The Beacon Year ended in June 2009 however Sunderland is committed to reducing re-offending and sharing best practice whenever possible.

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 Events held in the Beacon Year         Case Studies                      Legacy Products                      Contact Us

Sunderland Reducing Re-Offending Beacon Overview

Sunderland is a big city with big ambition. The crime rate is 5% lower than the national rate. There has been a 27% reduction in recorded crime since 2002 and Sunderland is one of the safest cities in the north. Worry about crime has fallen from 47% to 34% in the last 3 years and the authority has achieved a number of exceptional results in relation to reducing offending.

Sunderland has 5 beacon exemplars:

• Partnerships

• Innovation

• Unique and creative data management

• Leadership

• Community engagement

The beacon assessors said ”Sunderland has deservedly secured beacon status for reducing re-offending because they have demonstrated a positive commitment across the range of the theme and have turned their vision and strategy into highly positive outcomes for offenders and the wider community”. Sunderland has demonstrated improved outcomes on youth offending, and against the national trend, the rate of custody for young offenders has dropped from 12% in 1999 to a current figures of 2.8%, with no negative impact on levels of offending. This has been achieved through tackling issues such as access to accommodation and mental health services. There are also increases in the number of adult offenders accessing services and the authority has demonstrated innovative actions for both adult and young offenders, and a willingness to reshape services to meet the needs of service users.

Service Improvement and Innovation

Sunderland has delivered on the Reducing Re-offending Pathways across youths as well as adults and managed transitions. Reductions in the use of custody for young people have been achieved through innovative schemes including:

• Revolving Door Project in partnership with local Youth Offender Institutes to prevent young offenders revolving in and out of custody.

• ISSP (incorporating the award winning New Directions unpaid work scheme for long term unemployed offenders)

• Resettlement and Aftercare Programme engaging young substance misusers.

The council can share examples of positive management at the key point of transition from youth to adult services as well as our resource directory on researched and evidenced based offending behaviour programmes for work with children and young people, for example Be Safe Weapons. Successes include direct restorative justice approaches for looked after children, young people in custody and racially motivated offenders, as well as a range of unpaid work schemes with partners in the statutory, voluntary and business sectors on schemes directed by local communities. Data segmentation is used to target services and resources, examples include (a) hate crime analysis to target perpetrators and (b) analysis identifying children and young people at risk of offending through their association with an adult offender subject to MAPPA (Multi-agency public protection arrangements). Twice winner of the Youth Justice Board Communicating Youth Justice Awards for a turn around approach to negative media coverage, Sunderland has a positive media management strategy to ensure that the public are aware of what the council is doing to reduce crime and as a result worry about crime reduced. A strong performance management and delivery culture exists across youth and adult services and, as a result, Sunderland can demonstrate improvement across the reducing re-offending pathways including key areas such as:

• 86% success in moving adults to independence without further offending. Young offenders with satisfactory accommodation improved from 92% to 99%.

• Young offenders in suitable ETE (Education, training and employment) has improved from 76% to 90%.

• The national waiting times target for the delivery of substitute prescribing (of methadone) is 3 weeks. Following re-provision of its prescribing service the average waiting time in Sunderland is down to 2 days. On some occasions, where an individual’s needs have been particularly acute, prescribing has been delivered within 2 hours. This reduced waiting time has contributed to an increase in the number of criminal justice clients accessing treatment via the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP), which in turn has seen an 18% reduction in arrests for drug related acquisitive crime.

The first national domestic violence perpetrators hostel was developed in Sunderland. Domestic violence repeat offences are down by 10%. View the Beacon Reducing Re-Offending Theme Guide here >> ( pdf 935k)

Round 9 Annual Report

The Round 9 Annual Report of the Beacon scheme 2008-2009 details the achievements and impact of the round 9 Beacon authorities. To read about our achievements as one of the Beacons for Reducing Re-offending view pages 26 and 27 of the report. To view the report click here >> ( pdf 5mb)

Events Held in the Beacon Year

Sunderland’s Approach to the Partnership Strategic Intelligence Assessment: 25th June 2009
This half day workshop was held on 25th June 2009 and looked at:
(i) Sharing Sunderland's approach to producing a robust Partnership Strategic Intelligence Assessment (PSIA) based upon an offender / victim or vulnerable group / and location approach.
(ii) How we have used quantitative and qualitative data from a very wide range of sources, and examples of how some of this data is collated, cleansed, geo-coded, shared and stored.
(iii) Sharing how we have refined the PSIA further and how we have practically used it to inform strategic decision making e.g. priority setting and resource allocation.

