County Agencies - Lancashire Probation Service
What the Probation Service Do
Our aims are to
Lancashire covers 3,075 sq.km and has a population of almost 1.5 million people. LPT currently supervises around 6500 offenders in the community with nearly a further 2000 serving prison sentences. A vast majority of these offenders have problems with their accommodation and their employment - and many of them have issues with drug and alcohol misuse. In the community Much of our work is centred around offenders ordered to serve community sentences. There are twelve possible requirements that can be used to make up a community order and a judge can sentence an offender to any combination of them. The twelve requirements are:
Either a single requirement attached to a community order or part of a larger sentence, Community Payback is when a court orders an offender to complete between 40 and 300 hours of unpaid work (in total offenders complete 225,000 man-hours of work a year across the county). The aim of this community payback is to provide an opportunity for offenders to give something back to the community – and to reduce the risk of them committing another crime. To do this, we work in partnerships with local communities to find suitable work placements for the offenders to complete. We also arrange placements which enable offenders to learn work skills that improve their employability and guide them away from a life of crime.
Rehabilitation We do this work in an effort to rehabilitate offenders into leading law abiding lives. We try to address their attitudes and beliefs, criminal history, substance abuse and their lifestyle. Many offenders struggle with basic skills such as numeracy and literacy – limiting their job prospects. This needs to be addressed because gaining a job is a major factor in keeping people away from crime. Working with colleges of further education, we can improve offenders’ basic skills and with many other partners we can help them settle down and tackle other issues such as a lack of housing, financial difficulties and mental health problems. What this means for you We do our work to help protect the public and give support to the victims of crime. And for the victims of most serious crimes: those involving sexual or violent offenders serving 12 months or more in prison, we employ dedicated victim liaison officers. They contact the them and keep them updated about the sentences of offenders, what will happen when they are released and to allow victims to voice their concerns and contribute to release proposals. The work we do is challenging but rewarding and we strive to make a difference to both the offenders and to you. So if you want to contact us or find out more about us and how we work, visit our website at www.lancashireprobation.co.uk |
Lancashire Probation Trust is a law enforcement agency protecting the public in Lancashire by punishing and rehabilitating offenders. We are 1 of 42 probation areas in England and Wales. Employing over 600 staff working from 16 offices, LPT is a large, dedicated organisation lead by Chief Executive Bob Mathers and the Lancashire Probation Board. Working closely with all other criminal justice agencies, LPT also has a strong presence within the six prisons, 12 magistrates’ courts, and 3 crown courts based across the county.