Hampshire & IOW LCJB Plan 2019-2021

Hampshire & IOW Criminal Justice Board Plan 2019 - 2021 vision

The Hampshire & IOW Criminal Justice Board’s is to deliver, in partnership, a fair, effective and efficient Criminal Justice System, focusing on the service given to victims and witnesses of crime, prevention and rehabilitation of offenders in order to make Hampshire and Isle of Wight a place where people will feel safe to live, work and visit.

purpose

The of our Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) is to deliver measureable outcomes that enable excellence in service delivery to all local residents in order to raise public perception to both be safe and feel safe. We will work together to achieve this by:  influencing at a national level   

challenging and holding each other to account with honesty, energy and transparency developing positive relationships across the CJS to add collective value and unblock perceived and real issues within the system being ambitious and innovative for the people we serve

Hampshire & IOW Criminal Justice Board Partners Hampshire & IOW LCJB brings together the agencies with responsibility for delivering criminal justice services across our area. The criminal justice landscape is complex and multi-faceted and no single agency is responsible for the system as a whole. It is vital that criminal justice agencies have a shared understanding and are unified in their ambition. To work together in the most efficient and effective way possible, to focus on improving justice outcomes both for victims of crime and people who offend.

Crown Prosecution Service

Police

Youth Offending Teams

HM Courts & Tribunals Service

National Probation Service

Police & Crime Commissioner

Community Rehabilitation Company

Health

Prisons

Defence Judiciary

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Priorities 2019 – 2021 The Hampshire & IOW LCJB have produced this focused strategy with a strong vision that sets out criminal justice system direction, areas for improvement and resources, to address local priorities. This strategy was developed through local joint planning, aligned to national priorities and in line with existing delivery programmes led by the LCJB delivery groups. Opportunities were identified to reduce duplication and utilise existing information and governance structures. Also incorporated learning from others and work to date.

Supporting victims in their journey to ensure their experience is of a seamless single system

Reducing offending and improve rehabilitation

Deliver an effective and efficient Criminal Justice System in Hampshire & IOW

Improving public confidence by raising awareness of the role of CJS partners and their services

Focus on: Being innovative in response to challenges Sufficiently flexible to respond to emerging priorities 2

PRIORITY - Supporting victims in their journey to ensure their experience is of a seamless single system Oversee CJ partners’ compliance with Victims Code of Practice

Create, share and maintain directory of all services available

Improve court experience for V&W

Respond effectively to Domestic Abuse cases

Identify and challenge gaps

Remote evidence options

Consider V&W when moving CC trials

Implement national DA Best Practice Framework

‘Safer Hampshire’ document

Understand local impact of court audit

Improve trial effectiveness

Widening remit of SDAC group

Literature review and maintain

Consider how to establish evidence base for understanding victims experience and ensure their voice is heard

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Priority - Supporting victims in their journey to ensure their experience is seamless, as if it was a single system: Crime affects everyone differently and we need to provide tailored support to help victims and witnesses cope and recover. This is not only the right thing to do, but increases confidence in the criminal justice system and improves outcomes. A victim’s journey through the justice system, whatever the path and outcome, should not result in them becoming a victim of the process, as well as the crime. No one criminal justice agency can alone provide the services victims rightly expect to receive. We will ensure we are informed by listening to victims’ views to work together to provide a seamless system by undertaking the following: The Victim & Witness partnership sub-group from the LCJB is the delivery forum

1. Overseeing Criminal Justice partners’ compliance with the Victims Code of Practice by: The Victim Code of Practice sets out a minimum standard for the services that must be provided to victims of crime. It is important that victims of crime know what information and support is available to time from reporting a crime onwards and who to request help from if they are not getting it.

1.1 Identifying and challenging any gaps in partners’ compliance and highlighting interdependencies, creating an action plan to improve the service provided to victims 1.2 Following publication of the Victims Strategy, support the national development of a compliance framework 1.3 Developing an easy steps guide as to what you can expect as a victim/witness attending court.

1.4 Compiling a ‘Safer Hampshire’ Document with the key themes: keeping victims/witnesses informed about the criminal justice process at all stages of the case, timely and accurate updates about the progress of their case and information about the types of support services available to them.

1.5 Reviewing all victim related literature to ensure accuracy, availability and relevance to all agency publications

2. Create, share and maintain directory of all services available: 2.1 Work to be undertaken through the Victim Care Service, as part of their service delivery, to develop a website directory of all services available to victims and witnesses. This will then be shared with all criminal justice partners and be regularly monitored and maintained.

