Lancashire Justice Awards 2008
The national justice awards were established five years ago to recognise the outstanding work done by staff and volunteers in the criminal justice system. Local staff and volunteers can nominate their colleagues from across the CJS and beyond, including charities and organisations that support victims, witnesses or offenders. National winners across 15 categories, are chosen by senior officials and ministers including the Home Secretary, the Justice Secretary and the Attorney General, with awards presented at a national ceremony at the historic Banqueting House in Whitehall, London.
Once again, Lancashire was one of the largest providers of nominees of any area in England and Wales. This resulted in:
- 9 local individuals shortlisted to the national finals
- Local volunteer, Lynne Braithwaite, named runner-up for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, for her voluntary work advising Lancashire police on transgender issues
- Local teenager, teenager, Matthew Entwisle named winner for Volunteer of the Year and recipient of the Justice Shield
Over 120 staff and volunteers attended a dinner to honour all Lancashire’s nominees, hosted by the Lancashire Criminal Justice Board. A summary of each individual or team’s dedication to the local delivery of justice was heard, and guest of honour, HHJ Russell QC presented each nominee with a local justice award.
Roll of Honours - Lancashire Justice Award Nominees 2008
Individual Awards
Category 1 - Outstanding achievement in caring for victims
Luke Bilsborough, who works for the Youth Offending Team, was nominated for his work enabling young offenders to get a real understanding of the impact their crime had on their victim. He does this by facilitating meetings between young offenders and their victims, or presenting statements on the victim’s behalf. He has supported hundreds of victims throughout this difficult, emotional journey.
Carl Cornwell has been a volunteer with Victim Support since November 2006. Since then, he has supported over seven hundred and fifty victims of crime. Carl, who supports victims of serious and sexual crime, is commended for understanding victims’ needs and for working with other agencies to ensure that victims’ needs are met throughout the criminal justice system.
Rachel Grenville, a press officer with Lancashire police, was nominated for her work on the Sophie Lancaster Murder case. Rachel handled the press and media on behalf of the police from the funeral, right through to the sentencing of the offenders. She was commended for her work in supporting Sophie’s mother and boyfriend, as they dealt with the widespread media attention thrust upon them.
Jen Jackson, who also works for Lancashire police, was nominated for putting in place a new process for managing adult court cases in Lancashire. The process ensures that as much progress as possible is made at each first court hearing, speeding up the delivery of justice and easing the experience of victims. As a result of Jen’s work, 80% of guilty plea cases are now finalised at the first hearing.
Dorothy Lever, a volunteer with Victim Support, was nominated for supporting over two hundred and seventy victims of crime, and for her work in partnership with local police officers and Police Community Support Officers. She is commended for her recent work with the Lancaster MAPS team, supporting victims of repeat crimes.
Category 2 - Outstanding achievement in caring for witnesses
Sharon Hicks, a case worker with the Crown Prosecution Service, was nominated for her contribution to OPERATION TANCRED, an investigation into international organised crime, which targeted the life savings of the vulnerable and the elderly. The investigation culminated in a 10-week trial involving 200 witnesses, and over 9,000 pages of court documents. Sharon was commended her organisational skills and her support of the elderly and vulnerable witnesses as they gave evidence to court.
Catherine O’Gara is a Chief Inspector with Lancashire Constabulary. She was nominated for her commitment to a local Youth Involvement Project, supporting young victims of crime. Catherine personally arranged a focus group for young people aged 16-19, to get their ideas about how the police could provide an improved service to young people, and in particular, young victims of crime. She has also given hours of her own time in fundraising activities for the project.
Janice Phillips, is a volunteer with Victim Support. Janice started out by providing support to witnesses coming to give evidence at Chorley and South Ribble Magistrates Courts. Then, when ill health prevented her movement around the court buildings, she moved on to provide office-based admin support to the whole of Victim Support in South Lancashire. Janice serves despite her own ailments, and has even been seen in the office with her foot in plaster, within one week of leaving hospital!
Category 3 - Outstanding contribution to tackling youth crime
Kevin Burn is a Social Worker with the Youth Offending Team, where he works with young people who are most at risk of committing further offences. Kevin works tirelessly with local partners to put together 25 hours of activities per week for each young person he works with. Not one of these individuals has gone on to receive a custodial sentence – showing the real impact he has on their lives.
