Let's Have a RAR Day

With the MoJ publishing revised guidance, now seems as good a time as any to consider what those mysterious 'RAR days' are all about:-  

1. What is the rehabilitation activity requirement?

This guidance is to explain what the rehabilitation activity requirement (known as ‘RAR’) is and how it should be used. This guidance has been produced by the Ministry of Justice probation policy team.

The RAR is one of the requirements that can be included within a community order or suspended sentence order. The main purpose is to secure someone’s rehabilitation, restoring service users to a purposeful life in which they do not reoffend.

The RAR was introduced in 2014 under the Offender Rehabilitation Act to allow providers of probation services greater flexibility to decide on the best ways to rehabilitate individuals. Community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) were encouraged to access a diverse range of rehabilitation providers from the private, voluntary and social sectors.

The RAR replaces what would previously have been undertaken as part of both the supervision and specified activity requirements. What would have previously been known as ‘supervision’ is now split between RAR interventions and offender management activity by the responsible officer (RO). The RO oversees progress of the order and develops a close, trusting relationship with the individual to support them in successfully completing the requirements they’re subject to.

The RO plans with the service user how to use the ‘RAR days’ allocated by the court and which activities to take part in to help their rehabilitation, tailored to their specific needs.

2. RAR in sentencing

The court can decide to include a RAR as part of a community order or a suspended sentence order. They do not have to include a RAR. A RAR should be proposed when the person has clear rehabilitative needs, when appropriate activities are available and where these needs cannot be met by an accredited programme or a treatment requirement.

To assist sentencers, National Probation Service (NPS) court officers should make clear proposals that specifically identify the rehabilitative needs to be addressed and the number of days needed to do so.

Where needs can be met by an accredited programme or treatment requirement, this is the preferred intervention. This is because accredited programmes are evidence based and should achieve improved outcomes if provided to the right people in the right way. A RAR should only be allocated alongside an accredited programme if it can address additional rehabilitative activities that are not addressed by the programme. The RO can offer additional appointments to secure compliance and help maintain motivation.

Treatment requirements are delivered in partnership with locally commissioned substance misuse or mental health treatment services. These partnerships bring together the resources and skills to help those with mental health and substance misuse difficulties. Consent is required for all treatment requirements.

Drug rehabilitation requirements (DRRs) can be given when the court is satisfied that the service user is dependent on or misuses drugs, and that treatment is likely to help and is available.

Alcohol treatment requirements (ATRs) can be given when the court is satisfied that a service user is dependent on alcohol and that treatment is likely to help and is available. The service user’s dependency on alcohol does not have to have caused or contributed to the offence for which they’ve been convicted.

Mental health treatment requirements (MHTRs) can be given where the court is satisfied that an offender has a mental health condition that’s treatable either in a community setting or as an outpatient in a non-secure setting. MHTRs can be used for any mental health issue, including personality disorders, and the treatment offered can cover a wide range of interventions from therapy for depression and anxiety through to secondary and psychiatric care.

3. Assessing rehabilitative needs

A RAR could be used to address someone’s needs in the following areas:

• accommodation
• education, training and employment
• relationships
• lifestyle and associates
• non-dependent alcohol misuse (ATRs are intended for those who are alcohol dependent and DRRs for those who misuse illegal drugs)
• emotional management (MHTRs are intended for all diagnosed mental health conditions, apart from those that require a hospital or guardianship order)
• attitudes, thinking and behaviour
• finance, benefits and debt

These are the needs that evidence shows either predict reoffending if they are not met, or if they are addressed will contribute to the stability people need to be able to deal with other significant issues.

In general, the more of these needs the person has, the greater their risk of reoffending. The NPS advises the court in a pre-sentence report on an appropriate maximum number of RAR activity days that might be needed and why. The court cannot set what specific rehabilitation activities should be done.

The court specifies the maximum number of RAR days that someone can be instructed to participate in activities. The number of RAR days allocated should take into account the complexity and severity of someone’s needs and their risk of reoffending. The RAR is not designed to be used as a punishment.

There’s no maximum number of RAR days but the ‘offender group reconviction scale’ (OGRS) score, based on age, gender and criminal history, should be the main guide to the number of days proposed. This is because there’s a clear link between the OGRS score and the number of rehabilitative needs. Longer RARs should be reserved for those with a higher risk of reoffending as they will have the most needs to address.

OGRS score  Average number of needs  RAR intensity  Guideline number of RAR days

0 to 24%        2.4                                                                          n/a
25 to 49%      3.2                                      Low intensity          RAR 1 to 15 days
50 to 74%      4.4                                      Medium intensity    RAR 15 to 25 days
75 to 90%      4.4                                      High intensity         RAR 25 to 60 days
Over 90%      6.2                                      High intensity         RAR 25 to 60 days

People with an OGRS score of less than 25% present a low likelihood of reoffending and are unlikely to benefit from rehabilitative interventions. It should only be in exceptional circumstances that they’re identified as needing a RAR. There would need to be clear indication of dynamic risk factors linked to an increased risk of reoffending.