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3. Improve court experience for victims and witnesses by: 3.1 Continuing to reduce the impact on victims and witnesses due to unavoidable movement of trial location. Including, timely communication, increased information sharing as to specific vulnerabilities, in order to improve listing decision making 3.2 Increasing the number of effective trials in the magistrates’ court and reducing the number of witnesses called to court unnecessarily. Monitor this through trial scrutiny panels in each court area, identifying the reasons for cracked and ineffective trials and implement the actions required to avoid recurrence of the causes. Ensure a consistent approach, and share best practice to identify areas necessary to improve 3.3 Exploring innovative ways for victims and witnesses to give evidence remotely 3.4 Exploring how the LCJB can accurately measuring victim satisfaction by enabling the voice of the victim to be heard throughout the criminal justice process 3.5 When the outcomes are established from the comprehensive audit undertaken by HMCTS, identify where the gaps are and what the LCJB can do locally to change or influence.

4. Respond effectively to Domestic Abuse cases by: 4.1 Improving domestic abuse prosecution and victim experience by monitoring magistrates’ court performance to identify areas for development.

This includes arrest rate, timeliness, trial effectiveness, conviction rate and production of pre-sentence reports on the day.

4.2 Implementing national roll-out of the Cross CJS Domestic Abuse (DA) Best Practice Framework. Ensuring the domestic abuse courts are complying with the components highlighted in the Specialist Domestic Abuse Court Guidance which includes multiagency approach to address risk management and safeguarding procedures, IDVA support, trained staff across all agencies and in court services.

4.3 Building stronger links between the Domestic Abuse forums across the criminal justice and community safety arenas. To be facilitated by ensuring all forums have appropriate representation with two way feedback on areas of ongoing work in the community and changes in the criminal justice system that impact on DA

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PRIORITY – Reducing offending and improve rehabilitation

Improve outcomes for Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Improve sentencing for mental health

Improve Resettlement and Accommodation

Assess the needs of service users

Mental health sentencing options

Availability of services to support

Women’s Centre – all agencies link in

Expectations of agencies

Liaison & Diversion supporting assessments

Partnership communication of services

Women only pathways

Young people up to 25 (focus on those that seriously offend)

Improve understanding of Serious Organised Crime

Scrutiny of Out of Court Disposals

Educate and strengthen links

Women and Desistance Engagement (WaDE) Pilot

Post 18 service

Support understanding of Judiciary / Jury

Prison leavers access to treatment

Trauma Informed training

Support Pupil Referral Units

Completed treatments and satisfaction levels

Statement of Intent

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Priority – Reduce offending and improve rehabilitation By preventing offending the Criminal Justice agencies not only prevent victims but also aim to provide the right level of support to enable offenders to address their criminality and better equip them to avoid reoffending in the future. The LCJB wants to have the most effective pathways to prevent and reduce offending and reoffending in adults and young people through appropriate enforcement, early intervention, diversion and effective rehabilitation.

The LCJB will work with partners across the Criminal Justice System to better support those at risk of committing an offence.

1. Improve the outcomes of Drug and Alcohol clients in Criminal Justice in Hampshire and Isle of Wight by: 1.1 Establishing whether the needs of service users are being met in relation to drugs and alcohol misuse across the area 1.2 Complete an understanding piece of work, around the communication, expectations and boundaries of agencies involved 1.3 Monitoring prison leavers access to treatment to increase rates from 24% to 50% 1.4 Monitor completed treatments and see what clients are in treatment and gauge satisfaction levels

2. Improve sentencing for mental health treatment and its integration into the rehabilitative framework by: 2.1 Supporting the judiciary and magistrates with mental health sentencing options by sharing greater understanding of the existing process and the challenges that exist. Remove decision making discrepancies and better educate on the options for sentencing

2.2 Explore an opportunity to utilise the L&D commissioned service to support the NPS in assessing individuals at report writing stage

3. Improve the ability of service users to sustain their accommodation in Hampshire and Isle of Wight by: 3.1 Look at availability of services to support individuals with their accommodation and wider needs 3.2 Ensure partner agencies are informed of what wrap around services and mentoring opportunities are available to the service users they are working with

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4. Aspiration to have a women only pathway across all partners in Criminal Justice by: 4.1 Finding and supporting the development of a women’s centre that all agencies can link in to 4.2 Monitor and learn from the WaDE pilot that is due to go live from 1st April 19 4.3 Explore whether ‘trauma-informed’ training can be provided to all agencies 4.4 Produce a ‘Statement of Intent’ to articulate this commitment to women’s services from the agencies represented at the LCJB

5. Explore the opportunities and appropriateness of a diversion, out of court disposal, or sentence to an appropriate intervention for Young People up to the age of 25.

