Intouch
The Kent, Surrey and Sussex CRC partner newsletter
December 2016
Community Payback helps CRC meets international standards for
Making Miracles
quality management
More on page 2
More on page 3
Prisoner resettlement ‘one stop shop’ launches
A new resettlement centre, which
will help prisoners at HMP Lewes
to prepare for a crime-free life after
prison, will officially open in January
2017.
Prisoners will have access to a range
of rehabilitative services all in one
place when Kent, Surrey and Sussex
Community Rehabilitation Company
(KSS CRC), Jobcentre Plus, National
Careers
Service,
Southdown
Housing, the Armed Forces charity
SAFFA, and mentoring services all
start working from the centre in the
new year. There are also plans for
specialist finance, benefit, and debt
advisors and services for younger
prisoners to be co-located in the
resettlement centre later on in 2017.
The objective is to help prisoners to
resettle, get a job, find a home and
manage choices that help them to
turn away from reoffending.
Siamack Danesteh-Pour, KSS CRC’s
Senior Probation Officer, comments
‘Rehabilitation must begin behind
the prison walls if we are to reduce
reoffending.’
‘Each department within HMP Lewes
plays an essential part in the prisoner’s
rehabilitative journey, and the new
co-located model strengthens our
ability to embed our vision of taking
a whole prison approach to prisoner
rehabilitation.’
‘It is a significant step forward to
tackle reoffending.’
‘I am grateful to HMP Lewes for
supporting us in creating this
resettlement centre, which will
ultimately harmonise the way
resettlement services are delivered
across departments.’
Jo Lupton, HMP Lewes’ Head of
Reducing Reoffending, adds: ‘We
are delighted at the prospect of
having a resettlement centre at HMP
Lewes. Agencies working even closer
together will no doubt have a positive
impact on prisoners. We are striving
to become an excellent resettlement
prison, and this is another example of
the progress we are making.’
Service users to help their New Redhill
peers steer clear of crime office opens
KSS CRC will be launching a peer
mentoring scheme early next year
to help service users successfully
complete their orders and licences.
Peer mentors will offer fellow service
users the benefit of their experiences
of the Criminal Justice System,
encouraging and supporting them
through mentoring activities to bring
about changes in their life too. They will
offer service users one-to-one support
and will also assist in motivating
people to complete programmes
which they have previously attended
themselves.
In return for volunteering their time,
peer mentors will receive accredited
training in mentoring skills and be able
to access further in house education,
employment and training support to
help with their ongoing development
and opportunities. This will help
individuals to build up their CV, so that
when they are ready to move on from
being a peer mentor, they can apply
for other jobs or volunteering roles.
Peer mentor training will begin in
January 2017.
Deborah Mclenning, KSS CRC’s
Volunteer Manager, says: ‘We are
very excited to be launching this
scheme, which will have a positive
impact on reoffending. Getting support
and advice from individuals who have
been in the same position as them will
encourage service users to take up
support and make positive changes.’
KSS CRC’s new Redhill office
opens today (12 December).
The new location is: 3rd Floor,
Tower House, 3 Cromwell Road,
Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1RT.
Telephone: 01737 308172
Note: The National Probation
Service will be staying at Allonby
House.
Please update your records
accordingly.
Community
Payback
impresses
charity with their quality workmanship
Community Payback Supervisor Anthony Pearson
(left) cuts the ribbon with the Dean of Rochester and
the charity’s founder and Chairwomen
A charity was so impressed by the
work of KSS CRC’s Community
Payback team in helping them to
create a memorial garden in Medway
for grieving parents who have lost
babies during pregnancy or shortly
after birth, they have asked them to
return and help with their next project.
Community Payback teams worked
alongside charity Making Miracles for
over 18 months to transform a piece
of overgrown land into a special
haven for mums and dads. They
cut back bushes and vegetation,
put up fencing, laid paths, planted
flowers, and installed features such
as wooden benches and a small
boat for children.
The team also
built a star shaped
rotunda - a place
where mums and
dads who have
lost a child can
place a pebble in the arms of star,
bearing the name of the lost child or
simply the date to mark their loss.
The charity asked Anthony Pearson,
a KSS CRC Community Payback
Supervisor who oversaw the team, to
open the garden alongside the charity
and Dean of Rochester, to mark
the huge contribution Community
Payback made to the project.
Sally Howells, Making Miracles
Chairwomen, explains: ‘We will
always regard Anthony Pearson and
the Community Payback team as
our partner in developing this special
place. We could not have done it
without them.’
Community
P a y b a c k
Manager
Jack
Budgen,
said:
‘Individuals
on
Community
Payback were so
heavily invested in this project they
worked on evening groups and some
even came back to volunteer even
though they had completed all their
hours. Three of whom attended the
ceremony.’
Making Miracles is now looking to
set up a workshop where Community
Payback teams can create highquality wooden objects the charity
can sell to raise funds for their work.
