and the rehabilitation of offenders.
  • That our workforce attempts to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
  • That all our employees (and partners) are equally respected and valued.

4. OUR COMMITMENT

Our Equality Scheme is evidence of Staffordshire Probation Area’s commitment to comply with the legal duty placed on public authorities. In pursuing this commitment, the Staffordshire Probation Board will seek to eliminate unlawful discrimination based on colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins and religion. Racial harassment, racially abusive or insulting language or behavior on the part of any member of staff, Service user or visitor will not be tolerated.

We are committed to delivering a transformed, effective and modern Probation Service which:

  • Works in partnership with all communities and other local services to protect the communities that we serve.
  • Understands and meets the needs of all the users of our service.
  • Is fully engaged with its employees and the community in the development and delivery of its services and functions.
  • Ensures equality and diversity are fully mainstreamed.
  • Has an inclusive culture in which everyone treats all colleagues and Service users with equal dignity and respect.
  • Ensures all its policies, processes and practices are open and transparent and have undergone robust equality impact assessment.
  • Values and supports a diverse workforce through our commitment to fair and transparent recruitment and employment policies, practices and processes.
  • Makesthe best use of our systems to ensure that they integrate action for equality and diversity into all aspects of our work and define lines of accountability
  • Trains, supports and develops our staff in equality duties and diversity
  • Contracts and enters into partnership only with bodies who share the commitment and possess the capability to implement the principles of equality and diversity

5. LEADERSHIP

We recognise that in order to embed equality into everything that we do, there has to be robust leadership and support at the top of the organisation.

There is a well developed approach to leadership that is embedded within the culture of Staffordshire Probation Area (SPA). Managers at all levels are aware of the expectation that they represent and promote the values of the organisation as espoused in the Government’s ”Five Year Strategy for Protecting the Public and Reducing Offending”. This document provides a strategic framework for the period from 2006, which each of the 42 local Probation Areas is required to put into practice.

Staffordshire Probation is governed by its Board, which amongst its functions is responsible for the monitoring of Equality and Diversity. The Director with lead accountability for Equality and Diversity is a member of the Chief Officer’s Unit. Additionally,within the organisation there is substantial evidence of how our ethics and values have been articulated. The Area has had a Diversity StrategyGroup for a number of years with the role of developing and monitoring a strategy on diversity and providing appropriate staff training. Examples of our approach to this include:

  • The Board, senior and middle managers being required to demonstrate they have an understanding of the principles of diversity, fairness and justice. This is supported by attendance on training programmes within the first year of appointment and at least every two years subsequently.
  • All managers have at least one diversity objective included in annual personal objectives.
  • The Board and managers ensure the Area’s equality of opportunity procedures in relation to recruitment, selection and retention of staff are followed and receive an annual report on its achievements against targets.
  • The Board and managers receive an annual diversity report and will approved new targets and improvements(see Action Plan point 2)
  • The lead diversity manager arranges at least one workshop/seminar a year promoting diversity with partners and the broader community; e.g. we organised a county workshop for partners on race hate crime and based a new policy on its findings. We are currently negotiating to be part of the Staffordshire Equalities Network (which includes Local Criminal Justice Board partners) so that this work can be developed across agencies.
  • Involvement in REC events; e.g. the Burton One World Celebration of diversity.

The prominence given to this is reflected in the most recent survey, which shows:

89% of staff agreeing that we are committed to developing all staff. Those agreeing that our commitment to equality is clear are:

Staff 90%

Applicants and potential applicants 94%

Offenders 94%

Other organisations 94%

Members of the public 89%

A further action will be to break down responsesin the staff survey into race, gender and disability. (See Action Plan ‘Developing the Scheme 3.3).

Staffordshire Probation Area Equality Scheme |1

Our Business and Functions

Staffordshire Probation Area Equality Scheme |1

6. STAFFORDSHIRE PROBATION AREA

Staffordshire Probation Area along with the Probation Service nationally has undergone significant changes in the last few years. In order to understand the organisation it is important to place such change in context. The following is intended to provide general background information on the Area itself and the work we do.

Staffordshire Probation Area covers the whole of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent and is co-terminus with other key Criminal Justice Agencies, namely the Court Services, Police and Crown Prosecution Service.

Staffordshire is one of the UK’s largest counties, with a population of more than one million. We employ some 421 staff, with a number of these seconded at any one time to the NPD, the five local prisons, youth offending teams and other agencies.

The average annual workload consists of around 2760 community orders, which may combine a number of requirements such as supervision, attendance on programmes and unpaid work. We also manage around 1430 offenders annually released on licence and prepare 4180 reports for Crown and Magistrates Courts.

