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COVID 19 Guidance – 24.03.2020

Additional Guidance in light of the most recent Government Covid 19 Guidance

Caseload Considerations

• The majority of offenders can be supervised by telephone/ Whatsapp/Skype (video messaging should be used wherever possible).

• Given that telephone/ Whatsapp/Skype supervision is inferior to face to face contact, it is a requirement that contact frequency for each offender doubles for those who are being supervised via this means.

• Face to face contact should be retained for the following groups: 

• TACT offenders 
• Offenders without recourse to a phone 
• Prison leavers reporting for their initial appointment (subsequent appointments can be done via telephone/ Whatsapp/Skype where appropriate) 

• For other high and very high risk of harm assessed offenders Doorstep visits should be the first consideration as a risk management strategy (it is recognised that this will not be appropriate in all cases). In order to keep staff safe this will involve a visit by car to the offender’s address and a telephone call being conducted from outside the property. (one of the additions to the guidance will be to always do ‘doorstep’ visits in pairs and where necessary with a police colleague). The will allow staff to have sight of the offender at the address whilst also facilitating a discussion. It is expected that this occurs once every four weeks for each offender assessed as presenting a high or very high risk of causing serious harm as a minimum this frequency should be specifically discussed with SPOs and the rationale recorded appropriately. For those offenders presenting a medium risk of serious harm or below, these should be used on a discretionary basis but no less than once every 3 months. Please note these are exceptional measures, that will be reviewed in 3 weeks time, in line with the message given by the Prime Minister on 23rd March. 

• Every risk management plan and sentence plan will need to be reviewed quickly to reflect the new supervision regime. Those plans associated with offenders presenting the highest risk should be prioritised for completion. All plans for medium risk of serious harm and above will need to be endorsed by an SPO. Whilst this will be automated for high and very high risk of serious harm cases, a manual review and Delius entry will need to be made for medium risk of serious harm cases. Specific attention should be paid to medium risk of harm cases where there are Safeguarding or Domestic Violence concerns present. 

• PDUs should arrange daily calls with Police and Local Authority Social Services Departments to review relevant call outs or intelligence from the past 24 hours. It is suggested that these calls should be with local agency MAPPA leads. 

• Where cases are managed on a multi-agency basis, ongoing contact with partner agencies should be maintained. 

Estate Considerations 

• Where possible, Probation Offices should be closed in order to support social distancing. It is likely that each office will not be able to close entirely, rather, judgements will need to be made about which day an office should open to receive those requiring face to face contact. 

• Senior Probation Officers will need to review the list of offenders requiring face to face contact in conjunction with their PDU Head and make a judgement about how many days per week the office will need to be open. In order to minimise the number of offices open, PDU Heads will need to review options including whether offenders can report to alternative offices. The availability of public transport will be an important consideration in making this decision. 

• When an office is closed, a sign should be placed on the door advising of the next day the office is open and providing a duty telephone number for emergency contact. The duty number can be shared between officers through use of the call forwarding function.

Administrative Considerations

• The extent to which administrative functions can be completed virtually will vary between PDUs.

• Business Managers will need to conduct a review of administrative functions and identify which cannot be completed virtually e.g. the production of enforcement packs for uploading to Court Store requires a printer and scanner in some Divisions.

• Where administrative functions require office hardware that is unavailable at home, arrangements will need to be made for access to offices to perform these tasks.