ECP PLACEMENT PROVIDER RESEARCH

PURPOSE
• • To request probation areas’ involvement in the ECP Placement Provider research. To outline the components of the research and the requirements of areas’ involvement.

Probation Circular
REFERENCE NO: 50/2004 ISSUE DATE: 10 September 2004 IMPLEMENTATION DATE: Immediate EXPIRY DATE: September 2005 TO: Chairs of Probation Boards Chief Officers of Probation Secretaries of Probation Boards CC: Board Treasurers Regional Managers AUTHORISED BY: Martin Copsey Head of Community Reintegration ATTACHED: Annex A, B, C & D

ACTION
Chief Officers should ensure that ECP Implementation Managers in each area: • Inform Samantha Foster at the address below by 17th September 2004, of who will be responsible for the research in their area. • Complete a matrix on placement providers used for ECP delivery between 1st June and 31st August 2004, and return the matrix to RDS by 1st October 2004. • Administer a questionnaire to all placement providers used for ECP between 1st June and 31st August 2004, input the data into a spreadsheet and return the completed spreadsheet to RDS by 5th November 2004.

Chief Officers were contacted via e-mail on 26th August 2004 giving advance notification of the ECP Placement Provider research. The National Probation Directorate (NPD) has commissioned some research into ECP placement providers. This research aims to build upon work some areas are already doing and will provide a national picture of ECP placement providers as well as enabling areas to understand how they compare to the national profile. This work can also be counted as evidence towards areas’ quality management exercise.

SUMMARY

RELEVANT PREVIOUS PROBATION CIRCULARS
N/A

CONTACT FOR ENQUIRIES
Samantha Foster, Research Officer (RDS NOMS Research & Evaluation) Room 411 Horseferry House Dean Ryle Street London SW1P 2AW Tel: 020 7217 8704 Fax: 020 7217 8600 E-mail: samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

National Probation Directorate
Horseferry House, Dean Ryle Street, London, SW1P 2AW General Enquiries: 020 7217 0659 Fax: 020 7217 0660

Enforcement, rehabilitation and public protection 

ECP Placement Provider Research Background/Purpose Chief Officers were contacted via e-mail on 26th August 2004. This e-mail gave advance notification of the ECP Placement Provider research and advised ECP Implementation Managers to prepare a list of all placement providers used between 1st June and 31st August 2004, ready to commence the research upon receipt of this probation circular. The National Probation Directorate (NPD) has commissioned the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) to do some research into Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP). The main aspect of this work will involve looking at ECP placement providers. Some areas are already surveying placement providers/beneficiaries, however this practice varies between areas. The proposed research aims to build upon this work and provide a national picture of ECP Placement Providers as well as enabling areas to understand how they compare to the national profile. This work can also be counted as evidence towards areas’ Quality Management exercise in terms of reparation work for the local community (section F1) and diversity and inclusion issues (sections D5 and F6). The research will specifically explore: The number and type of Placement Providers (i.e. demand/supply/mix). Frequency of providing placements. The employment opportunities for offenders, arising from placements. Why people become Placement Providers (e.g. financial/rehabilitative reasons). Where possible, Placement Providers’ perception of the changes brought about by the implementation of ECP. The communication between Placement Providers and a) ECP staff, b) offenders. Whether Placement Providers would have got the work done if the services were not offered by ECP. Whether/how the community benefits from the work of ECP. Which sections of the community are being served by ECP. Whether/how Placement Providers’ confidence in the Criminal Justice System has been effected through their experience of ECP. Action Required The research is concerned with ECP placement providers used in your probation area between 1st June and 31st August 2004 (this should include those placements, which started before 1st June and/or finish after 31st August, as long as they were also in existence during at least some of the interested period). The research is organised into two elements: a) the matrix and b) the questionnaire. ECP Implementation Managers are required to organise/undertake the following: • • Inform Samantha Foster at the address on the previous page, by 17th September 2004, of who will be responsible for the research in their probation area. This person will then be the point of contact for enquiries. Complete the matrix (Annex A) on placement providers used for ECP delivery between 1st June and 31st August 2004, including information such as total number of placement providers, types of organisations/work used as placements. We advise that this should take three weeks. The completed matrix should be returned to RDS for analysis by 1st October 2004. Send out the questionnaire (Annex B) to all placement providers used for ECP between 1st June and 30th August 2004 and input the data to the Excel spreadsheet (Annex C). We advise that this should take eight weeks. The completed spreadsheet should be sent back to RDS for analysis by 5th November 2004.

