ABSTRACT
Literature on Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) has routinely made reference to an inner and outer Circle. An important part of the Circle is made up of 'the professionals'. The professionals are the stakeholders who actively make up a Circle of Support and Accountability project alongside the volunteers. This chapter looks at the views of all these stakeholders asking participants first about their current role and professional background and their perspectives on CoSA, including how they first heard about CoSA and what they thought about the use of volunteers working with sex offenders. It provides Interviews that explore perceptions of training, the referral process and how CoSA fits with the work of criminal justice agencies. The stakeholders interviewed for this study worked with Circles to varying degrees; collectively these were seen as the 'stakeholders' and included the CoSA Coordinators, police officers, probation officers and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements coordinators and senior managers.
