The Prolific and other Priority Offenders Strategy
What's New
Premium Service Delivery Thematic Inspection
On 25 July, the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectors Group wrote to all areas participating in the Thematic Inspection of Premium Service Delivery. The schedule of inspections is as follows:
| LCJB | CDRP/CSP/Scheme | Date of Inspection |
| South Wales | Swansea | Week commencing 29/9/2008 |
| Cumbria | Scarfell Project | Week commencing 6/10/2008 |
| Norfolk | Norwich | Week commencing 13/10/2008 |
| Devon & Cornwall | Plymouth | Week commencing 27/10/2008 |
| West Midlands | Sandwell | Week commencing 3/11/2008 |
| London | Camden | Week commencing 10/11/2008 |
Example Thematic Inspection Delivery Letter - Camden 
(Portable Document Format 89k)
Letter to LCJBs on the PPO Premium Service Delivery Thematic Inspection
On 25 April 2008, Stephen Cahill, Acting Director, Police and Crime Standards; Phil Wheatley, Director General, National Offender Management Service; and David Wood, Acting Chief Executive, Office for Criminal Justice Reform, wrote to Chairs of all LCJBs regarding the PPO Premium Service Delivery Thematic Inspection.
Letter to LCJBs on the PPO Premium Service Delivery Thematic Inspection (Portable Document Format 112K)
Annex A - Premium Service Commitments (Portable Document Format 75K)
APACS and NIS Technical Guidance
Technical guidance for PPOs schemes on measuring performance under the Assessments of Policing and Community Safety (APACS) and the National Indicator Set (NIS) is available to download.
Technical Guidance (Portable Document Format 178K)
Director of Police and Crime Standards letter to CDRPs, CSPs and LCJBs
On 17 March 2008 Stephen Cahill, Acting Director, Police and Crime Standards wrote to all Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in England, all Community Safety Partnerships in Wales and all Local Criminal Justice Boards. The letter, titiled Prolific and other Priority Offender (PPO) Programme: Building on Success outlined a number of key areas is now available for download.
Letter to PPO schemes (Portable Document Format 100K)
London Model Guidance
The 4th Edition of model guidance for setting up and running Prolific and other Priority Offender schemes for adult offenders in London was published in June 2007 and is available to download.
4th Edition of London Model Guidance (Portable Document Format 350KB)
'Working Together' leaflet produced
A leaflet entitled Working Together which covers specific issues arising from the alignment of PPO and DIP has been produced by Central Office of Information on behalf of the Home Office. The leaflet addresses:
- The aims of alignment.
- The profile of PPO and CJIT clients.
- Effective joint working, including the six key features of alignment.
'Working Together leaflet. (Portable Document Format 482KB)
'PPO Leaflet' produced
A leaflet entitled 'Understanding the Prolific and other Priority Offender Programme' has been produced by Central Office of Information (COI). This provides key information, including:
- An overview of the PPO Programme
- Evidence of success - including an explanation of the 62% reduction in recorded convictions after 17 months on the programme
- Identifying a PPO
- The PPO Programme in action
- The PPO Journey
- PPO feedback
- The people behind the PPO Programme
- The PPO and Drug Interventions Programme Partnership
- Why the PPO Programme is unique
- Quick facts
- Case studies
Understanding the Prolific and other Priority Offender Programme (Portable Document Format 104KB)
This leaflet is also available to order from the Home Office website here.
JTrack Newsletter
The Home Office have produced a JTrack Newsletter which has been provided to Government Office and Welsh Assembly PPO Leads for dissemination to LCJB chairs, CDRP chairs, PPO scheme leads and Community Safety Managers.
JTrack Newsletter (Portable Document Format 101KB)
PPO Key Messages document
The Home Office PPO Programme Team has created a 'Key Messages' document which provides a brief description of the programme and its aims and achievements. It has been designed to be used in briefing material, local publicity, and can be used to help explain the programme to partners.
PPO Key Messages document (Portable Document Format 59KB)
An evaluation of PPO across four London Boroughs
The Crime Reduction and Community Safety Research Group at London South Bank University have conducted an evaluation of PPO across four London Boroughs. This qualitative study involved 37 PPOs and 18 practitioners across the London Boroughs of Barnet, Islington, Southwark and Lambeth.