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RDS has produced some detailed guidance (Annex D) to ensure the questionnaire is administered, and data collected and inputted in a standardised way. Summary of Annexes Annex A: Placement Provider matrix (for ECP staff to complete) Annex B: Placement Provider Questionnaire (for providers themselves to complete) Annex C: Excel spreadsheet for the Placement Provider Questionnaire (for ECP staff to complete) Annex D: Guidance (for ECP staff) for administering the questionnaire and completing the Excel spreadsheet

PC50/2004 - ECP Placement Provider Research

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Annex A: Guidance for Completing the Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP) Placement Provider Matrix The matrix below was designed centrally by the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) at the Home Office, in consultation with the National Probation Directorate (NPD), and area ECP representatives. This matrix should be completed by a member of the Probation Service who has knowledge of/works for ECP. Definitions In this context we would define ‘Placement provider’ as the main person who is the point of contact for a particular placement. (I.e. there should only be one person per placement). Sampling The current research is interested in those Placement Providers who were providing a placement to ECP offender(s) in your Probation area between 1st June and 31st August 2004. (This should include all placements, which started before 1st June and/or finish after 31st August, as long as they were in existence during at least some of the interested period). Timetable Three weeks have been allowed for this matrix to be completed and returned to RDS for analysis. As this matrix has been sent to areas via a Probation Circular on 10th September 2004, please can you ensure that the completed matrix is e-mailed to me at: Samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk by 1st October 2004. Alternatively, you could send me a hard copy of the matrix to the address below. Saving this Document (i.e. the Matrix) This document is entitled ‘Annex A PP matrix’. This should be saved on your hard or network drive as ‘PPmatrix’ followed by your Probation area name. For example, ‘PPmatrixHampshire’, so that when matrices are e-mailed back to RDS, we can differentiate between areas’ responses. If you decide to send back a hard copy of the matrix, please ensure that you have inserted the name of your Probation area in the top row of the matrix. Understanding and Completing the Matrix • In the top box, please insert the name of your Probation Area and the total number of Placement Providers used between 1st June and 31st August 2004, in the relevant space. • The matrix is laid out into three columns: ‘Type of placement detail’; ‘category’; ‘Number of Placement Providers June-August 2004’. You only need to complete the last column. • For each type of placement detail, we would like you to input the number of Placement Providers (used in your area between 1st June and 31st August) that fitted into each category. All providers should be assigned to a category so that the total number of Placement Providers for each type of placement detail matches the total number of Placement Providers you noted in the top box of the matrix. For certain types of placement detail e.g. industry type, you may feel that some Placement Providers may fit into several of the categories, however we would like you to assign them to just the main one. The only exception is for ‘type of work’ when we would ask you to assign the Placement Provider to all the categories of work they provided during the interested time period. (Obviously

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here, the total number under the Placement detail ‘type of work’ is unlikely to match the total number of Placement Providers you note in the top box of the matrix). The data provided in this matrix will be compared with the data provided in the Placement Provider questionnaires and a report containing the results will be written for NPD to inform their policy decisions. It is hoped that a summary of the findings will be made available to Probation areas in early 2005. If you have any questions about completing this matrix, please do not hesitate to contact me: Samantha Foster RDS NOMS Research & Evaluation Room 411 Horseferry House Dean Ryle Street London SW1P 2AW Tel: 020 7217 8704 E-mail: Samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk If you are unable to contact me, please contact: Robin Elliott-Marshall Tel: 020 7217 8828 E-mail: robin.elliott-marshall@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

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ECP PLACEMENT PROVIDER MATRIX Time period: 1st June-31st - August 2004 Probation Area:…………………………….. Total number of Placement Providers between 1st June – 31st August 2004:…………………………….. (This number should match the number of Placement Provider questionnaires sent out) Type of placement detail Industry Type Category Animal Care Building/Construction Crime Reduction/Safety Education Environmental Faith Institution (e.g. church/Mosque) Housing Provision Local Authority Local Authority Funded, Independent Body e.g. Citizen’s Advice Bureau Retail Social Care (e.g. day care/nursing home) Other Category For Profit/Private Public Registered Charity Voluntary Other Category National (e.g. Oxfam) Regional Local Other No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

Type of placement detail Type of sector

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

Type of placement detail Organisation type in terms of locality

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

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Type of placement detail Who completes the work? Type of placement detail Time of week Providers take placements

Type of placement detail Who supervises the offenders?

