In the past premium services have been developed for the
Persistent Offender Scheme (which was the precursor of the Prolific and
Priority Offender (PPO) initiative) and the Street Crime Initiative.
This approach has been built on the learning from these initiatives.
Ultimately, the expectation of the National Criminal
Justice Board (NCJB) is that there should be a National Criminal Justice
System premium service that can readily be deployed for any group
identified as a priority for the Criminal Justice System.
Premium could take a number of forms:
Faster processing - dealing with
offenders quickly in order to accelerate the application of control or the
provision of positive rehabilitative interventions.
Prioritisation of resources - although
there are no resources tied to the PPO strategy from the centre, there is
scope for re-prioritising resources locally to provide preferential access
to programme or deploy more experienced, specialised staff to increase the
prospects of securing the desired outcomes.
Enhanced quality standards - for
example covering more frequent supervisory contacts with offenders or
enhanced assurance/decision making processes.
Increased multi-agency collaboration -
effective delivery of the PPO programme requires the engagement and active
participation of the:
-
Police
-
Crown Prosecution Service
-
Her Majesty's Court Service
-
National Offender Management Service
-
Youth Offending Teams
-
and other partners outside the Criminal Justice
System, as appropriate
All these aspects are reflected in the Premium Service
specification. In some cases there may be tensions between speed and
quality of processing, in which case operational staff will need to apply
their judgement about the prioritisation in the individual case.
