“There is no doubt that the past year has seen many challenges, on a global, national and criminal justice sector level. Catch22 and our Justice Hub has throughout this time remained solution focused, adaptable and committed to providing quality commissioned services, supporting our service users and contributing to making our communities safer. Within the Catch22 Justice footprint, we are proud of the evidenced impact of our work across both victim, community and offender focused services. We have navigated the complexities of delivering our quality provision by adapting to change, being innovative and by blending our model by increasing the use of technology to provide vital support virtually.
“Overall, this year we engaged with 44,981 Service Users across our Justice reach, 95% of those we work with in our Through the Gate services said they were satisfied with the service they received. 99% of services users in our victim services reported improved mental or physical health as a result of the support received. These figures, when considering the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, illustrate our dedication to those we engage with. Our social impact, along with our strategy going forward are informed by our partners, commissioners, service users and local and national needs, as such we are working at the forefront of social justice policy and organisational coalitions.
“During a time of financial unpredictability, and a national, perhaps global recession, we have continued to promote our vision and methodology as drivers for change for good. We have increased our reach, by gaining new contracts at HMP Wandsworth resettlement and extending our Wolverhampton Violence Reduction Team to include a young person’s resettlement in the community service. In addition, we have seen contract extensions and growth in our Victim’s services.
“As change continues with the government launch of the Dynamic Framework. The Ministry of Justice’s Probation Services Dynamic Framework has been designed to enable private and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations to deliver rehabilitative services aimed at reducing offending and enabling people to lead purposeful lives within their communities. We are delighted to have been successful in being confirmed on the framework, as such we are busy preparing bids for delivery in many categories in various regions across the country.
“2020 was without doubt memorable for all sorts of reasons but I am sure that 2021 will be even more so.”
– Lisa Smitherman Director of Justice
For over 200 years Catch22 has designed and delivered services that build resilience and aspiration in people and communities. Our approach is based on the 3Ps. We believe people can thrive when they have good people, a purpose, and a good place to live.
Catch22 delivers offender management, resettlement and gangs work in prisons and in the community. At the heart of our rehabilitative and restorative work is the belief that relationships are crucial to effective desistance from crime. We run 21 justice services across 18 prisons. Last year, we worked with:
Offender management
Catch22 is the only offender management unit in the UK delivered by a third sector organisation. Our service is focused on identifying prisoners’ criminogenic needs and addressing the root causes of all offending.
Catch22 is experienced in measuring and evaluating the risk posed by high risk, lifers and indeterminate sentenced prisoners. The team addresses immediate risks once someone enters custody, including mental health and substance misuse, as well as long-term issues such as gang affiliation.
Our dedicated staff focus on relationships with an end-to-end case management approach, supporting prisoners to engage in purposeful activity that reduces recidivism. In the lead up to release, Catch22 monitors the progress and behaviour of participants, facilitating individual and group work which supports resettlement and desistance. While working in a culture of continuous improvement, the team consistently meets targets and shares best practice with prisons across the UK.
Catch22’s full offender management service at HMP Thameside – a busy inner city, category B local resettlement prison, located in South-East London and operated by Serco – has been operation since 2012. We worked with 2894 service users in the last 12 months.
Through the Gate
Working in collaboration with community-based Offender Managers and Responsible Officers, Catch22 supports prisoners as they transition through the gate and into the community.
- In the last year, our Through the Gate service worked with 24,360 people across 15 prisons
- 98% of those we work with received an initial screening within five working days
- 99% of those we work with received a pre-release assessment
- 95% of those we supported said they were satisfied with the service they received
“The arrival of Catch22 has not only put HMP Channings Wood firmly on the map as a resettlement prison, but more importantly now enables people with convictions to access a broad range of dedicated and well-coordinated resettlement interventions – all of which promote a seamless and successful reintegration back into the community on release.”
– Head of Reducing Re-Offending, HMP Channings Wood
Our peer-mentors are volunteers currently serving their sentence and offer a unique perspective while supporting prisoners’ rehabilitation.
Our evidence-based approach involves collaboration with housing and employment partners and brings in the support of family members.
Our robust resettlement plans include practical and tangible enhancements for the following pathways:
- Accommodation
- Education, training and employment
- Finance, benefits and debt
- Physical and mental health
- Substance misuse
- Relationships and families
- Attitudes, thinking and behaviour
- Victims of domestic violence
- Victims of sexual assault
- Support for sex workers
- Support for care leavers
- Support for ex-military
- Support for foreign nationals
“Catch22 is one the best Through the Gate service providers we have in Interserve Justice. They’re professional, compassionate and take the time to understand the needs of individual prisoners – giving them the best possible chance of reintegrating into society once released. This hinges on their ability to form and maintain good relationships with the CRC arm of the ITTG team and key stakeholders in the prison, which they have done consistently.”