Type of placement detail When first involved in ECP?

Category Individual Offenders Groups of Offenders Both Category Weekdays only Weekends only Both Other Category Probation staff Placement Provider/another representative from agency Both Placement Provider/another rep from agency & Probation staff Other Category Before 1st October 2003 Between 1st October 2003 and 31st March 2004 After 31st March 2004

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

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Type of placement detail Type of work

Category Building work Care of Animals Care of People (day care) Care of People (residential) Cleaning Gardening/Conservation Graffiti removal Litter removal Painting/decorating Recycling Shop work Other

No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

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For office use only: Record Number:…….

Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP) Placement Provider Questionnaire The National Probation Directorate (NPD) has commissioned the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) at the Home Office to conduct some research into Placement Providers of Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP). The research aims to provide a national picture of the types of Placement Providers and their experiences of being involved with ECP. As you have provided a placement for ECP offenders between 1st June and 31st August 2004, you have been selected to participate in the research. If you have recently completed a similar survey for the Probation Service, we would still like you to complete this questionnaire. Results will be used to inform ECP policy development nationally and to help understand your needs as well as improving the service you receive. It would be appreciated if you could complete the following questionnaire (which should take no longer than 5 minutes) and return it to [name of ECP contact in Probation Area] who will then forward the data to RDS, by [date]. All responses will be kept anonymous. Please tick the relevant box for each question (Please only tick one box per question, unless otherwise stated) 1. What Industry best describes your agency? Animal care Building/construction Crime Reduction/safety Education Environmental Faith Institution (e.g. church/mosque) Housing Provision Local Authority Local Authority funded, independent body e.g. Citizen’s Advice Bureau Retail Social Care (e.g. day care/nursing home) Other Please specify…………………….. What type of work does your agency provide for offenders? (Please tick all those that apply) Building work Care of animals Care of people (day care) Care of people (residential) Cleaning Gardening/Conservation 2.

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For office use only: Record Number:……. Graffiti removal Litter removal Painting/decorating Recycling Shop work Other 3. What sector is your agency? For profit/Private Public Registered Charity Voluntary Other

Please specify………………………

Please specify………………………...

4. Are you a national, regional or local agency? National Regional Local Other Please specify………………………... 5. Who staffs your agency? Paid staff only Volunteers only Both paid staff and volunteers Other

Please specify………………………...

6. Who are the main beneficiaries from the work done by ECP offenders? Those within your organisation only The beneficiaries of your agency/project only The local community The wider society If you ticked one of the last two boxes, can you explain how the work benefits the local community or wider society?

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For office use only: Record Number:…….

7.

Do any of the following sections of the community benefit from the work carried out by offenders on ECP? (Please tick all those that apply)

Animals Children The elderly The homeless Those with disabilities Minority ethnic groups

Please specify the main group……………………..

8. Who carries out the work for you? Individual offenders Groups of offenders Both 9. When is work carried out by the offenders? Weekdays only Weekends only Both Other

Please specify………………………

10. Who supervises the offenders? Probation staff Yourself/another representative from your agency Both yourself/another rep from your agency & the Probation Service Other Please specify……………………… 11. In order to do your work, is the number of offenders generally: Too many Just the right number Not enough Between June 1st and August 31st 2004, how often have you had ECP offenders working for you? Every day Most days A couple of times a week A couple of times a month Less than once a month Once 12. 13. In order to do your work, was this: Too frequent About right Not frequent enough 14. How satisfied are you with the arrangements to ensure a sufficient supply of workers? Very satisfied Fairly satisfied Not very satisfied Not at all satisfied 15. On the whole, how would you rate the quality of work completed by the offenders? Excellent

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For office use only: Record Number:……. Fairly good Not very good Poor 16. On the whole, how suitable do you feel offenders on ECP are for your placement? Very suitable Fairly suitable Not very suitable Not at all suitable Please can you explain your response

17. Yes No 18. Yes No N/A 19. Yes No 20. Yes No

On the whole, do you feel offenders develop skills whilst working for you?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to Q17, do you feel these skills will help offenders get future employment?

Has an offender ever continued working for you on a voluntary basis after finishing their ECP order?

Have you ever offered a paid job to an offender who worked for you on ECP?

