Safer Annual Review 2011 - Prevent offending

Community Payback

Offenders completed over a third of a million pounds worth of unpaid work in a year as part of Community Payback projects across Sandwell's six towns.

Offenders, who are supervised by Staffordshire & West Midlands (SWM) Probation Trust, removed graffiti and cleared overgrown land and fly-tipped waste across the borough.

Over 58,000 hours of work were completed in Sandwell during 2010-11, up from 53,000 in 2009-10 and 47,000 in 2008-9.

Offenders are not paid for the work - but if they had all been paid minimum wage, the work in 2010-11 would have cost over £340,000.

The 456 individual projects included over 100 that involved the removal of graffiti from public spaces.

Read more about Community Payback work across Sandwell's six towns, as well as the Community Payback Annual Report 2010.

The Hub

A new training facility in Sandwell is playing a central role in tackling gun and knife crime by giving ex-offenders the means to break the cycle of crime.

The Hub gives ex-offenders real training to provide a launch pad to get their lives back on track. Read more about The Hub on page three of the Partnerships & Housing e-zine.

Youth offending

Sandwell Council has a multi-agency Youth Offending Team comprising of professionals from children and families, health, police and probation services working with young people who are at risk of offending or who offend.

The team gives support to young people and their families, to help prevent future offending.

And it involves those who have been in trouble in constructive activities, including reparation work to put something positive back into the community. This work includes clean-ups such as the cutting back of overgrown areas at a local eco park.

Sandwell Council has also launched a new, Targeted Youth Support service to respond better to the needs of children, young people and their families, particularly those who need extra support in their lives.

Targeted Youth Support aims to increase the number of children and young people on the path to success.

Over the past three years, Sandwell has reduced the number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time by over 400 - more than a 60% drop.

Young people who are known to Sandwell youth offending service and have received support are now 19% less likely to go on to offend in the future than in 2005.

Sandwell has also demonstrated higher levels of young people accessing education, training and employment at the end of their court orders when compared to regional and national levels.

For the first time, the service's caseload now has a higher proportion of young people involved in preventative work than court orders.

The percentage of young people known to the Youth Offending Service in full time education, training or employment at the end of their court orders was 76.4% for 2010/11.

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