The Revolving Door Checklist for PCCs
This briefing focuses on how Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) can help improve responses to offenders facing multiple and complex needs. It includes practical recommendations for PCCs, and also highlights examples of PCCs driving improved responses to this group of ‘revolving door’ offenders. Offenders who face multiple and complex needs come into repeated contact with the police and criminal justice system. In recent years there has been growing recognition of multiple and complex needs as an issue in its own right. There is also a growing understanding of the kind of intensive coordinated support that can help people in this situation to recover and desist from crime.
Independent initiatives are developing in a number of areas to help services better co-ordinate responses in the community. In a time of shrinking budgets, PCCs are in a key position to work with partners more effectively. Their strategic role means they can help find new ways of cutting crime and reducing demand on the police. PCCs’ broader community safety remit (the ‘and crime’ part of their role) gives them a crucial perspective on the system as a whole. There is significant scope for them to drive effective partnership working in their area, bringing together strategic decision makers to address root causes of offending. They can help improve responses to those who fall between gaps in the system.
This briefing includes a checklist for PCCs to consider when reviewing their police and crime plans and developing their strategic approach to reducing crime and reoffending. Across the country, some PCCs are starting to drive this change, working with police forces and other local partners. We suggest how PCCs can:
- Reduce demand on frontline police by using effective diversion and crime prevention strategies
- Help to tackle ‘revolving door’ offending
- Involve people with direct experience of the problem
- Adopt a ‘whole system’ partnership approach to tackling multiple and complex needs locally.
