Successful crime reducing project in Blackburn given award
A ‘Pat on the Back’ Award has been given to the Revolution team in Blackburn with Darwen (BwD) to recognise the outstanding work delivered through a project that aims to reduce crime.
Comprising of representatives from Lancashire Constabulary, Probation and Blackburn with Darwen Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service which is run by Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMW), the Revolution Team work to systematically monitor, manage and support serious acquisitive offenders where their offending is linked to drug misuse. Additional help with housing, education, training and employment (ETE) features strongly in the project.
The awards which are run by the Blackburn with Darwen Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) received over 160 nominations across nine categories and are a way of highlighting shining examples of good practice. The Revolution Team won the runner up award for ‘Team of the Year’.
In BwD the Revolution Team have, over the years, evidenced an extremely successful collaborative project. By co-working cases and implementing a joined up sentence/treatment/recovery plan, offenders are stabilised within the community and the risks of reoffending they pose reduced.
Provided there is a link between offending and drug misuse, the Revolution team will work with individuals through from pre-arrest to post-sentence. The project has consistently demonstrated the health benefits with people stopping using drugs and has shown significant reductions in offending. In the past two years the project showed a reduction in reoffending of 48% (2012 – 13) and a further reduction of 80% (2013 – 14) for those taken onto the project.
‘Tony Wilkinson, Team Manager at Blackburn with Darwen Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service said,
“We are extremely proud of the work that takes place within the project and we are pleased that everybody’s efforts have been recognised. The excellent work carried out by the team has meant that more ‘hard-to-reach’ drug misusers who often live extremely chaotic lifestyles are accessing services. The result of which is that service users improve their health and well-being and there is less crime being carried out in Blackburn with Darwen.”
The success of the Revolution project has led to additional funding from the Community Safety Team to enhance the scheme. This has seen Revolution employ its own Housing Officer and the voluntary use of GPS technology for those taken onto the project to tag and monitor offenders. These interventions have helped make Revolution in BwD not just effective but a genuinely innovative leader of Integrated Offender Management.
All the winners and runners-up were invited to a special reception at Blackburn College last week where each winner or winning team received £600, runners-up received £300, to spend on improving service provision or to donate to a local charity.
Ends
Notes for Editors
1.) You can see all the nominations at: www.potb.org.uk
2.) Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMW) provides district mental health services in Bolton, Salford and Trafford. GMW also provides substance misuse services in Salford, Wigan and Leigh, Blackburn with Darwen, Central Lancashire and Cumbria and Trafford.
3.) GMW delivers specialist mental health and substance misuse inpatient services throughout Greater Manchester and the wider North.
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