Debbie Hornby joined the Youth Offending Team in 2000 and since then she has become the “Main stay” of Preston’s Intensive Support and Surveillance Programme Team. The programme has gained recognition amongst partners for its fairness and robust enforcement procedures. In fact, such is the police’s confidence in the scheme, that they pull back their surveillance on some young people, because they know the ISSP works so well.
Carol Little is also with the Youth Offending Team. She acts as an appropriate adult for young people coming into custody, and takes responsibility for administering the court papers for the Burnley team. She was commended for pushing professional boundaries across the whole office, enabling the Burnley team to achieve the highest benchmark for court practice.
Jane Pye is a social worker with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team. Jane was nominated for the breadth of her role, which covers the whole range of youth justice work. She is commended for her development of good working relationships with a range of associated professionals, all of whom work together to ensure that the needs of young people are met, and further offending prevented.
Alan Robertson is a police officer, on secondment to the Lancashire Youth Offending Team. He has been nominated for his innovative approaches to tackling youth crime, which have included a scheme called “Race to the Place”, which deals with final warnings for young people, and a new project entitled “Your-Choice”, which will be used with young people on the cusp of custody. Alan’s work is having a huge, positive impact on young peoples’ lives.
Thomas Scott is a police sergeant with Lancashire Police. He was nominated for his use of restorative justice disposals, where offending and aggrieved parties work together to find solutions to their problems. Thomas developed an operational order for the use of restorative justice, which was implemented with the Chief Constable’s support. During the first two-weeks of the order, 97 interventions took place, which led to reduced anti-social behaviour and a reduction in repeat calls.
Christine Taylor is a Youth Offending Team worker in Burnley, where she coordinates referral order panels. These panels see young offenders agree the activities they will complete as part of their court orders, with local community volunteers, YOT workers and sometimes the victim. A trained mediator, Christine is responsible for training volunteers, facilitating the meetings and for supervising young people as they work in the community.
Category 4 – Outstanding contribution to working with offenders
Paul Clarke is a police officer with Lancashire Constabulary. For the last three years he has been working with prolific drug users, to help them address their drug habits and offer them alternatives to re-offending. There are countless examples of the impact Paul has had on users and their families, helping them to get their lives back on track and preventing further acquisitive crime.
Len Clayton works with Lancashire’s Youth Offending Team where he supervises young people on community reparation projects. Len has personally set up many of the projects and has supervised hundreds of hours of work. He was nominated for a project which transformed the garden areas of a local community centre. His work reduces re-offending and terrifically improves the quality of life for local communities.
John Crystal is a police officer at St Anne’s Police Station. He is a key member of the local TOWER team, working with class A drug users and offenders who commit a disproportionately high amount of crime in the local area. John is commended for the stability he brings to those who typically survive in a chaotic world. As a result of his dedication, many offenders are moving away from a cycle of crime and drug abuse.
Malcolm Johnson has worked in the prison service for over 10 years. He was nominated for his current work with elderly and disabled prisoners at HMP Wymott. This role is seen as one of the most demanding, owing to the breadth of disabilities and mental health issues. He is commended for taking care of those in his charge, with compassion, respect and confidentiality.
Omar Khan was nominated for setting up the “Preston United Youth Development Programme” which works with around 200 disaffected young people, aiming to divert them away from criminality. Omar has personally spearheaded some truly amazing activities including a “Drugs, Guns and Gangs Project, and “Prison Break”, where prisoners sentenced for gang and gun crime spoke to young people about the real damage these crimes bring.
Peter Rawsthorne is the Safer Custody Adviser for Her Majesty’s Prison Service in the North West. Peter is responsible for advising 16 prisons, holding a combined total of 12,000 prisoners, on matters relating to safer custody – including preventing suicide and self-harm, and reducing violence. His advice in respect of prison regimes and post-incident care has contributed to a year on year reduction in violent and disruptive incidents in North West prisons.
Martin Walker works for Lancashire’s Youth Offending Team where he is responsible for overseeing reparation projects between young offenders and their victims. Martin enables young people to make good the damage they caused, completing their activities in a respectful manner, and turning them away from future offending. His work has included several “clean sweeps”, cleaning up graffiti and gardens, and repairing damaged bikes.
Category 5 – Outstanding contribution to engaging local communities
Kath Bromilow is a schools involvement officer with Lancashire Constabulary. She was nominated for setting up a local police cadets scheme, which works with 26 local teenagers each year. Several cadets from the first intake are already working as police specials, and looking to further their careers with the police.