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For office use only: Record Number:…….

21. How did you become involved in the ECP scheme? Approached by the Probation Service Saw an advertisement/article about the scheme Told about the scheme by another Placement Provider Not Known (e.g. if there is a long standing agreement with the Probation Service) Other Please specify………………………………………………………….. 22. What was your main reason for becoming involved in the ECP scheme? To be involved with the rehabilitation of offenders To save money To complete a job, which would not otherwise have been done Other Please specify…………………………………………………………… 23. Yes No 24. When did you/your organisation first offer placements to offenders on Community Punishment? Before 1st October 2003 Between 1st October 2003 and 31st March 2004 After 31st March 2004 25. Yes No N/A If you answered ‘Yes’, please can you specify what differences you have noticed? If this was before October 2003, have you noticed any differences between straight Community Punishment (CP) and Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP)? Had you not been involved with the ECP scheme, would you have employed people to do the work?

Has your confidence in the Criminal Justice System been affected through your experience with ECP? Yes, improved Yes, worsened No, no change If you answered ‘Yes’, please can you specify how/why?

26.

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For office use only: Record Number:…….

27. How satisfied are you with your communication with Probation staff? Very satisfied Fairly satisfied Not very satisfied Not at all satisfied 28. How satisfied are you with your communication with offenders on ECP? Very satisfied Fairly satisfied Not very satisfied Not at all satisfied N/A 29. Yes No Are you still using/would you use the ECP scheme in the future?

If you answered ‘no’ to this question, please can you explain why?

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Please can you return it to the following address in the envelope provided or by e-mail (as appropriate): [Name and address of ECP contact] By: [date]

If you have any questions about the research, please contact: Samantha Foster Research Officer RDS NOMS Research & Evaluation 411 Horseferry House Dean Ryle Street London SW1P 2AW E-mail: samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Tel: 020 7217 8704

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Probation Area Hampshire

Record Number

Q1 Type of Agency 1 Local Authority Funded Independent

Q1 'Other' Type of Agency

Q2 Building Work? No 

Q2 Care of Animals? No

Q2 Care of People (Day Care) No

Q2 Care of People (Residential)? No

Q2 Cleaning? Yes 

Q2 Gardening/Conservation? Yes

Q2 Graffiti Removal? Yes

Q2 Litter Removal? Yes

Q2 Painting/Decorating? Yes

Q2 Recycling? Yes 

Q2 Shop Work No

Q2 Other? No

Q2 'Other'

Q3 Type of Sector Registered Charity

Q3 'Other' Type of Sector

Q4 National/Local National 

Q4 'Other'

Q5 Staff Both Paid Staff & Volunteers

Q5 'Other' Staff

Q6 Main Beneficiaries Beneficiaries of Project Only 

Q6 'How' Community/Society Benefit Better Looking streets

Q7 Benefit Animals? Yes

Q7 Benefit Children? No

Q7 Benefit the Elderly? Yes 

Q7 Benefit the Homeless? Yes

Q7 Benefit those with Disabilities? No

Q7 Benefit Minority Ethnic Groups? Yes 

Q7 Which Minority Ethnic Group? Asian Community

Q8 Who does the Work? Groups of Offenders

Q9 When is work done? Other

Q9 'Other' time Nights 

Q10 Who Supervises? Both Yourself/Another Rep from the Agency & Probation

Q10 'Other' Supervisor

Q11 Number of Offenders: Not Enough 

Q12 How Often? Couple of Times a Month

Q13 Frequency Not Frequent Enough

Q14 Satisfaction for Supply Very Satisfied

Q15 Quality of Work Fairly Good

Q16 Offender Suitability Fairly Suitable 

Q16 'Why'?

Q17 Develop Skills? Yes

Q18 Skills to Help Employment? Yes

Q19 Continue Voluntary? Yes

Q20 Job Offer? No 

Q21 How became Involved? Told by another Placement Provider

Q21 'Other'

Q22 Reason for Involvement Involved with Offender Rehabilitation 

Q22 'Other' Reason for Involvement

Q23 If not ECP, Employed Someone? Yes

Q24 When 1st Offer Placements? Between 1st October 2003 & 31st March 2004 

Q25 Differences between CP & ECP N/A

Q25 What Differences?