The charity says they thought of
the idea after being impressed by
the Community Payback’s quality
workmanship, and in particular the
carpentry skills individuals learnt
from the Supervisor when they were
working at the memorial garden.
HMIP praise partnership work
NOMS Survey
KSS CRC has received a positive
report from HM Inspectorate of
Probation following our successful
work with partners.
We would like to thank our
partners who completed the
NOMS Community Rehabilitation
Company
Stakeholder
Satisfaction Survey for KSS CRC.
The Inspectorate visited Kent in
July 2016 to review the quality of
probation work carried out in the
county by KSS CRC, who work with
low to medium risk offenders and
also by the separate public sector
body, and the National Probation
Service South East, who work with
high risk offenders.
During their inspection visit, they
noted many good practice examples
of support for service users delivered
in partnership with other relevant
partner agencies, such as local
authorities, criminal justice partners
and charities.
KSS CRC’s overall performance
was also acknowledged to be
‘among the best of any CRC
nationally’, and the inspectors were
particularly impressed with KSS
CRC’s ‘commitment to working with
individuals fully in planning their own
route away from crime’.
Suki Binning, KSS CRC’s Chief
Executive, says: ‘I am delighted that
HMIP says in its reports that our CRC
is impressive on many accounts. As
always, there are things we can do
better and we have already acted
upon the recommendations.’
‘I would like to take this opportunity to
thank our staff and partners for their
continued support and dedication to
helping people rehabilitate their lives.’
Intouch: December 2016 The Kent, Surrey and Sussex CRC partner newsletter
Kamini Sanghani, KSS CRC’s
Partnership Director, said: ‘We
are very appreciative of the time
you have taken to complete the
survey and are committed to
utilising the information gained
to make positive improvements.
We will share the results with you
when we receive the responses
from NOMS.’
Results from the stakeholder
survey will help inform the CRC’s
future plans and strategies.
Page 2
Programme rolls
out to rest of Kent
A 12-week domestic abuse
programme in Kent and Medway,
which men can refer themselves to,
is set to start running in new areas
following an initial successful pilot.
The programme, which has groups
co-facilitated by the CRC and a
range of agencies, such as district
councils and the voluntary sector,
work with up to 12 people at a time.
The groups are an equal mix of
self-referred men and men referred
to the programme by CRC as
part of their Rehabilitation Activity
Requirement.
KSS CRC retains ISO
certification for quality
KSS CRC has achieved ISO 9001
re-certification - the international
standard
that
measures
an
organisation’s commitment to quality
management and maintaining the
highest standards of continuous
improvement.
The top accolade follows an external
audit by the British Standards
Institute.
Suki Binning, KSS CRC’s Chief
Executive,
said:
‘Retaining
ISO 9001 clearly endorses our
commitment to providing quality in
our service delivery. We continually
review our operations and the
dedication shown by team members
to achieve this certification will
ensure that our service users and
partners continue to receive the
best service throughout all areas of
the company.’
The certification adds to the growing
list of standards and accreditations
achieved by KSS CRC and its
owner Seetec.
KSS CRC has worked with Kent &
Medway Domestic Abuse Strategy
Group to allow men who are not on
an order or licence, but recognise
they have been abusive in their
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relationships, to join the programme
Company Registration
Company Registration
No. 2291188No.
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2291188
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No.
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New groups are scheduled to run
in Maidstone (February 2017),
Medway (June 2017) and Thanet
(September 2017). The first pilot
group was held in Canterbury and
is due to finish in mid-December.
Kirstie King, Operational Lead for
the Kent and Medway Domestic
Abuse Strategy Group, says: ‘The
Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse
Strategy Group are delighted to
be working in partnership with
KSS CRC to expand the provision
of domestic abuse perpetrator
programmes in the community. The
provision of interventions to reduce
the impact of domestic abuse in our
communities, and prevent it in the
future, are a vital part of our multiagency domestic abuse strategy
and programmes such as this will
contribute toward our objectives.’
Partners invited to networking events
KSS CRC will be inviting partners
to networking events at two of their
new offices in Redhill and Crawley
next year.
Earlier this year, partners were
invited to a networking event at our
Maidstone Corporate Centre.
Guests,
who
included
representatives from Kent Police,
local authorities, Crown Prosecution
Service,
Police
and
Crime
Commissioners Office, National
Probation Service, Victim Support,
To partner with us, contact
Kamini Sanghani, Partnerships Director
T: 07860 924180 E: [email protected]
User Voice and Kent Safeguarding
Children’s Board, enjoyed meeting
with members of our team and
making business connections over
lunch.
Suki Binning, KSS CRC’s Chief
Executive, said: ‘These events
are a wonderful opportunity for our
partners to get to know each other
and hear about our plans.’
We will send out invites to the next
events early in 2017.
Find out more about us.
Website: www.ksscrc.co.uk
twitter.com/ksscrc
Intouch: December 2016 The Kent, Surrey and Sussex CRC partner newsletter
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