Stephen Brookes was nominated for his outstanding voluntary contribution supporting people facing discrimination and hate crime. Stephen’s work spans the CJS and the voluntary sector. Locally, he is a member of Lancashire Police’s Disability PACT Group and is the Vice Chair of Blackpool’s Equality Forum. Stephen was commended for his work with the CPS, acting as an advisor on a range of issues and facilitating the West Lancashire Hate Crime Panel.
Liz Crossley was nominated for her community engagement and media work spanning 30 years with the CPS. Liz recently set up a process to incorporate community feedback directly into the CPS’s community engagement strategy, and played a key role in setting up Lancashire’s first Honour Crime and Forced Marriage Consultation event.
Category 6 - Outstanding commitment to diversity
Lynne Braithwaite is our first nominee in this category. Sadly, Lynne has passed away since her nomination was made. Lynne’s work had a huge impact on promoting diversity - so much so that she was runner-up in this category at national level. Lynne was nominated for her 13 year commitment to training and advising Lancashire Constabulary on transgender issues, where she most recently became part of a group which reviewed and made recommendations on police policies, including custody, training and recruitment. Lynne dedicated hundreds of hours to tackle all types of discrimination. As a result of her passion and dedication, people who may have felt alienated by the police, are now much more confident, and receive a better level of service than ever before.
Lynne’s friend and neighbour, Lynda MacFarlane, will collect her certificate later on behalf of the family.
PC Julie Hall is a Diversity Officer with Lancashire Constabulary, where she has responsibility for hate crime and counter-terrorism. She works tirelessly with local minority ethnic communities to raise awareness and increase confidence in the police. Julie has recently put in place an improved process for responding to, and dealing with victims of hate crime, and as a result, confidence in the police is on the up.
Pam Smith is a Policy Officer within the Community Cohesion Policy Unit at Lancashire County Council. Pam was nominated for setting up a training course to develop the leadership skills of local Muslim women. 12 local women completed the course, and they are now taking what they have learned to other members of their local communities.
Lewis Turner is the Hate Crime Officer with Wyre Borough Council. He was employed 3 years ago to encourage the local reporting of hate crime, which was believed to be vastly under-reported. Since his appointment, Lewis has set up 18 third-party reporting centres and a facility for online reporting of hate crime. As a result, there has been an almost 60 percent increase in reported hate crime incidents.
Sue Uttley-Evans is a lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at UCLAN. She has been nominated for her work in raising the profile of honour-based violence, forced marriage, elder abuse and hate crime. Sue secured UCLAN funding to set up training workshops to equip people to deal with these issues in a sensitive manner. As a result of Sue’s work, these subjects are now embedded within modules at the university.
Mussurut Zia has been working in community integration and cohesion for the last ten years. She is passionate about the delivery of justice, and campaigns tirelessly against domestic abuse, forced marriage and honour killings. She has been instrumental in putting together training packages, policies and working practices for the police, CPS, and organisations in the voluntary sector.
Category 7 - the Long Service Award for continued commitment and dedication
Julie Anderton has been a case worker with the CPS in Lancashire for over 20 years. Her recent involvement in “Operation Anfield” gives a real taste of her service. This case involved over two hundred thousand pages of evidence, served on 7 defence teams and the court, and over three hundred witnesses. The defendants pleaded guilty at the 11th hour, faced with the strong case that Julie had assisted in marshalling.
Detective Constable Philip Bennett has been a police officer with Lancashire Constabulary for 28 years, where he works as a telephony officer. Philip has worked on many serious, complicated and demanding investigations, including murders and kidnap. Without Phil’s tenacity and ability to interrogate telephone data, it is doubtful whether any of the defendants would have been prosecuted or convicted, and his evidence at court has been commended by members of the Judiciary.
Christine Davies, an office administrator with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team, has worked in youth justice for the last 18 years. She was nominated for her special capacity to support her colleagues, and for enabling the Youth Offending Team to embrace technological changes to their advantage. Chris has used the fast-paced changes in I.T. to provide robust performance data and maintain scrupulously high standards of practice.
