5B: What is ‘success’ in leadership and management?

West Yorkshire Probation Area and managers from its provider organisations have identified key strands in the effective management of arrangements for literacy, numeracy and ESOL for offenders on community supervision. These include:

• leadership commitment from the Chief Officer and Board members
• clarification of shared values and interests by senior managers from probation and provider agencies
• joint planning for performance improvement
• joint strategic planning to build high-quality services as well as achieve short-term targets
• clear expectations of roles and responsibilities
• setting realistic targets for, for instance, offender retention rates
• setting up a meeting structure for senior and operational managers from commissioning and provider agencies with clear expectations about terms of reference, roles and responsibilities. In West Yorkshire, a Project Board has been established between the LSC, NPS, Prison Service and Jobcentre Plus
• having support structures in place so that operational problems, such as having an appropriate space to assess offenders in, can be solved locally, between meetings, by operational managers
• being flexible, where appropriate, to variations in agreements.

Beth Fox, Education, Training and Employment (ETE) Manager at Dorset Probation Area, sees effective leadership and management as follows.

Beth Fox, ETE Manager at Dorset Probation Area.

‘My first key to high-quality management is that everybody, from the top to the bottom, hearts and minds, are all involved. It’s about breaking the mould of everyone working separately. Second, I try and lead by example. I believe you have to put your head on the block, if you believe you are right, and be prepared to fight for it. You have to allow your team to use their expertise and inspiration. You have to listen to and support your staff, to develop their team skills. Third, you have to have results. You need to get feedback from the clients, enthuse them and encourage them to move on in learning.’

Rita, an ETE Officer, added: ‘Beth Fox, our manager, is an inspirational leader. She makes us all work together and refuses to allow barriers within the different agencies and services prevent us from doing this. She is passionate about getting our clients on probation to be able to read and write.’

Judi Apiafi, the Education Manager at Nottinghamshire Probation Area.

Judi Apiafi, the Education Manager at Nottinghamshire Probation Area, highlights her view of the three most important aspects of management.

‘The key to good management is communication with all staff. Probation is a totally different context. Skills for Life here is interwoven with a set of legal procedures and offender management. As a manager, it’s a benefit to work on-site with probation case managers (now offender managers), employment officers, and alcohol and drugs support workers. We say, ‘Let’s use the community sentence to enhance employability ’.

‘The second important thing in management is linking the NPS to the outside local providers and using Skills for Life as the focus that joins us all together.

‘The third most important thing in leadership and management is acting upon feedback from clients, celebrating their success and helping them to move on.’

Margaret Bowler, the Acting Chair of Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Board, champions literacy, numeracy and ESO to the Probation Board. For example, Margaret attended the NPD’s Learning and Skills conference in June 2005 and subsequently reported on the conference and on literacy, numeracy and ESOL to the Board. Margaret guarantees that there will be strong ownership and clear prioritising of literacy, numeracy and ESOL at Board and probation area level. Margaret herself models commitment to literacy, numeracy and ESOL as she has just completed her teaching certificate at Level 4.

A senior manager from one of the provider organisations for Essex Probation Area spends half a day each week based in a probation office. This is to help maximise the effectiveness of liaison between the provider organisation and the probation area. It is also to identify and address the continuing professional development priorities of both the provider organisation and the probation area, in relation to the literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs of offenders on community supervision.

Providers and probation staff in Essex have planned and delivered training together, to increase the awareness of NPS staff of offenders’ literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs. There are also quarterly review meetings between provider and probation staff, to review progress and issues, and share relevant developments.

The relevant managers from Lincolnshire Action Trust, the chief provider for Lincolnshire Probation Area, meet monthly with the ETE Manager and other relevant staff from Lincolnshire Probation Area. The purposes of the meetings include reviewing action plans, lesson plans, performance management data and the quality of documents relating to the literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs of offenders on community supervision.

There are a number of examples of CPD initiatives on working with offenders on community supervision. In Nottinghamshire, for instance, new teachers have a detailed induction on working with the NPS and with offenders. Induction is spread over two weeks and encompasses:

• the similarities and differences between working in FE and working with offenders on community supervision
• the structure of the NPS
• a visit to all probation teams
• the language of the NPS
• how and what to communicate with offender manager
• the needs of offenders
• how to approach work with offenders
• confidentiality, risk and disclosure
• setting boundaries
• rules and sanctions
• getting an appropriate balance: for example, following up offenders' non-attendance appropriately, but not taking non-attendance personally.

There is reciprocity between college providers and staff based in Nottinghamshire Probation Area. For example, teachers from Broxtowe College, Nottingham, have provided CPD on multi-sensory teaching for staff based in Nottinghamshire Probation Area, while the latter have provided CPD on the NPS, as outlined above. Judi Apiafi, Education Manager at Nottinghamshire Probation Area, says: ‘We give staff training to outside providers on how to work with offenders; what their needs and rights are; and about risk assessment. We link, particularly, with colleges in the area, so they know about Skills for Life and PALS [Positive Action Learning Support (PALS) is the literacy, numeracy and dyslexia provision in Nottinghamshire Probation Area].’

Regional events in Yorkshire and Humberside have brought together providers and NPS stakeholders to ensure that Skills for Life is prioritised by key regional stakeholders, and to increase providers’ awareness of offender issues. These events have also aimed to engage new providers and share good practice. At the Yorkshire and Humberside 2004 conference, there was a learners’ panel consisting of offenders who were, at the time of the conference, engaged in learning. This was a very effective way of engaging stakeholders and exploring the issues affecting learners.

DISC, a provider in West Yorkshire, aims for each teacher to have a set of minimum resources. This consists of:

• a Dictaphone with tapes (for literacy assignments at Entry Levels 1 to 3)
• measuring equipment (for numeracy assignments)
• a set of worksheets mapped to the curricula
• Basic Skills Agency materials related to offenders' interests
• interactive resources (software, educational games).

Because of space constraints, most resources are transportable. To ensure the needs of the learner are met, DISC has recently audited its resources.