MAPPA protecting the public in Sussex
31/10/2008
People in Sussex can be assured they are being offered the best possible protection from society's most dangerous offenders, according to a new report today.
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in England and Wales were put in place seven years ago to provide more robust management systems for offenders living in the community through the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
MAPPA involves police, probation, prison, local authorities and other relevant agencies working together closely and sharing information to ensure the risks posed to the public by violent and sexual offenders are minimised.
Today's Sussex MAPPA annual report provides statistical information on MAPPA offenders, explains how they are managed and provides examples of where multi-agency working has been successful in protecting the public.
Sonia Crozier, chief officer of Sussex Probation Area, said: "We recognise the risk can never be entirely eliminated when supervising difficult and dangerous individuals but the information in today's annual report testifies the vast majority of those subject to active MAPPA controls do not seriously re-offend as a result of our robust and effective management."
Chief Constable Martin Richards said: "The management of sexual and violent offenders in the community is one of the most challenging roles the police and probation services undertake. In any civilised society once an offender has served their sentence they are entitled to release and, often, that is the last we hear of them. Others, however, require close and careful supervision and monitoring to ensure that any risk they may pose is minimised and managed. It is the strength of the Sussex Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements together with the close partnership of the Responsible Authority and Duty to Co-Operate agencies which enables our collective resources to be corralled to meet this challenge. As a result very few offenders who fall under the remit of MAPPA re-offend.
"This report marks another successful year for Sussex where we have made even greater strides towards making the public safer. The new MAPPA guidance has been successfully implemented across all agencies. The audit process gives us confidence that the work being carried out at all levels is robust and proportionate. Finally the briefings of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards have ensured that MAPPA is truly victim focussed.
"I look forward to the further developments in 2008/9 which will mainstream the MAPPA functions even further and, through the two new lay advisors, enable the community's voice to be heard."
In 2007 the Home Office published plans to strengthen the disclosure, registration, accommodation, management and treatment of child sex offenders. Pilots have been announced to trial the disclosure of child sex offenders within the community, a consultation has been launched to look at lie detector tests for sex offenders and the Government is examining further the use of drug treatment for sex offenders.
Although Sussex is not one of the pilot areas, MAPPA in the county already makes extensive use of existing powers to disclose the identities of dangerous offenders to community figures such as headteachers, youth organisations and church leaders to assist in protecting the public.
In the last year MAPPA in Sussex has been strengthened in several areas. For the first time the three main authorities - police, probation and prisons - are able to work on the same computer system, ViSOR (Violent Sexual Offender Register), which has improved information sharing on dangerous offenders. Sussex MAPPA has also taken on additional staff and adopted a robust new case review process.
A key milestone is the development of an agreement between the main MAPPA authorities and local partners including local authority social services, housing and education departments, health services, registered social landlords, youth offending teams and Job Centre Plus. The Memorandum of Understanding sets out procedures for assessing and managing risk and sharing information and should further reduce the risk of serious harm to the public from offenders.
Di Smith, Brighton & Hove City Council's Director of Children's Services, said: "As a council we welcome our close working relationships with other agencies in ensuring the smooth working of the MAPPA process. It's really important that local authorities play their part in an active way in managing people who pose a risk and in ensuring public safety."
Click here to view the MAPPA 2007/08 annual report (PDF 557 KB).