Janet Robinson joined the Probation Service in 1974. For the past 14 years she has worked in the Lancashire Crown Courts, and she is currently the Senior Practitioner at Preston Crown Court. Janet has played a pivotal role in the successful introduction of the Drug Treatment and Testing Order and Intermittent Custody Sentences. Her nomination included commendations from many members of the Judiciary, including His Honour Judge Russell, here with us tonight.
Category 8– Volunteer of the year
Di Bond is a volunteer with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team. According to her nominator, Di has been the backbone of local Referral Order Panels. Not only has she selflessly attended panels on a weekly basis, she has also played a key role in mentoring, advising and recruiting panel members. At one time, Di was the only panel member on the team, so without her dedication, these panels simply would not have been able to happen.
Ann Crofts is a volunteer with Lancashire Constabulary, where she staffs the police CCTV equipment in Poulton during the nights and at weekends. She has dedicated over five hundred hours of her time since the system went live. Her manager told us, “Ann is an amazing help to the local police, and she has had a great impact on the safety of the local community. Her dedication as had an impact on crime reduction in the town centre.”
Bill Head is a volunteer referral order panel member with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team. He has demonstrated exceptional commitment and dedication, sitting on 30 panels this year alone. His nominator told us: “Bill is an excellent example of how volunteers enable the Youth Offending Team to play its part in the delivery of youth justice.”
Matthew Entwistle, who is just 18 years old, is a volunteer police cadet with Lancashire Constabulary. He was nominated for his work to improve the police’s interaction with young people – including victims and offenders. Matthew was singled out for developing a scheme to support young victims of crime. He personally undertook fundraising for the scheme, which enabled ten police cadets to be trained by Victim Support, enabling them to become mentors to young victims of crime.
Matthew has committed over 1,000 hours of volunteer time, and we are absolutely delighted that not only did Matthew win the National Justice Award for Volunteer of the Year, but he was also presented with the prestigious National Justice Shield.
Brenda Muriel is a volunteer with Victim Support, where she supports victims of serious crime, and those bereaved through murder. Brenda also dedicates one day a week with the Youth Offending Team, and another day a week with the Witness Service! It is no surprise that Brenda is described as “making a remarkable difference to the lives of victims and the local CJS.”
Alison Purnell is a volunteer with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team, where she has been one of the team’s most reliable volunteers over the past four years. Alison is exceptionally skilled at recognising young people’s needs, such as family and education issues, which are so often the root cause of young offending. Alison is commended for being an excellent role model for disaffected young people.
Don Thornton is a Witness Service Volunteer at Preston Crown Court, where he supports witnesses and their families as they come to give evidence. He also regularly trains police probationers on court procedures and the needs of victims. Don has put in many hours as a trustee and fundraiser with Victim Support Lancashire, further showing dedication to the charity.
Prue Wilkinson is a volunteer with the Lancashire Youth Offending Team. She is passionate about helping young offenders to realise their impact crime has had upon victims, the wider community, their family and themselves. She is also tremendously dedicated to victims, often supporting them as they meet with the young person who offended against them. Prue is described as a “truly outstanding volunteer, who regularly goes above and beyond the call of duty.”
Team Awards
Category 1 - Outstanding achievement in caring for witnesses.
The Burnley Crown Court Witness Service This is a close-knit group of six active volunteers, who provide advice and support to witnesses coming to give evidence at Burnley Crown Court. The volunteers offer pre-trial visits, which enables witnesses to familiarise themselves with the court and the procedures. They then assist them as they come to give evidence at court. Many of the volunteers are elderly, giving selflessly of their time, to support these often vulnerable victims of crime.
Category 2 - Outstanding contribution to tackling youth crime.
The GRIP Lancashire Team The “GRIP” team work with young people aged between 5 and 17, who are assessed as being at risk of offending or entering into anti-social behaviour. The programme operates with just 2 full-time members of staff in 6 local teams, which are supported by partner agencies, the voluntary sector and community volunteer. In the last twelve months, the programme has supported over seven hundred young people and their families, with an amazing 93% non-offending rate six months after intervention.
Category 3 - Outstanding contribution to working with offenders.
The Blackpool Citizens Advice Bureau “In Reach” Team provide debt advice and information about welfare benefits to prisoners at HMP Kirkham. They enable prisoners to deal with existing debts whilst they are still in custody, which gives them a much better start on release. Providing prisoners with the correct benefits information also assists offenders with re-integration into society. This type of “behind the scenes” support plays a major role in preventing offenders from re-offending following release.
