October 15, 2004: Regional Offender Managers Are Here
Regional Offender Managers (ROMs) have arrived in England and Wales. ROMs are part of the move towards a radical new system aimed at more effective management of offenders.Ten new ROMs - one for each of the nine English regions and another for Wales - have been appointed and will commence work in November 2004. They will report to National Offender Manager Christine Knott, and will direct work in their regions to develop the concept of offender management in both the Prison and Probation Services to ensure that work done with an offender in custody is built on when they are released into the community.
According to the Home Office, ROMs will play a pivotal role in driving forward major reforms to the way offenders are managed both in prison and by the Probation Service as recommended in the Carter Report, published earlier this year. The Home Office has confirmed that by 2006-2007, the ROMs will:
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Hold the budgets for the probation areas and prisons in their regions.
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Commission services from prisons and local probation boards and hold both prisons and probation areas to account for their performance.
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Improve performance by developing 'contestability' - allowing alternative service providers to compete for work so that regions obtain the very best value for money in managing offenders.