Detailed Information
About Essex Criminal Justice Board
- Who we are
- What the Board does
- How the Board works
- Delivery plan targets
- Narrowing the Justice Gap
- Creating an Efficient and Effective CJS
- Increasing Public Confidence
- Persistent Young Offenders
- Creating a 21st Century Criminal Justice System
Who we are
Essex Criminal Justice Board is made up of representatives from all the key criminal justice agencies in Essex. There is more information about individual Board members on this site, but essentially it comprises chief officers from Essex Police, Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty's Courts Service in Essex, Probation Service, Youth Offending Team and HM Prison Service.
The Board is supported by a Business Performance Manager, a Board Secretary/Administrator and a Communications Manager.
What the Board does
Essex Criminal Justice Board is committed to improving co-operation between the Criminal Justice Agencies to deliver the best possible service for victims and the community. The Board identifies those areas where, by changing the way we work, we can improve the service we provide, and shares best practice across agencies and with other areas.
The Board is committed to consulting openly with representatives from the wider community. By so doing the concerns of local people can be taken into account in planning how criminal justice is delivered in the county.
The Board focuses attention on achieving the targets set by the Government for the Criminal Justice agencies.
Essex Criminal Justice Board aims to:
- Narrow the Justice Gap, by reducing crime and the fear of crime
- Improve the delivery of justice by creating an efficient and effective Criminal Justice System
- Increase public confidence in the Criminal Justice System
- Tackle Youth Justice Effecively
- Create a 21st Century Criminal Justice System
How the Board works
To ensure that the Board achieves the targets in its delivery plan these are devolved to separate action teams, each of which focuses on specific issues that contribute towards achieving the objectives and targets set out in the Strategic Plan.
Copies of both the Strategic Plan for 2006-08 and the previous plan for 2004-06 are available to download from the downloads page of this website.
Delivery Plan Targets
Priority One: To Reduce Crime and Prevent Re-offending
Essex is one of the safest counties in the country and we want to ensure that continues to be the case. We are committed to working in partnership with others to provide a safer community for the public.
Priority Two: Create an Efficient and Effective CJS
Essex CJB has a record of good performance in delivering our key criminal justice objectives. We want this trend to continue and ensure that the best possible service is delivered to the people of Essex.
Priority Three: Increase public confidence in the CJS
Essex has a low crime rate and a record of good performance, yet a significant proportion of the people living in the county does not have confidence in the CJS. The causes of low public confidence are being tackled by the Staff and Community Engagement Action Team (SCEAT) and the Victim and Witness Action Team (VWAT).
Priority Four: Tackle Youth Justice effectively
Essex has consistently met its timeliness target for dealing with Persistent Young Offenders. We want to maintain good performance in this area and ensure that young offenders receive appropriate and early intervention.
Priority Five: Create a 21st Century Criminal Justice System
Essex CJB and its constituent CJS agencies is often at the forefront of new ideas and new technology to further modernise the criminal justice system and improve our services.
Narrowing the Justice Gap
The Crime and Re-offending Reduction Action Team (CARRAT)
CARRAT brings together representatives from all of the criminal justice agencies and works closely with local authorities and the voluntary sector. CARRAT focuses on two key areas of work:
- Tackling Priority and Prolific Offenders
- Improving our response to Domestic Violence
Priority and Prolific Offenders (PPOs)
It is estimated that about 10% of offenders are responsible for 50% of all crime. CARRAT and its partners are working to:
Divert people away from offending behaviours and prevent them becoming prolific offenders of the future
Actively tackle those who are already prolific or other priority offenders by dealing with them swiftly through the criminal justice system
Stop PPOs from re-offending by offering a range of supportive interventions.
Domestic Violence (DV)
Domestic violence occurs across society and through CARRAT the CJB is:
Tackling the incidences of domestic violence and reducing repeat victimisation
Bringing more domestic violence perpetrators to justice
Improving the services and support offered to victims of domestic violence
Creating an Efficient and Effective CJS
The Case Management Action Team (CMAT)
The implementation of a number of new initiatives designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Essex has been overseen by CMAT. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of offences brought to justice since 2002, and is now working to increase this even further by:
- Increasing the percentage of offences that result in a sanctioned detection – i.e. cases where an offender is charged, reported for summons, cautioned, given a warning, issued with a fixed penalty notice or has the offence taken into consideration by a court
- Reducing the number of ineffective trials at Magistrates’ and Crown Courts
- Reducing the number of unsuccessful outcomes.
The Enforcement Action Team (EAT)
All penalties imposed by the courts have to be complied with to be effective. EAT aims to improve the enforcement of all court orders, particularly focusing on:
- Failure to Appear (FTA) Warrants
- Community Penalty Breach Warrants (CPBW)
- Financial Penalties – i.e. fines, compensation and cost orders imposed by the courts.
Increasing Public Confidence
The Staff and Community Engagement Action Team (SCEAT)
Staff Engagement
SCEAT works to ensure that people working in the CJS agencies are motivated to achieve and therefore increase confidence by:
- Delivering joint-agency training and ensuring that all employees are aware of their individual contribution to criminal justice targets
- Recognising and sharing effective practice.
Community Engagement
Members of the public are key partners in the criminal justice system as volunteer workers, jurors, witnesses, and of course victims of crime. We want the public to have confidence in the CJS and SCEAT works to achieve this by:
- Establishing links with the community through public consultation and awareness-raising events like Inside Justice Week
- Engaging with minority communities to ensure that policies and services are delivered appropriately to those communities.
The Victim and Witness Action Team (VWAT)
Victims and witnesses are at the heart of the criminal justice system and we are committed to better meeting their needs. There have already been major improvements in the services provided for victims and witnesses of crime.
Essex was one of the areas to pilot changes to the way that witnesses and victims are supported by the CJS. Dedicated Witness Care Units have been set up for each of the Magistrates' Courts and another for those called to give evidence at The Crown Court. Supporting victims and witnesses who have to go to court under the ‘No Witness, No Justice’ programme, has helped to reduce delays to trials because of the non-attendance of prosecution witnesses.
VWAT is now taking work forward on:
- The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime which came into operation in April 2006, setting out the services that all victims of crime can expect to receive from each of the criminal justice agencies
- The Witness and Victim Experience Survey (WAVES), the results of which are used to inform future actions.
Persistent Young Offenders
The Youth Justice Action Team (YJAT)
Bringing young offenders to justice speedily and using the most appropriate interventions to deter re-offending, are among the areas of work that YJAT focuses on.
This action team actively promotes and implements inter-agency initiatives to achieve a more efficient and joined up criminal justice system in relation to young offenders in Essex.
In Essex Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs) are consistently brought to justic well within the national target of 71 days from arrest.
YJAT’s work includes:
- The swift administration of justice for Persistent Young Offenders (PYOs)
- Effectively challenging offending behaviour amongst young people.
Creating a 21st Century Criminal Justice System
Information Technology (IT) Project Group
Each of the ECJB’s action teams incorporates the use of technology in their work and are supported in this by the Information Technology Project Group. Key aims of the project group include:
- Improving the quality of information exchange within and between CJS agencies
- Ensuring greater efficiencythroughout the CJS in Essex
As a result of the work of the IT Group, all CJS agencies are now able to communicate with each other by means of a secure email system.
Essex Police Case Preparation and Custody applications were trialled in Southend and are being rolled out county-wide.