Q26 Confidence in CJS Affected? Yes Worsened 

Q26 If 'Yes', How/Why? too many offenders breached

Q27 Satisfaction Communication with Probation Fairly Satisfied 

Q28 Satisfaction Communication with Offenders Fairly Satisfied

Q29 Use ECP Again? Yes

Q29 If 'No', Why? 

Annex D: Guidance for Administering the Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP) Placement Provider Questionnaire The questionnaire and Excel spreadsheet were designed centrally by the Research Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) at the Home Office, in consultation with the National Probation Directorate (NPD) representatives, and area ECP representatives. Definitions In this context we would define ‘Placement Provider’ as the main person who is the point of contact for a particular placement. (i.e. there should only be one person per placement). Sampling We would ask that the questionnaire goes out to all Placement Providers who were providing a placement to ECP offender(s) in your Probation area between 1st June and 31st August 2004. (This should include those placements, which started before 1st June and/or finish after 31st August, as long as they were also in existence during at least some of the interested period). The number of questionnaires sent out should match the number you noted in the top box of the Placement Provider matrix (Annex A). If your Probation area has carried out a survey of Placement Providers/beneficiaries since 1st June 2004, please can you contact me to discuss whether you need to complete this survey. Using data provided from ECP area representatives involved in the research Steering group, we have estimated that the number of Placement Providers per area, used between 1st June and 31st August 2004 would be approximately 140-160. Methodology and Timetable Eight weeks have been allowed for the whole process to be completed. As the questionnaire and accompanying materials has been sent to areas via a Probation Circular on 10th September, we advise that areas follow this rough timetable as a guide: Tasks Identify Placement Providers, insert details into questionnaires*, send out. Questionnaires returned to you. Chase outstanding questionnaires, input responses into Excel, send database back to RDS for analysis Duration 2 weeks 3 weeks 3 weeks Date completed by 24th September 2004 15th October 2004 5th November 2004

* Before sending out the questionnaire to Placement Providers, please could you add in the following details: On Page 1: the name of the ECP contact in your area to whom the questionnaire should be returned, and the date you require responses by i.e. 15th October 2004. Also on P6 could you add these details and the address for which the questionnaire should be sent/e-mailed. We appreciate that the current questionnaire may not be able to answer all of the questions that you may feel are important at a local level, but we do want this to be a flexible and useful tool. Therefore, you may wish to add in additional questions which you feel are not presently covered in the questionnaire. You may find some useful questions in the beneficiary satisfaction survey, designed by the South East region in 2002, which explores issues regarding communication with beneficiaries and their perception of quality of service provided by the Probation service. For a copy of this questionnaire, please contact Emma Belton, who is a Research Officer in Thames Valley (e-mail: emma.belton@thames-valley.probation.gsx.gov.uk tel: 01296 393925). Could we ask however, that you do not remove or amend any of the current questions and should you choose to add any additional questions, these are placed at the end of the questionnaire, starting 1 

at Q30. This is to minimise problems of inputting the responses in the wrong order in the Excel spreadsheet and to facilitate the analysis once spreadsheets are returned to RDS. You can decide on how you wish to administer the questionnaires as the method used is likely to vary depending on the type of placement and resources in your area. In order to minimise costs of administering the survey, where possible, we would advise e-mailing the questionnaires to Placement Providers. However, we appreciate that given the nature of some placements, it may not be possible to do this. Alternatively, the questionnaires should be sent out by post. To increase the likelihood of providers responding (and consequently improving the response rate and maximising the representativenes of responses), please can you provide stamped address envelopes for the questionnaires to be returned to you. In the case of current placements, it may possible for case managers to collect the questionnaires on their routine visits. When questionnaires are returned to you, they should be given a Record Number (to represent the order in which they were received) and this should be recorded on both the questionnaire (P1, top left hand corner) and in the 2nd column of the Excel spreadsheet.

