May 15, 2004: Vision for the National Offender Management Service
Martin Narey, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), has outlined his vision for NOMS. Within five years, he wants to see a Service which:
- Enjoys the confidence of Ministers, sentencers, offenders and the public at large
- Engages with sentencers locally and nationally, and provides them with professional, appropriate and timely advice both in individual cases, and on the impact and outcomes of their collective sentencing decisions
- Provides genuine end to end management of offenders, whether in custody or the community, which appropriately balances the need for punishment and the protection of the public with helping offenders to address the causes of their offending
- Working with partners in other agencies, and service providers in the public, private and voluntary sectors, offers sentencers and offenders a coherent and comprehensive range of support and interventions designed to reduce reoffending
- Harnesses the commissioning role of Regional Offender Managers in ways which rewards success, encourages innovation, improves choice and delivers the best possible service for the budget we are given
- Demonstrably reduces reoffending and crime
- Is confident and has a genuinely diverse workforce at all levels which is proud to work within NOMS
Narey believes that NOMS “will see a significant expansion of community penalties that… will persuade sentencers to use custody less frequently”. In his view:
“The biggest and most important change with NOMS however will be the transition of Probation Officers into Offender Managers, managing offenders under community penalties but also, for the first time, having a significant influence on what happens to an offender in prison.”
While prison governors will continue to be entirely accountable for the running of their prisons, Narey expects the Offender Manager to be consulted in deciding which prisoners are, for example, put on offender behaviour programmes.