– Nick Hawley, Community Probation Director, Interserve
Gangs and violence reduction services
The Catch22 Gangs and Violence Reduction Custodial Service works within the prison to promote an understanding of community issues and how these issues may impact a custodial setting. We support prison management by reducing the risk posed by gang-involved prisoners, so that violent incidents are prevented.
Catch22 Gang services work with 7708 Service users in both custodial & community settings. We have 4 services permanently based in prisons and an in reach approach in to many more. We also have 2 community based services.
Our Gang Practitioners design targeted interventions and deliver adapted Through the Gate services for those wishing to exit gang lifestyles.
By offering alternatives to the supposed security and status offered by gang involvement, our strategy is more effective than the suppressiononly approach used in many prisons.
Since the introduction of our gangs custodial service, there has been am 18% improvement in pro-criminal attitudes towards knife possession, 13% reduction in those reporting to engage in Gang activity post intervention and 15% positive attitudinal shifts towards their perceived ability to leave a gang.
Following working with Catch22, there was a:
- 18% increase in participants who reported no intention of carrying a weapon in the community
- 13% increase in participants who reported that they were unlikely to engage in criminal/gang activity in custody
- 100% recording of commissioners who said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with Catch22’s work
- 96.5% recording of service users who said they were satisfied with the service provided by Catch22
Wolverhampton Violence Reduction Team
Wolverhampton Violence Reduction uses an end-to-end approach working with individuals, families, schools, custodial estates and communities in a joined up approach that aims to reduce gang involvement and its effect on local areas. Our work targets and builds on service users strengths to prevent them from becoming involved in gangs, and provides a range of interventions for gang-involved young people to support them to exit. We use a variety of methods to deter young people from engaging in, or continuing negative behaviours associated with gang activity by providing support to maintain or re-enter education, training or employment, one to one key working, providing activity intervention. We work within the secure estate to support individuals transition as they reintegrate back into community and support pro-social lifestyles.
LGE
Catch22 is a partner within the LGE consortium. LGE aims to reduce offending, support individuals to access safe, stable housing and encourages young people back into employment, education or training across the 32 boroughs in London.
Catch22 own the custodial estate pathway for the consortium which sees us responsible for generating referral pipeline of violence affiliated individuals from the secure estate into the service – often regarded as the most complex and violence entrenched cohort. The model is based on an end-to-end management approach.
This ensures that positive behavioural change achieved during custody has a greater chance of success, supported through a continuous relationship through the gate, which the offender recognises as supportive, trusting and knowledgeable.
Youth justice
Through the network of Catch22 services, we are in a unique position to address all a young person’s needs. Our work supports those who have gone missing or are victims of exploitation; we deliver high-level family support, run alternative education provision, and support vulnerable people into employment.
From prevention and crime diversion through to intensive supervision and reparation, our services cover the spectrum of youth justice services. Some examples of our current youth justice work include:
- Bristol and Suffolk Reparation: Working with local authorities and partner agencies, we identify suitable reparation projects, including charity shop work, supporting food banks and cleaning graffiti. Community reparation encourages young people to reintegrate and take pride in their local community, while making amends for their crime and developing skills.
- Suffolk Positive Futures: Using sport, physical activities, arts and education to engage vulnerable young people, connect them to their community and prevent them from entering the criminal justice system.
- Child exploitation: The Pan Merseyside Child Exploitation service has supported victims of child criminal exploitation since 2017. They were the first integrated child exploitation service in the country, providing one-to-one support to victims, and training over 1600 professionals in spotting the signs of both child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation.
“I left school without any GCSE’s and with very little confidence. I now have qualifications as well as paid employment. I am determined to repay the faith the project has shown in me.”
– Suffolk Positive futures, service user
Victim services
Our services are centred around the victim, to empower them to cope and recover. Catch22 has developed an innovative model for victim services that can be tailored to the needs of local communities.
We offer every victim:
- an allocated worker to act as a single point of contact to simplify their journey
- an assessment of every victim’s needs which informs their individualised support plan
- solution-focused and strengths based support which is free, independent and confidential – and available to victims and witnesses regardless of whether the crime has been reported
What makes us different?
- We involve victims in the design and continuous improvement of our services.
- We draw on Catch22’s experience delivering a range of services including child sexual exploitation (CSE), domestic abuse, substance misuse and gangs.
- We use partnerships and stakeholder engagement to upskill and empower others in our communities to increase awareness of our services for potential or ‘hidden’ victims.