The Area has a budget of in excess of £15 million.

Staffordshire Probation Area provides advice and guidance to the Courts and manages the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders under orders laid down by the Courts. It is our responsibility to ensure that offenders who are sentenced to Community Orders by the Courts, or released from prison sentences on licence, comply with the requirements of that order or licence.

Whilst supervising offenders we work with them to challenge their attitudes and change their behaviours in order to minimise the risk they pose to the public and to reduce the likelihood of them re-offending. We also work with offenders to ensure that they understand the impact of their behaviour on victims of crime and work with the victims of serious violent and sexual offences to ensure they are kept informed of the custodial process.

7. NATIONAL OFFENDER MANAGEMENT SERVICE (NOMS) AGENCY

The work of the Probation Service comes under the remit of the Home Office and the Home Secretary. For a long period the Area has been one of 54 largely independent Probation Services in England and Wales, but in 2001 these were reduced to 42 areas into the National Probation Service (NPS) by a series of amalgamations and placed originally under the central management of the National Probation Directorate (NPD), and recently National Offender Management Service (NOMS) within the new Ministry of Justice. Many of our policies and procedures are adopted from NOMS, who carry out Equality Impact Assessments.

One of the priorities of Staffordshire Probation Area is to contribute to ‘the building of an excellent National Offender Management Service (NOMS) with the separation of offender management from interventions’. The intention here was ‘end-to-end’ offender management under which Probation Areas must organise themselves to reflect the split betweenoffender management and interventions. The importance of joint work with the Prison Service is demonstrated by the National Reducing Reoffending Action Plan with its focus on resettlement and community reintegration.

Our statutory duties are as follows:

  • Protection of the public
  • Reduction of re-offending
  • Proper punishment of offenders
  • Offenders’ awareness of the effects of their crime on victims and the public
  • Rehabilitation of offenders.

Full details of the NOMS Strategic and Business Plans 2009-11 is available at:

8. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THE SCHEME

Staffordshire Probation Area (SPA) is committed to continual review of the approach to Diversity within the organisation, and the publication and regular review of this Equality Scheme. The Board will take great interest in the implementation of this Scheme, and intend to ensure it makes a real difference.

Ultimately, the responsibility for delivering change at a local level rests with the Chief Officer and Board Chair, as operational executive and employer representatives respectively. Operationally the Director/Head of Staffordshire Local Delivery Unit has responsibility for diversity, assuming therefore the role of Diversity ‘Champion’ within the organisation. SPA has established forums which focus on equality and diversity issues:

  • Diversity Strategy Group, which has representation from both management and operational staff, and meets three times a year;
  • Disability Reference Group and Diversity Reference Group. Chaired by the Learning, Development & Diversity Manager, the groups meet bi-monthly and provides both feedback on policy implications and support to group members.

It is the intention of SPA that we increase our consultation of offenders and victims during the term of this strategy to enable the feedback from service users to similarly impact the work of this strategy, (see Action Plan ‘Service delivery’ outcome 4).

What is clear is that the participation of all staff in shaping the delivery of Staffordshire Probation Area’s Equality and Diversity Strategy will go a long way towards ensuring that no-one is disadvantaged from achieving their full potential whether within or via contact with our organisation.

9. ORGANISATIONAL CORE FUNCTIONS

9.1 Pre-Sentence Reports – The Gateway of All Service Provision

The preparation and presentation of Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) is a key statutory duty for the National ProbationService. There is a range of different reports used across the Service but they are all PSRs within the meaning of thelegislation. Reports are sampled for quality/equality purposes.

All Standard Delivery Reports (SDRs) must be based on an OASys assessment. Other assessment tools (e.g. Risk Matrix 2000 or SARA) may also be necessary depending on the offence. Fast Delivery (FDR) and Oral Reports must be based on OGRS and an OASys Risk of Serious Harm Screening. Oral Reports are generally most suitable in low seriousness cases and/or to provide brief information and progressupdates against a current sentence plan. Where a more comprehensive assessment of the offenderis necessary, an FDR or SDR will be appropriate.

The importance of sentencers having confidence in the Probation Service cannot be overstated. An additional (andtopical), point to bear in mind is that unless we get the right advice to the courts, on time, we will not succeed in divertingfrom our caseload low risk offenders that Carter rightly identified should not be there. This is particularly applicable to groups identified and of focus within this scheme – black and minority ethnic, women, disabled and older offenders – where there is evidence both of disproportionately punitive sentencing by courts, and inadequate service provision within community supervision. An example here would be that we carried out further analysis on BME offenders in response to the LCJB Race Disproportionally PSA 24 request.