IOM stands for Integrated Offender Management, and TurnAround for Cornwall is the team working with the Priority and Prolific Offenders (PPOs).
The IOM programme is a national initiative established throughout the United Kingdom. Cornwall (TurnAround) IOM builds on the successful work of the Cornwall CJIT. The TurnAround team consists of workers from Drug Intervention Programme (DIP), Coastline Housing (3rd sector), Health (drug and alcohol team), Police and Probation. It is a multi-agency team which works collectively to assess and address the needs of the offenders who commit the highest number of offences in the community. The TurnAround team works closely with statutory agencies (such as prisons) and non statutory agencies to address the local needs of the community in addition to the national directives.
IOM candidates can be subject to statutory Probation supervision or they may be identified as requiring support and intervention to address their issues and behaviour that is linked to their criminal behaviour.
This will include those subject to short prison sentences who are released without Probation supervision. Those ‘non statutory’ case will be required to engage voluntarily with the team and by engaging with workers it is hoped that they will be able to break the cycle of offending. The cohort includes PPOs who are considered most at risk of re-offending or causing harm to themselves or others. This behaviour presents a degree of risk to the community which results in our focused approach to managing these offenders intensively, therefore reducing the risk of re-offending and/or harm. The team now also work with some people engaging in abusive behaviours.
The complexity of needs increases as the risk of reconviction increases. Although female offenders are much lower in number they have more complex needs, particularly in relation to mental / emotional health issues.
Local reoffending rates are lower than the national average, particularly for drug using offenders and prolific offenders. The most prevalent risk factors amongst adult offenders are alcohol problems, domestic abuse and drug problems. 40% of offenders at medium to high risk of reoffending have parental responsibility, the majority of which are living with or have regular contact with (their) children. Tackling these issues in a holistic and co-ordinated way is important to provide “pathways out of offending” and to break the inter-generational cycle of crime and family breakdown.
The Cornwall TurnAround team work collectively with their cohort assisting in addressing the individuals thinking, behaviour and issues such as substance use and accommodation.
The TurnAround team work intensively with their cohort which includes regular Probation appointments and home visits, treatment with substance misuse workers and other diversionary activities.
We also signpost (and support in engaging) individuals along the appropriate pathways to reduce or cease their re-offending.
The pathways include:
With Community Psychiatric Nurses and substance misuse workers who are located within the team. Also working with external agencies such as Freshfields and With You, Education, training and employment- with Probation ETE team and local providers including voluntary placements.
We have a dedicated accommodation worker (co-located with the team), a partnership agreement with the local Council and access to FreshStart hostel whom accepts referrals solely from the team. The type of crime typically attributed to these offenders is predominantly acquisitive crime –such as burglaries, vehicle crime, robbery and theft. Our main priority is to reduce re-offending by co-ordinating the work of all agencies who are engaged (or who need to engage) with an individual by offering them the right intervention at the right time. Each IOM individual has an allocated Offender Manager (OM) who co-ordinates and assesses their interventions and progress. The allocation of the OM will depend on the ‘lead agency’. If the IOM individual is subject to Probation intervention then the OM will be a Probation Officer. However, other members of the TurnAround team will actively engage with the individual (when required) and share information with the OM.
We actively seek referrals from the Police, Probation and partner agencies. If the candidate is accepted onto the TurnAround scheme they are allocated an IOM lead worker.
