ECP PLACEMENT PROVIDER Probation

RESEARCH
PURPOSE
Circular
• To request probation areas’ involvement in the ECP Placement Provider REFERENCE NO:
research.
• To outline the components of the research and the requirements of 50/2004
areas’ involvement.
ISSUE DATE:
ACTION 10 September 2004
Chief Officers should ensure that ECP Implementation Managers in each
area: IMPLEMENTATION DATE:
• Inform Samantha Foster at the address below by 17th September 2004, Immediate
of who will be responsible for the research in their area.
• Complete a matrix on placement providers used for ECP delivery
EXPIRY DATE:
between 1st June and 31st August 2004, and return the matrix to RDS by
1st October 2004. September 2005
• Administer a questionnaire to all placement providers used for ECP
between 1st June and 31st August 2004, input the data into a spreadsheet TO:
and return the completed spreadsheet to RDS by 5th November 2004. Chairs of Probation Boards
Chief Officers of Probation
SUMMARY Secretaries of Probation Boards
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 CC:
providers. This research aims to build upon work some areas are already Board Treasurers
doing and will provide a national picture of ECP placement providers as well Regional Managers
as enabling areas to understand how they compare to the national profile.
This work can also be counted as evidence towards areas’ quality
AUTHORISED BY:
management exercise.
Martin Copsey
RELEVANT PREVIOUS PROBATION CIRCULARS Head of Community Reintegration
N/A
ATTACHED:
CONTACT FOR ENQUIRIES Annex A, B, C & D
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.

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 2

 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

1
 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

2
 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 Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004

Industry Type 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
Type of placement detail Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Type of sector For Profit/Private
Public
Registered Charity
Voluntary
Other
Type of placement detail Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Organisation type in terms of National (e.g. Oxfam)
locality Regional
Local
Other

3
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 No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Individual Offenders
Groups of Offenders
Both
Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Weekdays only
Weekends only
Both
Other
Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Probation staff
Placement Provider/another representative from agency
Both Placement Provider/another rep from agency &
Probation staff
Other
Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Before 1st October 2003
Between 1st October 2003 and 31st March 2004
After 31st March 2004
4
Type of placement detail Category No. of Placement Providers June-August 2004
Type of work 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

5
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……………………..

2. 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

1
For office use only: Record Number:…….

Graffiti removal
Litter removal
Painting/decorating
Recycling
Shop work
Other Please specify………………………

3. What sector is your agency?

For profit/Private
Public
Registered Charity
Voluntary
Other 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?

2
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

12. 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

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

3
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. On the whole, do you feel offenders develop skills whilst working for you?
Yes
No

18. If you answered ‘Yes’ to Q17, do you feel these skills will help offenders get future
employment?
Yes
No
N/A

19. Has an offender ever continued working for you on a voluntary basis after finishing
their ECP order?
Yes
No

20. Have you ever offered a paid job to an offender who worked for you on ECP?
Yes
No

4
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. Had you not been involved with the ECP scheme, would you have employed
people to do the work?
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. If this was before October 2003, have you noticed any differences between straight
Community Punishment (CP) and Enhanced Community Punishment (ECP)?
Yes
No
N/A

If you answered ‘Yes’, please can you specify what differences you have noticed?

26. 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?

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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. Are you still using/would you use the ECP scheme in the future?
Yes
No

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

6
Probation Area Record Number Q1 Type of Agency Q1 'Other' Type of Agency Q2 Building Work?
Hampshire 1 Local Authority Funded Independent No
Q2 Care of Animals? Q2 Care of People (Day Care) Q2 Care of People (Residential)? Q2 Cleaning?
No No No Yes
Q2 Gardening/Conservation? Q2 Graffiti Removal? Q2 Litter Removal? Q2 Painting/Decorating? Q2 Recycling?
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Q2 Shop Work Q2 Other? Q2 'Other' Q3 Type of Sector Q3 'Other' Type of Sector Q4 National/Local
No No Registered Charity National
Q4 'Other' Q5 Staff Q5 'Other' Staff Q6 Main Beneficiaries
Both Paid Staff & Volunteers Beneficiaries of Project Only
Q6 'How' Community/Society Benefit Q7 Benefit Animals? Q7 Benefit Children? Q7 Benefit the Elderly?
Better Looking streets Yes No Yes
Q7 Benefit the Homeless? Q7 Benefit those with Disabilities? Q7 Benefit Minority Ethnic Groups?
Yes No Yes
Q7 Which Minority Ethnic Group? Q8 Who does the Work? Q9 When is work done? Q9 'Other' time
Asian Community Groups of Offenders Other Nights
Q10 Who Supervises? Q10 'Other' Supervisor Q11 Number of Offenders:
Both Yourself/Another Rep from the Agency & Probation Not Enough
Q12 How Often? Q13 Frequency Q14 Satisfaction for Supply Q15 Quality of Work Q16 Offender Suitability
Couple of Times a Month Not Frequent Enough Very Satisfied Fairly Good Fairly Suitable
Q16 'Why'? Q17 Develop Skills? Q18 Skills to Help Employment? Q19 Continue Voluntary? Q20 Job Offer?
Yes Yes Yes No
Q21 How became Involved? Q21 'Other' Q22 Reason for Involvement
Told by another Placement Provider Involved with Offender Rehabilitation
Q22 'Other' Reason for Involvement Q23 If not ECP, Employed Someone? Q24 When 1st Offer Placements?
Yes Between 1st October 2003 & 31st March 2004
Q25 Differences between CP & ECP Q25 What Differences? Q26 Confidence in CJS Affected?
N/A Yes Worsened
Q26 If 'Yes', How/Why? Q27 Satisfaction Communication with Probation
too many offenders breached Fairly Satisfied
Q28 Satisfaction Communication with Offenders Q29 Use ECP Again? Q29 If 'No', Why?
Fairly Satisfied Yes
 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 Duration Date completed by

Identify Placement Providers, insert 2 weeks 24th September 2004
details into questionnaires*, send out.
Questionnaires returned to you. 3 weeks 15th October 2004
Chase outstanding questionnaires, input 3 weeks 5th November 2004
responses into Excel, send database
back to RDS for analysis

* 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.

2
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 e-
mailed 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:

• 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
 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 e-
mail 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:

4
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.