An evaluation of the Prolific and other Priority Offender Programme across four London boroughs (Portable Document Format 488KB)
Partnership Guidance - Aligning the PPO programme and the DIP programme
The Home Office document 'Rebalancing the Criminal Justice System in favour of the law-abiding majority' published in July 2006, included a commitment to align the PPO programme more closely with the Drugs Intervention Programme. The primary aim of alignment is to ensure that the highest crime causing drug users are identified and targeted. Alignment will ensure the best possible interaction between PPO and DIP schemes, so that the best possible grip is exerted on a key group of drug mis-using offenders who are central to both schemes.
Guidance on how local PPO and DIP schemes should work together under the banner of 'alignment' has been produced by the Home Office.
Partnership guidance - aligning the PPO and DIP programmes. (Portable Document Format 229KB)
Publication of the Home Office evaluation of the PPO Programme
An impact assessment of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders (PPO) programme was published on 20 February 2007 showing that conviction rates for 7,800 PPOs fell by 62% after 17 months on the programme. Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said:-
"This targeted approach to tackling crime and re-offending amongst prolific offenders works. Drug treatment, where required, helps individuals and protects the public by cutting crime. The results of this evaluation are very impressive and show that if we can focus on dealing with the small number of most problematic offenders, including problematic drug addicts who are responsible for large amounts of crime, we can improve the quality of life for communities"
Impact assessment of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders programme 
(Portable Document Format 412KB)
The Home Office has published a 'Research to inform and guide practice' document which shows the lessons learned from the PPO programme which contains a number of practical recommendations that will be helpful to front-line practitioners.
The National PPO Evaluation - research to inform and guide practice (Portable Document Format 111KB)
A joint letter from Moira Wallace, Director General Home Office Crime and Community Safety Group, Helen Edwards, Chief Executive National Offender Management Service and Ursula Brennan Chief Executive, Office for Criminal Justice Reform has been sent to chairs of CDRPs in England, CSP chairs in Wales and chairs of LCJBs to announce the publication and to thank them for their continued support for the PPO Programme.
Covering letter to CDRP chairs, CSP chairs in Wales and LCJB chairs (Portable Document Format 111KB)
Good practice documents - PPO Offender Management in Custody
The following documents have been adopted as good practice by the Prison Service nationally, and also appear on the Prison Service 'changes' intranet site.
'High Level Process' flowchart (Portable Document Format 60KB)
from the South West Prison Service area detailing the identification of PPOs, case management of PPOs in custody and exit strategy and managing risk.
Process activities for the end to end management of PPOs in custody (Portable Document Format 86KB)
This document, also from the South West area, details the tasks under each of the three high-level sub-processes above.
Area Audit of PSO 4615 (PPOs) (Portable Document Format 241KB)
A good practice document drawn up by Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Area to assist in auditing Prison Service responsibilities under PSO 4615 (PPOs).
National Implementation of the PPO Premium Service Specification Report - December 2006
This report, published by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR), presents the results of a self reporting survey sent to all Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) in January 2006. The report explores the progress made by LCJBs in implementing and delivering the PPO Premium Service Specification issued by OCJR in August 2005.
Premium Service Final Report (Portable Document Format 308KB)
PPO Cross Scheme Guidance on shared protocols: Based on the West Midlands Model - November 2006
This guidance is intended to help PPO schemes and key partner agencies to tackle the problems of those PPOs who offend in areas other than the locality in which they live and in which they are registered as a PPO.
PPO Cross Scheme Guidance 
(Word Document 419KB)
PPO Guidance on Local Area Agreements
From April 2007 all Local Area Agreements (LAAs) must include a mandory indicator on reducing re-offending. The indicator is to 'reduce the proportion of adult offenders and young offenders, and Prolific and other Priority Offenders who re-offend' . This document gives guidance to Government Offices on including such an indicator in LAAs.
PPO LAA Guidance for Government Offices (Portable Document Format 52KB)
Early findings from the PPO programme evaluation
The Home Office's Research Development & Statistics Directorate has published a 10-page report of early findings.
Download "Early findings from the PPO programme evaluation" (Portable Document Format 81KB)
Last update: Wednesday, July 30, 2008