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Annex D: Guidance for Inputting the Placement Provider Questionnaire responses into the Excel Spreadsheet It is recommended that responses are inputted as and when completed questionnaires are received, rather than waiting for them all to be returned. This should make it easier to stay on top of the data inputting and save a rush towards the end of the data collection period. Saving the Spreadsheet The Excel spreadsheet attached is called ‘Annex C PP spreadsheet’ and has been designed by RDS. This should be saved on your hard or network drive as ‘PPspreadsheet’ followed by your Probation area name. For example ‘PPspreadsheethampshire’ so that when spreadsheets are emailed back to RDS, we can differentiate between areas’ responses. Finding your way around the Spreadsheet • All questions in the questionnaire have been included on the spreadsheet and appear in the same order as in the questionnaire. • Each row on the spreadsheet should be used for a new questionnaire. • Generally each column in the spreadsheet refers to different question. • The first column in the spreadsheet requires you to input the name of your Probation area. • Row 2 of the spreadsheet is an example of how responses from a typical questionnaire are expected to look when inputted. • Most questions in the questionnaire ask the respondents to pick one response from a list of options. These questions in the spreadsheet are highlighted with a red heading. Rather than asking you to write in the response (this can be time consuming for you and complicate the analysis), it can be input by clicking on the arrow that appears when you click into the cell, and then clicking on the answer required, as indicated in the picture below:

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Some questions in the questionnaire prompt respondents to write in a response as well as picking an answer. For example, if respondents tick ‘other’ for Q1, they are asked to specify what ‘other’ is. Similarly, in Q6, if respondents tick one of the last 2 boxes, they are asked to elaborate on this. In the spreadsheet, a column with a blue heading follows the column for the ticked response and the respondent’s response should be written in here. You may find that the response is quite long. In the spreadsheet, there is not enough room to write more than a few words. In these cases, we would ask you to summarise the text provided by respondents, into key words. For example, if the explanation under Q16 read ‘the offenders always turned 3 

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up late, were untidy and often rude’, this could be summarised to ‘not punctual, rude, untidy’. Obviously sometimes these questions will not be applicable and will be left blank on the questionnaire so there is no need to put anything into the spreadsheet. Under Qs 2 and 7 on the questionnaire, the respondent is asked to tick all the responses that apply. The responses to these questions cannot be recorded in one column in the spreadsheet, hence inputting responses to these questions is slightly different. You will find that each of the possible options for each question is given a separate column (headings are in yellow) in the spreadsheet and you must input whether the respondent has ticked that response by selecting either ‘yes’/’no’ for each of the options, from the drop down menu, which appears when you click on the arrow that appears when you click on the cell. For ease of completion, the spreadsheet has been arranged so that as you move horizontally across the page, the Probation Area and Record Number columns always stay in view (to help ensure you are inputting data for the relevant respondent). Similarly, as you add more and more questionnaires to the spreadsheet i.e. move vertically down the page, the column headings stay in view. Where a respondent has not answered a question, or has ticked too many responses, please leave the cell in the spreadsheet blank.

Once all the questionnaires have been inputted into the Excel spreadsheet, please can you email the document to me at: samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk by 5th November 2004. In the e-mail, please can you note a) the number of questionnaires sent out and b) the number you received back, so that we can ascertain response rates. If further questionnaires are received after you have e-mailed the spreadsheet to me, please could you forward the questionnaires to me at the address below. Once data from areas are received by RDS, work will begin to analyse the data by comparing it to data provided in the Placement Provider matrix. A report will then be produced outlining the national picture on ECP Placement Providers. It is anticipated that a summary of the findings will be made available to Probation areas in early 2005. Areas are encouraged to analyse their own area’s data to enable comparisons to the national profile. If you have any queries about administering the questionnaires or inputting the data, please do not hesitate to contact me:

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Samantha Foster RDS NOMS Research & Evaluation Room 411, Horseferry House Dean Ryle Street London SW1P 2AW Tel: 020 7217 8704 E-mail: samantha.foster@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk If you are unable to contact me, please contact: Robin Elliott-Marshall Tel: 020 7217 8828 E-mail: robin-elliott-marshall@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Suggestions for Future Years Whilst it is not anticipated that RDS will not be involved in future surveys, we would recommend that this survey is repeated on an annual basis, at the same time of year, capturing the same time period (i.e. June-August). This would enable you to trace trends in your own area and also see how your area compares to other Probation areas. Additionally, this would continue to count towards your Quality Management exercise. It is appreciated that not all questions will be of interest in future years and these can be removed or modified. For example, you would need to update Q12 for the relevant year, and Qs 24 and 25 may no longer be applicable. It may instead be more interesting to know how long providers have been involved in the ECP scheme. As already acknowledged, there may be additional questions you wish to ask, which are not already included in the current questionnaire. It is possible for you to add in further questions. If you have the time and resources, we would suggest running focus groups in your area to explore what the local issues are for ECP and then including questions in the survey to capture these aspects. Thank you for taking the time and effort to complete this work for RDS.

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