Wasted Lives; Reducing youth crime, maximising young people’s potential: 1st – 3rd April 2009, Nottingham University, Nottingham
In April Sunderland staffed an exhibition stand to promote Sunderland’s approach to reducing re-offending. The stand had a youth focus due to the fact that delegates mainly in attendance worked in the field of youth work and justice. The stand proved very popular with delegates and a number of queries and requests for information were received, these are currently being answered by members of the YOS Senior Management Team.

Resettlement Support for Prolific Offenders: 19th March 2009, Central London
Guy Kirk, Sunderland Youth Offending Service Manager and Alan Caddick, Head of Housing, Sunderland, provided an address at this briefing around the accommodation issues faced by young people who offend.
There was also be an exhibition stand supporting the address and giving further information about what Sunderland is doing to reduce re-offending. Feedback from this briefing to be provided shortly.

Regional Homelessness Conference: 13th March 2009, Stadium of Light, Sunderland

Sunderland Youth Offending Service and the Youth Justice Board are hosted a one day event looking at accommodation issues for young people in the region.
The aim of the conference was to create better links between North East Youth Offending Teams, and Supported Accommodation Providers, to improve young offenders access to accommodation
The day consisted of presentations, workshops facilitated by colleagues and young people. Delegates had the opportunity to put questions to a panel in the afternoon. The conference was a great success and succeeded in raising the profile of young offenders and their housing issues.
To view the evaluation of this event click here>> ( pdf 45k)

Data Workshop, 13th February 2009, Barmston Mere Training Facility, Washington, Tyne and Wear

As part of the Beacon year Sunderland was approached by the Youth Justice Board because of its strong performance management arrangements, to host a data conference sharing good practice with other YOTs in the region. The topics were agreed with the Head of Region (North East) for the YJB and the event was jointly facilitated by Sunderland Youth Offending Service and the Youth Justice Board.
The day consisted of two events. The morning event was facilitated by the Youth Justice Board focusing on raising awareness of management information systems and the toolkits available. The afternoon event, facilitated by Kelly Davison-Pullan, Policy and Performance Manager from Sunderland Youth Offending Service and Wallace Wilson, Head of Region (North East), consisted of round the table discussions on what analysis has been done and is currently being done by YOTs or could be done in the future to inform thinking about the two umbrella indicators of First Time Entrants and Recidivism.

To view feedback for this event click here>> ( pdf 60k)

Learning Visit from Leicester YOT, 12th February 2009
Wendy Poynton, Leicester YOT Manager, along with two colleagues attended the Youth Offending Service to find out more about:
- PR Communications Strategy
- Use of Peer Mentors
- Reduced use of Custody

As a result of this visit Leicestershire will be:
- using some of Sunderland's ideas on media/communication strategy
- expanding the capacity for policy development
- reviewing processes for managing risk and vulnerability
- working to enhance work with the courts to reduce the use of custody.

Learning Visit from Bradford YOT, 21st January 2009
Colin Barker from Bradford YOT visited Sunderland Youth Offending Service. He was interested in finding out more about the structure of Sunderland YOS and the achievements the service has made in terms of increasing the numbers of young people in Education, Training or Employment (ETE) from 76% to 90% (at the time of the Beacon application). Following his visit Bradford YOT are holding a multi-agency day to look at how their ETE performance can be improved. From that day it is hoped that Bradford will adopt Sunderland’s strategy in managing the ETE Cohort.

Sunderland Reducing Re-Offending Conference - 9th December 2008, Stadium of Light, Sunderland

On the 9th of December 2008 Sunderland held a national conference to look at reducing re-offending. The day was attended by colleagues across the country and was described by delegates as a productive and constructive day.

