ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at practice with a focus on the work that practitioners undertake directly with supervisees. The overall purpose of the Offender Engagement Programme was said to be "improving the effectiveness of one-to-one engagement between the probation practitioner and the offender in order to reduce reoffending". Assessment, Planning, Implementation, Review and Evaluation (ASPIRE), the phases that together make up a coherent and purposeful engagement with offenders. The Offender Assessment System is routinely used with adult offenders in England and Wales and has been adopted by many other countries. An "aspiration with a long history of failure" is that offenders who are mentally unwell should be diverted from criminal justice proceedings into medical care. Appreciation of the human aspects of assessment is quite as important as a consideration of its technicalities. Interventions on the pathway are most commonly led by the voluntary sector, working with probation, health, education and other services.