Our impact in the last six months:
- We provided support to 10,369 victims
- 99% of service users reported improved or sustained health and wellbeing as a result of our support
- 99% of service users reported an improved or sustained feeling of safety following our support
- 96% of service users reported that they were satisfied with our victim services
Partner engagement
Our victim services proactively bring organisations together to share best practice and to improve the support available to victims:
- Hertfordshire Beacon lead a countywide Restorative Justice Forum which brings together criminal justice partners from around the county. The forum raises awareness about the work we are doing, to increase referrals, and to take a strategic approach to exploring best practice around restorative justice.
- Victim First designed and developed the Victim First Champions initiative. These Champions are key individuals at partner agencies who we have trained to promote our service to victims within their own organisations. Champions can directly refer service users to us or help those in need to selfrefer.
- Nottinghamshire Victim CARE collaborate closely with local partners Redthread, who deliver youth violence interventions in the county’s A&E department. This partnership has created a seamless support journey for young people, ensuring vulnerable service users get the help they need to continue a positive recovery journey.
“She smiled at me and she gave me her hand, she took me away to some stable safe land,
“we chatted for a while as I unloaded all my thoughts, she listened to me as I showed her the course,
“that my life has been going on, the journey I have walked, I started feeling clearer, the more that we talked.
“I started feeling better, more alright, And finally, she said “we are here to help you – I’m from Beacon of light.”
“The weight lifted off my shoulders, but I still felt a bit guarded, because how many times, my voice has been discarded,
“but a little spark of hope shined, little did I know it was them my healing journey started.”
– Savannah’s story – extract from ‘Beacon of Light’
Community engagement and outreach
- Drop-in clinics: Victim First run fortnightly drop-in clinics at Loughborough University and the University of Leicester for students and staff members to speak with our caseworkers. Those who have been victims of crime are offered a one-off support session, the chance to self-refer, or an advice session.
- Community Café Events: Victim First deliver quarterly Community Café events at local cafés. Service users get free coffee and are invited to share their experience of receiving our support. This ensures that the community has a voice in shaping how Victim First operates and, as a result of this service user consultation, we have created a more user-friendly service.
- Community Point programme: Nottinghamshire Victim Care created the Community Point programme to support local groups in accessing our services. In one example, we improved a local charity group’s safeguarding policy and sourced training for all their volunteers.
- Partnership with DAISU team: Hertfordshire Beacon forged a partnership with our local DAISU team (Domestic Abuse Investigative Safeguarding Unit). We now base a Beacon Case Manager in their office once a week, making contact with ‘standard’ risk victims on behalf of the constabulary. There are high attrition rates in Hertfordshire for domestic abuse victims, so this gives the victim an opportunity to engage with our service, and increases the likelihood of them attending court.
Partnership work with police
- ‘Valuing our Leaders’ training: Hertfordshire Beacon delivered training to managers within Hertfordshire Constabulary. The training outlined the impact of crime on victims, the role of Beacon in the community, and details and examples of the support we offer. After these sessions, we received 31 direct police referrals from the Officer in Charge (OIC) and referrals continue to rise, not only from in-house police victim service teams, but from specialist police teams, CSE, sexual assault and neighbourhood teams too.
- Service Delivery Group: Victim First designed the Service Delivery Group, a quarterly forum involving Victim First caseworkers, police constables from Leicestershire Police and senior management from both organisations. The forum provides insight into the workings of our frontline delivery and considers the strategic objectives of both teams. This ensures referrals continue to run smoothly and examples of best practice are regularly shared. As a result of this service delivery group, victims are aware of the support they are entitled to and subsequently, our referral numbers continue to grow.
“Although still in its infancy, the Beacon ‘Safeguarding’ Hub is not only managing a high caseload, but delivering spectacular results, including disclosure of a horrific abusive relationship. Key to this success is not only the open relationship enjoyed between police and Catch22, but confidence by investigators to share information to enable effective risk assessments to take place.”
– Police and Crime Commissioner, Hertfordshire
What our commissioners say
“The Catch22 team has a can-do attitude and consistently delivers… They have worked strongly in partnership with a wide range of services and have developed a good reputation across the partnership. I would thoroughly recommend them for the provision of victim services in other PCC areas.”
“Catch22 has embraced the stated aims and objectives of our victims’ strategy and excelled in the delivery of a number of key areas. For example, their approach to ‘outreach’ has seen self-referrals increase threefold over the previous incumbent.”
What our service users say
“My caseworker has provided me with consistently positive and helpful telephone support during my recent time of crisis. My caseworker was the only consistent source of support, having found it near impossible to access other support due to not living in the required area or facing two-year waiting lists. It is no exaggeration to state that, at my time of need, my caseworker was a lifeline!”
“[My caseworker] has supported me every step of the way, with emotional support, practical advice, remembering all significant dates in the progress of the case and addressing my questions and concerns whenever I have needed them… I am so grateful for all the help they have given me to get to this point… The service they provide is invaluable.”
