Lancashire Criminal Justice Board - Monthly Update

LCJB Meeting 5 April 2007

Performance Adviser

Recent restructuring has taken place within the Office of Criminal Justice Reform resulting in a change in Performance Adviser for Lancashire. (now Mike May) Mike is the Board's link to the centre in relation to issues that need addressing in respect of performance and national correspondence.

Criminal Justice Agencies - structural changes/initiatives

All criminal justice agencies have been subject to recent structural changes and the Probation, Prison, YOT and HMCS are now governed by the Ministry of Justice. There will be a Probation Trust created, introduced in waves from April 2008, that will include new offender management arrangements. HMCS Admin areas restructured with effect from 1 April 2007 resulting in 25 admin areas with new Area Directors appointed. HMCS are piloting a community justice initiative at Ormskirk Court whereby key issues identified by the community are taken into consideration when applying sentences and offenders are spoken to about the effect their crime has had on the victim.

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP's)

There has been a recent review of CDRP's resulting in the appointment of eight Deputy Regional Directors and Neighbourhood Renewal Teams. The three year cycle previously applied to CDRP's will be replaced with an annual assessment process with the Police Authority having more accountability and targets will be aligned with the delivery of the Local Area Agreement and public service agreements. The Strategic Crime Reduction Board, the Drug Action Team and the LCC Safer and Stronger Block have all agreed a joined up approach for delivery of targets.

Criminal Justice - Simple, Speedy, Summary Justice (CJSSS)

This project introduces mechanisms for dealing with cases in the Magistrates' courts more speedily with file content and advance information available for defence prior to first court hearing. This should avoid adjournments and encourage more guilty pleas. Preston will be the first site to go 'live' in July 2007. Local Implementation Teams have been set up in Preston, SW Lancs, Burnley, Blackburn, Lancaster and Blackpool, chaired by the Deputy Justice Clerk to progress implementation of CJSSS in their area.

Lancashire Domestic Violence Partnership

Vivien Mumford, District Crown Prosecutor for Fylde has taken over the role of Chair of the Lancashire Domestic Violence Partnership and provides quarterly updates to the LCJB in respect of the work being undertaken by that group. A Domestic Violence Strategy was launched on 25 April 2007.

Internal Communications Group

A new sub group has been set up that sits under the remit of the Board lead for Confidence to look at developing an Internal Communications Strategy to improve agency staff awareness of the LCJB and look at staff engagement mechanisms. This group will be 'chaired' by the LCJB's Communications Officer, Cherry Hamilton.

LCJB Newsletter - Issue 7

The latest Board newsletter has been produced and copies forwarded to agencies for circulation to staff. Follow the link below to view electronically.

• LCJB Newsletter (.pdf 222kb)

LCJB - Meetings with local newspaper editors

Cherry Hamilton (LCJB Communications Officer) and Julie Young (Chair of LCJB Confidence Group) have had meetings with local newspaper editors to raise awareness of the Board and current initiatives with the intention of forming links with them to publish good news stories to raise public confidence.

Health Issues

A meeting was held on the 4 April 2007 with Frank Atherton, Director of Public Health for North Lancashire Primary Care Trust to discuss overlap issues between criminal justice agencies and the health service (i.e. provision of medical witness statements, psychiatric reports, mental health etc). An Action Plan has been produced with a number of issues being taken to the meeting of PCT Chief Executives on 8 June 2007.

Reducing the pressures on the prison estate through delivering custody efficiencies

A document has been received from the Office of Criminal Justice Reform identifying a number of actions for agencies to take to reduce the pressures on the prison estate.