As Chief Officer of the Teesside Probation Area I would like to welcome you to our website.  The website is designed to give you an insight into the work that the Probation Service does locally both with offenders and victims of serious crime, and hopefully you will find it both interesting and informative.

Teesside Probation Area is one of 42 in England and Wales and we are part of the National Offender Management Service, an agency of the Ministry of Justice.  Our key aims are the protection of the public, the reduction of reoffending and the rehabilitation of offenders. We work closely with other partners in the Criminal Justice Service such as the Police, Courts, Prisons, Crown Prosecution Service and the Youth Offending Service and also with Local Authorities, Health and a range of voluntary organisations.

Our work includes providing reports to court to assist them in their sentencing decisions, the supervision of offenders on community orders and also those on licence from prison.  Offenders on supervision may undertake unpaid work in their local community (known as Community Payback) or complete an individual or groupwork programme designed to tackle those things which lead to their offending (including drug and alcohol abuse).  They will also be given help to improve their literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to obtain training or employment.

The relatively few dangerous or potentially dangerous offenders are managed jointly with colleagues in the Police.  By working together we can share information about these offenders on a daily basis, closely monitor their behaviour and help them become less likely to reoffend.  Our public protection responsibilities also extend to work with victims (and families of victims) of serious sexual and violent crime.  We have dedicated Victim Liaison Officers who keep victims and their families informed about an offender’s sentence and ensure that victims’ concerns are listened to when plans are being made for an offender’s release into the community.

We have a local Probation Board, whose members are from the local community and appointed by the Home Secretary.  It is their job to work with senior managers to determine the overall direction of the organisation and also to ensure we are fulfilling our responsibilities to offenders, victims and the wider community.

Our work is fairly complex and certainly very varied, but by its very nature it is often not well known or understood by the general public.  Inevitably we are less visible than the Police but we too are working hard to help make the Teesside community a safer place in which to live and work. I hope that by accessing our website you will be able to learn more about how we do this, and also a little about the type of people who work for the local Probation Service. I hope you find the website helpful and if it prompts you to find out more about the Teesside Probation Service then please contact us.

Thank you,

Elaine Lumley
Chief Officer – Teesside Probation Area