5.1 Develop a process for scrutinising a larger proportion of out of court disposals for young people 5.2 Develop a set of recommendations on what a post 18 service looks like 5.3 Explore opportunities to support the Pupil Referral Units to tackle increases in the seriousness of offending by young people and disrupt county lines

6. Educate criminal justice agencies to have a better understanding, awareness and stronger partnership links regarding serious organised crime to assist in reducing both vulnerability and reoffending 6.1 Reducing Reoffending Strategy Group to explore opportunities to educate and strengthen links 6.2 Consider providing a package to support Judges/Jury in their understanding of serious organised crime cases

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PRIORITY – Deliver an effective and efficient Criminal Justice System in Hampshire & IOW

Monitor handling of criminal cases through the CJS to improve the impact on V&W (QADG & PTPM)

Quality Assurance Delivery Group

(TSJ / BCM initiatives) Focus on timeliness, hearings per case, late dropped cases and presentence reports on day

Reduce late and delayed investigations and charging decisions for youth cases and those with vulnerable witnesses (H&IOW only)

Monitor performance and impact as a result of the Bail Act changes across the CJS

Scope sharing data set of serious and multi-handed offences in the pipeline for court to assist CC with forward planning (H&IOW only)

Progress to digital by default (Digital and Video Groups)

Prosecution Team Performance Management

Focus on Rape and Serious Sexual Offences

Court digitalisation /reform programme

Disclosure Action Plan

Regional video work

File Quality

Digital First Programme

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Priority – Deliver an effective and efficient criminal justice system in Hampshire & IOW From the Victim’s perspective, the progression of their case through the criminal justice system, from reporting to conclusion, should be seamless, with no delay or disruption. There should be end to end coordination across all justice agencies, understanding the demands and implications, ensuring any risks to delivery are identified and managed through collaborative working.

Establishing a modern digitalised criminal justice system is essential to providing an effective and efficient service with successful outcomes and better experiences for everyone.

Hampshire & IOW should identify opportunities to take new initiatives, nationally and locally, in order to develop innovative approaches to improve the service provided.

The Wessex Criminal Justice Efficiency Board acts as the decision forum for the resolution of multi-agency issues arising from the effective delivery of justice across the Wessex region.

1. Monitor handling of criminal cases through the CJS to improve the impact on victims and witnesses by: 1.1 Police and CPS collaboratively maintaining focus on sustaining improvements in the quality and early decision making of prosecution case files and the procedures which support effective case management at court, sharing the common objective of delivering a high quality service to victims and witnesses.

1.2 Ensuring that all procedures relating to the disclosure of relevant material that either undermines the prosecution case or assists the defence are dealt with fairly in accordance with the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act (CPIA) and implement the joint CPS and Police plan to meet the National Disclosure Improvement Plan 1.3 Maintaining scrutiny of rape and serious sexual offence cases through performance monitoring and peer review to learn best practice 1.4 Understanding the impact of the Bail Act changes on performance across the criminal justice system in the Wessex area, to enable action plans to be put in place to address and improve 1.5 Continuing to deliver the national Transforming Summary Justice and Better Case Management initiatives through improvement plans and monitoring of performance at magistrate and crown courts.

1.6 Reducing late and delayed investigations and charging decisions for youth cases and those with vulnerable witnesses by identifying the issues and implementing action plans to improve 1.7 Scope sharing data set of serious and multi-handed offences in the pipeline for court to assist Crown Court with forward planning

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2. Progress to digital by default in Hampshire & IOW to improve efficiency and effectiveness and outcomes by: 1.1 Continuing to identify opportunities collaboratively for efficiency arising from the implementation of national digital working projects at a local level 1.2 Continuing to engage with the regional video forum 1.3 Explore feasibility for video enabled justice opportunities to improve service provided to vulnerable victims and witnesses and to offer a more cost effective alternative for police officers giving evidence. Continue to work with colleagues across the south west region to learn and share best practice

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Improving public confidence by raising awareness of the role of CJS partners and their services

Create LCJB ‘specific’ Communications Strategy

Research

Campaigns and materials

Internal Communications

Digital Communications

Website - publish LCJB Annual Review and LCJB 2019-21 Plan

Social Media

Partnership Events

Media and creating content

Court Open Day

Court Films

TV filming in Hampshire

Focus on:

* Being innovative in response to challenges * To be sufficiently flexible to respond to emerging priorities (eg impact of Brexit)

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Priority – Improving public confidence by raising awareness of the role of CJS partners and their services: It is important the public trusts that the system deals with crimes and offenders according to the law while providing victims the support they need.

Ensuring the public believe the CJS is fair and effective can be important for the efficient functioning of the system.

The LCJB will do this by increasing awareness of the roles that all agencies play in the criminal justice system and the challenges they face. The LCJB will share and celebrate partners’ successes and also be prepared to communicate in times of crisis. The LCJB has committed to place a greater focus on young people, educational establishments and youth groups. This will be done by effective communication with the public and across the partnership.

