Sentence Planning
In order to address offending behaviour, it is important to address the specific factors related to that person’s offending. To do this, a well-constructed sentence plan will help provide the backbone to achieving the desired outcome which from an organisational point of view will be, in part, to reduce reoffending.
Sentence planning – System requirements and standards
The IT system you use to “generate” the sentence plan will depend on the organisation you work for. Staff in the National Probation Service (NPS) will use OASys. Staff in the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) will use the system provided by the owner of the CRC. An example may be “The Justice Star”.
Regardless of the system/tool used, there are some basic fundamental elements that will help ensure that the sentence plan is developed in an effective way.
When completing or developing a sentence plan, a discussion between you and the Service User (SU) should take place.
This discussion should be based on:
The SU’s circumstances
The SU’s needs
All the possible pathways* to offending behaviour
The offence itself.
*The pathways for offending behaviour are:
Attitudes, thinking and behaviour
Accommodation
Drugs and Alcohol
Children and families
Health
Education, Training and Employment
Finance, Benefits and Debts
Abuse.
Sentence planning
It is important that you work collaboratively with the SU to consider what immediate priorities you should address to help reduce both risk and issues of need (SU problematic circumstances).
Once the themes have been established, it is important to look at objectives you would collaboratively like to address. The outcome of this discussion will create a set of rough goals.
At this stage it is ‘okay’ to have very vague disclosure from the SU who may say saying something like:
“Housing is a problem for me, I want to sort that”
or
“Drinking is a problem for me, I want to sort that”
This is because you should then work with the SU to break these areas into specific goals they can work towards.
Sentence planning – SMART Goal Setting
Once you set of themes, you can start to address the issue by turning it into a SMART objectives.
SMART means having objectives that are:
Specific (the goal is clear, it is unambiguous)
Measurable (progress towards the goal can be evaluated and quantified)
Attainable (the goal is achievable even if it is a stretch case)
Realistic (the goal matters, it is relevant to what is being sought overall)
Time bound (goals exist within a time frame, meaning that target dates are agreed).
The following is an example of a SMART objective to ensure a SU attends appointments (this can be a huge task for some SU’s):
“I will attend all sessions, on time, as required, over the next sixteen weeks.”
For those with highly complex needs, I would suggest that you actually start with simple targets (such as the example above) and then build up from there.
For some SU’s, the action of actually getting to appointments can be a huge motivational achievement.
Sentencing planning – addressing risk and need
It is equally important that you address the risk the SU poses within the sentence plan.
For example, if you need to monitor an offender’s alcohol misuse, as it is linked to risk, then a goal could be:
“I will complete a drink/drug diary over the next week.”
And for need:
“I will go to the local authority next Friday to get an appointment to discuss my housing problems”
Note: Throughout we have used the word “I will……” this helps give the SU ownership of the goal.
Sentence planning – obstacles
Goal setting is one of the most important aspects of sentence planning; do it right and it can be highly effective for successful treatment.
When goal setting, here are two good tips to consider.
(1) One should review the goal (or goals) regularly and break any big task into smaller manageable steps. Remember to give praise for positive progression.
(2) Discussing the obstacles to achieving goals is of equal importance to actually achieving the goals themselves.
During sentence planning, it is critical to ensure that a failure to achieve a desired goal does not affect an individual’s self-esteem as this could lead to them re-offending or potentially harming themselves or others.
One way to achieve this is to explain to the SU that setbacks are normal and part of life. We simply need to look at ways to overcome them for the future.