Read an article about the conference here >> ( pdf 80k)

Read the evaluation of the conference here>> ( pdf 60k)

Beacon Stand - 22nd October 2008, The Bridges, Sunderland

To promote Inside Justice Week the YOS and Northumbria Probation jointly staffed a public information stand with a focus on criminal justice.

Inside Justice Week, an annual campaign that aims to open up the Criminal Justice System to the public through a week of co-coordinated events and media activity across England and Wales, took place this year between 18th and 25th October. The aim of the event is to increase understanding and confidence in the criminal justice system, explaining how the system works and showing the people involved in delivering justice today.

To promote this week the YOS and Northumbria Probation jointly staffed a public information Beacon stand in The Bridges on the 22nd October. The event was an opportunity to inform the public about the work being done under the Safer Sunderland Partnership and by the Children's Trust to address crime and reduce re-offending.
For more information about this event click here>> ( pdf 71k)

Beacon Reducing Re-Offending Learning Exchange - 18th September 2008, Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury, London

On the 18th September 2008 Sunderland and the other three local authorities in the Reducing Re-offending Theme were involved in a learning exchange. Sunderland facilitated a workshop around the reduction of waiting times for service users needing access to prescribing services (methadone), one of Sunderland's key areas of innovation. In addition, they also staffed an exhibition stand with a variety of information for delegates to take away. As a result of the day Sunderland received various requests for information which were followed up subsequent to the event.

For an overview of the workshop delivered by Sunderland click here >> ( pdf 10k)

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Case Studies

As part of the Beacon year Sunderland will be producing a number of case studies outlining good practice in Sunderland for reducing re-offending.

ETE Case Study
By obtaining comprehensive and timely data, creating a Difficult to Place Panel, developing an innovative New Direction programme and agreeing restorative justice contracts with 60 local firms Sunderland City Council's Youth Offending Service has increased the proportion of young offenders in employment, education or training from 76% in 2004 to 91% in 2008, 20% above the national average. The New Direction programme is an award winning unpaid work scheme for long term unemployed offenders that develops ‘trade skills’ in young people.

Read the ETE case Study here>> ( pdf 80k)

Domestic Violence Perpetrators Hostel

The HEAD Project is a Hostel and outreach service for male perpetrators of domestic violence. It is funded by the Treasury Invest to Save budget and Hendon New Deal for Communities (Back on the Map).

Read the DVPH Case study here>> ( pdf 24k)

Phoenix Project

The award winning Phoenix Scheme was designed to address specific offending issues of arson and malicious fire setting. Since it's implementation the scheme has captured the attention of young people with it's appeal, been recognised by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and praised by the media. With evidenced outcomes of increased self-esteem, positive attitudes to education/employment and reduced re-offending, the scheme is now influencing practice and policy elsewhere by duplication in other areas.

Read the Beacon Phoenix Case Study here >> ( pdf 43k)

See the Phoenix Project activities in action here >>

Offending Behaviour Interventions

Preventing offending and re-offending are the core aims at the heart of any criminal justice organisation. From the implementation of Youth Offending Teams nationally in April 2000 Sunderland quickly established itself as a high performing award winning service reaching the top of the national performance tables in April 2005. Re-offending rates, however, remained stubbornly high. It was identified that a more structured and co-ordinated approach to offending behaviour intervention was required and just one year later dramatic improvements in performance were achieved.

Read the Offending Behaviour Interventions case study here>> ( pdf 42k)

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Beacon Legacy Products

By involving our service users in the design and development of resources that address offending behaviour, Sunderland now have several tools that we are able to offer to other services working with young people.

For further information and to order the resources please click here>> ( pdf 74k)

Contact Us

If you would like to know more about what we've learnt as a Beacon for Reducing Re-Offending or are interested in any of our Beacon events please contact us at: yos@sunderland.gov.uk

For full contact details for Sunderland Youth Offending Service visit our contact page here>>

For information on the Safer Sunderland Partnership please click here >>

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