1. Research: 1.1

Research will be undertaken with the public to gauge general understanding and awareness of the LCJB and what it achieves, and the criminal justice system to create a benchmark for communications and to also identify relevant campaigns and messages/narrative that is more accessible to the public and victims

1.2 Also explore research that has been/is being undertaken with victims to also identify a specific communications programme to raise awareness and give reassurance to victims and their families. This will be undertaken by linking up with: the Victim Code of Practice Group, Victim Witness Group, Victim Care Service, capturing ‘case studies’ of victims

2. Campaigns and materials: 2.1 There is opportunity to explore further ways for working together. This includes the potential for running joint campaigns. This can be similar to the ‘Cut your strings’ campaign in Dorset 2.2 Based on the business plan, it is recommended a future campaign be scoped out based on raising awareness of youth offending and changing behaviour of young people. This can be specifically targeted at schools, youth groups. We will also explore linking up with the Youth Commission to deliver this piece of work 2.3 Identifying and developing case studies and outcomes of LCJB partners’ works should be developed, for example victims and young people who have benefit 2.4 Issues to explore for awareness building activity: ACEs, county lines, out of court disposals, missing/exploited/trafficked, mental health and female offending, women focussed rehabilitation, housing provision to reduce reoffending

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2.5 Another area of focus and development is around the Victim’s journey and creating this to raise awareness of how the victim is at the heart of the CJS with the objective to build confidence and awareness 2.6 The challenge on police resourcing is now firmly on the news agenda and is largely understood by the public, however the resourcing challenges in other areas of the CJS are less well known. We should explore this when we undertake the public research and explore if it is appropriate to build awareness of the services that are available but also those that are under pressure 2.7 It is recommended we again focus on the CJS in November, and potentially launch and run a campaign during this month. This should also be linked with the national awareness week

3. Internal Criminal Justice Partner Communications: 3.1 LCJB members to inform us of their own internal channels for communications, such as intranets, newsletters, OneLAN screens etc and they can be added to the OPCC news release mailing lists, or a short paragraph can be prepared on news releases and send to your internal networks 3.2 An update after each LCJB also be prepared and shared through members’ internal networks.

4. Digital Communications: 4.1 Website: We will continue to develop a stronger presence and embed refreshed pages on the LCJB on the Commissioner’s website. This will include signposting to all members of the Board’s websites 4.2 Updates following board meetings on achievements/progress to be shared through a summary being added to the LCJB pages 4.3 All members of the board can register to sign up to receive the Commissioner’s online blog at www.hampshire-pcc.gov.uk/commissioner/myblog or with permission we can add individuals to the distribution list. We would like to invite member of the LCJB to become a ‘guest blogger’ at key times throughout the year, I would suggest at key times of achievement 4.4 Social media: LCJB members to share milestone and achievements with the OPCC comms team to share through social media, link with the focus for the month or to provide a Commissioner’s comment 4.5 Following Board meetings, the Commissioner/APCC to share updates through his online blog

5. Partnership events: 14

5.1 12 month plan: The OPCC to share the current 12-month plan with members of the LCJB and identify opportunities for joint events to be undertaken. There is an opportunity to set and run a series of joint events throughout the year, which can be added to the OPCC annual calendar.

This also provides opportunity for local media coverage 5.2 We are already starting to explore joint engagement events with the CPS, starting with Totton FC 5.3 Court open days: The court open days at Winchester and Southampton Courts were a huge success and helped to improve awareness of the criminal justice system, at least one to be undertaken during 2019. A provisional date has been set for a court open day in Portsmouth on Saturday 21 September 2019.

5. Media and creating content: 5.1 We will continue to explore materials that can be produced to promote the LCJB, to be circulated to all members. The CJS ‘map’ to be circulated and printed 5.2 Opportunities should be identified for the LCJB to make comments on national issues, to build its profile 5.3 Court films: The first court film to be agreed and circulated by March 2019. A schedule for other court films to then also be produced 5.4 Parliamentary Today alerts: We monitor the alerts throughout the day for the Commissioner. These sometimes create opportunity for comments on relevant announcement or articles to give the Commissioner profile or a voice on certain issues. In the same way, we can scan for announcements relating to the criminal justice system that can be shared with the LCJB and a localised comment be developed 5.5 Longer term we can look to identify targeted trade articles.

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How we will work together Close and effective collaborative working by criminal justice agencies across the Hampshire & IOW LCJB sub-groups is essential to deliver the shared priorities of the local partnership.

Reducing Reoffending Strategy Group

Prosecution Team Performance Management

Wessex CJS Efficiency Board

Quality Assurance Delivery Group

Digital Group

Victim & Witnesses Group

Specialist Domestic Abuse Court Steering Group

SW Regional Video Technology Group

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