In relation to identifying the rehabilitative needs of sex offenders, OGRS is not a good predictor of sexual reoffending. The factors most strongly predictive of sexual offending include: unusual sexual interests, attitudes that support sexual offending, poor emotional relationships with adults and a lack of self-management. The NPS court officer needs to assess if any of these factors exist and should be addressed by RAR interventions. If they’re eligible for an accredited programme, that should be the intervention of choice. It may be necessary to propose more RAR days if other stabilisation needs are identified.

The pre-sentence report should provide enough information about someone’s needs for the court to understand what their RAR is likely to focus on and why this should contribute to their rehabilitation.

People under probation supervision frequently have a wide range of needs. The important task is to identify the needs that, for that person, need addressing to reduce their risk of reoffending.

4. RAR in sentence planning

After sentencing, the assigned RO completes an initial assessment and, with the service user, decides on the interventions that will be done within the RAR, how they’ll be delivered, how often the person attends and what outcomes they’re aiming to achieve. This forms part of the ‘sentence plan’. It’s important to focus on the needs that are predictive of reoffending.

A RAR ‘day’ does not mean continuous activity throughout a whole day. All activities need to be enforceable. The activities that count as 1 day could include:

• individual face-to-face planned and structured sessions designed to address identified needs
• a planned activity with a third-party provider
• 2 or more separate planned activities or sessions in the same day

If someone’s circumstances change in the course of the order, the RO can amend the number and type of activities to ensure they continue to meet the person’s needs. However, the number of RAR days cannot exceed that proposed by the court.

The sentence given by the court states the maximum number of RAR days that someone can be instructed to attend. If the RO believes that the agreed outcomes have been achieved through a lower number of RAR days than specified by the court, or through an alternative method, this needs to be recorded on Delius (the probation case management system) with the reasons explained.

5. What counts as a RAR activity

A RAR activity must be a pre-planned, structured intervention to address someone’s identified need to support their rehabilitation. The RO and the service user should agree the desired outcomes ahead of the activities, so that progress can be tracked.

Probation providers will have different interventions they can offer as part of a RAR to address the needs that are strongly predictive of reoffending. These are likely to include activities in the areas of:

• accommodation
• education, training and employment
• relationships
• lifestyle and associates
• non-dependent alcohol misuse (ATRs are intended for those who are alcohol dependent and DRRs for those who misuse illegal drugs)
• emotional management (MHTRs are intended for all diagnosed mental health conditions)
• attitudes, thinking and behaviour
• finance, benefits and debt
• specific interventions for women

This is not a full list. Other activities could be included as a RAR as long as it’s planned, structured, clearly meets rehabilitative needs and there’s a rationale as to why it should work.

The activity could be as part of a group or could be individual ‘face-to-face’. An activity is usually delivered by a third party on behalf of the RO, but could be by the RO themselves if there’s no existing intervention available.

The RO must also undertake additional offender management activities, which include motivation, promoting and sustaining hope, supporting compliance, enforcement, public protection and overseeing the overall direction and sequencing of activities in the order. These appointments do not count as RAR days and the RO can offer as many of these as they feel are necessary during the course of the order. There will also be other unstructured discussions between the RO and the service user to support them in addressing their identified needs. These discussions are crucial to the building of a positive relationship with the service user, but do not count as RAR days.

6. Selecting RAR activities

The RO needs to understand the person’s needs that lie behind the offence and select an existing intervention to addresses these. If no suitable activity exists then they must record this on Delius (the probation case management system) with the reasons explained.

Examples of activities could include:

• programmes designed to address specific issues such as emotional management
• enforceable appointments with a specialist organisation to help achieve outcomes relating to housing or financial needs
• working with a mentor, for example to attend college, go to the library or help prepare a CV
• structured sessions with a RO, third sector provider or in-house specialist to help improve an individual’s ability to solve problems, make good decisions or access and maintain engagement with other services

7. Delivering RAR activities

RAR activities can be delivered by a sub-contracted provider (where there are arrangements to monitor attendance, as these are legally enforceable), an in-house specialist or by the RO. When the RO is delivering RAR interventions, this should be recorded as such, as it’s distinct from their offender management activity. The RO should ensure the service user is engaging with the process and making progress.

All appointments instructed by the RO, whether delivered by the RO or other RAR provider, are enforceable.

The RO should be assessing whether the person’s needs are being met through the planned interventions and making changes if appropriate. The provider of the RAR activity should be reporting back on attendance, progress and suggested next steps.

The service user cannot be instructed to attend more RAR days than those given in their sentence. The RAR days do not necessarily need to be spaced out for the duration of the sentence, they can be completed whenever is most appropriate.

After completing the RAR activities to address the risk of reoffending, the RO can signpost the service user to further support if needed.

The outcome of the RAR intervention needs to be recorded on Delius. This should reflect whether the desired outcomes that were agreed as part of the initial sentence plan have been achieved. The RO needs to confirm that this counts as the completion of the RAR. If fewer days have been completed, the RO needs to record the rationale for taking this decision, a description of the progress that’s been made and the outcome achieved.