HMP Preston’s Prolific and Other Priority Offender Team were nominated for their innovative management of PPO’s within HMP Preston. Recognising that there were deficiencies in the standard information being provided, the team developed close ongoing working relationships with local Community Safety Partnerships. They have put in place enhanced information sharing protocols and more effective processes for managing prolific offenders serving twelve months or more. This new approach is having a real impact on reducing re-offending.
“The StART Project” involves the Youth Offending Team, the Connexions Service within Lancaster Farms, and a pupil referral unit.
Working together, they developed a project to highlight works of art and poetry created by young people. The works of art and poems were collated into a gallery-standard presentation book, with the originals shown at an open evening. The project is being taken forward this year to incorporate short films – including a feature on the impact of knife crime.
This project promotes the message that young people always have something to offer, and that building their self esteem is key in bringing about positive change in their lives.
Category 4 - Outstanding contribution to engaging communities.
The UCLAN CJS Awareness Programme Team This team, which involves representatives from right across the CJS, delivered a programme to raise awareness of criminology students at the University of Central Lancashire, and to find out their views on the CJS. The four-month programme informed students about the work of each individual agency and about how agencies work together to deliver justice. They also put together a survey to find out young people’s perceptions of the CJS and to gather their ideas for improving the system.
Category 5 – Partnership of the year
ACT NOW is an innovative counter-terrorism project, put together by Lancashire Constabulary, in conjunction with the CPS. It enables community groups to use role play to enact an emerging terrorist event, aiming to address the sensitive issues this would raise, and develop a dialogue about solutions. By June 2008, the initiative had been used in 40 separate sessions and 90% of those involved have said it was a positive experience.
East District Unpaid Work Team, from the Probation Service.
This team was nominated for supervising over five hundred offenders as they completed over 16,000 hours of unpaid work to improve local parks. Over the last year, their work has enabled 4 local parks to achieve green flag status for the first time, with 4 more at application stage. One of these parks is used by 130,000 local residents, so this has a massive positive impact on the local community. 63 of the offenders are now working towards a horticultural qualification, opening up new employment opportunities – key in diverting them from crime.
Eastern Division O.M.U and Blackburn and Accrington Probation PPO Team.
This team was nominated for their innovative, “joined up” management of local prolific and other priority offenders.
Dedicated teams from Probation work together with the police Offender Management Unit to share information and resources, enabling them to supervise local PPOs more closely, and identify appropriate actions and speedy interventions. This has led to a 20 per cent reduction in crimes committed by the offenders with whom they are working.
The Lancashire ASB team.
This small team consists of staff from the CPS and Lancashire Constabulary, who put together a programme to train Victim Support volunteers on how to support victims of anti-social behaviour. This comprehensive programme covers Anti-social behaviour legislation, court and pre-court processes, and how best to present evidence. Perhaps most importantly, volunteers are also trained on how to provide emotional and practical support to victims, including reporting matters to the local police and coping with repeat victimisation.
Lancashire County Enforcement Action Planning Group. This multi-agency group, which includes representatives from across the CJS, has been nominated for turning around our local performance for dealing with breaches of community penalties. In 2005, Lancashire was just one place away from being the worst performing county in England and Wales. This team came together, determined to improve the speed with which these breaches were dealt with, and to clear the backlog of outstanding warrants. By identifying problem areas and putting in place a new, all encompassing protocol, performance has improved dramatically. And local confidence is now rising as offenders are dealt with more expediently.
Partnerships and Commissioning Team.
This team consists of Lancashire Probation and “DISC” – a voluntary organisation which develops initiatives to support communities. They have worked together to secure accommodation for the most “difficult to place” offenders. The partnership has taken over five hundred and fifty referrals over the last 12 months, and through working with a range of local partners and landlords, 235 offenders, on release from prison or who are serving community sentences, have been placed in secure accommodation.
Sophie Lancaster murder investigation and subsequent trial team. This was a particularly high profile case, which received international press coverage. The victims were identified and attacked, simply because they looked different. Sophie Lancaster died trying to save her boyfriend, as he was attacked. Every person who was involved in the investigation and trial played a vital role. The two victims’ parents commended the police for their investigation and support of the families, and the Crown Prosecutor and the CPS caseworker for ensuring the case progressed with efficiently. The victim’s mother also drew attention to the care shown by Victim Support and Witness Service volunteers and court staff.