Our Impact 2024: Working with people on probation in Manchester

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Managed by our Achieve team, the service consistently exceeded its monthly referral targets, with over 7,200 referrals against a target of 6,188 by February 2024.

Despite the complex barriers faced by participants, 97% of referrals had an initial assessment within the targeted 10 days.

The programme is valued by both probation professionals and participants for its tailored support, which is more effective than mainstream employment services in addressing the unique challenges faced by those on probation.

The evaluation also underscores the importance of co-locating dedicated ETE Key Workers within probation offices across Greater Manchester. This co-location has significantly improved communication between probation professionals and Key Workers, leading to better support and faster service delivery.

The close collaboration has resulted in 31.9% of participants achieving an employment, training, or education outcome within an average of 60 days, although outcomes are lower for those with higher complexity barriers and for women.

Challenges identified include the need for longer term support for participants with high-complexity barriers and the relatively lower success rates for women. The report suggests that targeted support for women and extended engagement for those with complex needs could enhance outcomes. Additionally, the evaluation found that over 40% of referrals do not result in service take-up, often due to participants withdrawing before assessment, indicating a need to explore and address the reasons behind this dropout rate.

Our evaluation concludes with recommendations to strengthen the impact of the IRS-ETE service. These include expanding the capacity of the service to meet increasing demand, ensuring co-location of Key Workers within probation offices, and providing specialised, longer-term support for participants with complex needs. It also emphasises the need to better align services with the specific challenges faced by women on probation and to consider reducing Key Worker caseloads to improve service quality and participant outcomes.

Participant voices:

• “They [Key Workers] have access to your background, you’re not having to explain to them, somebody knew about the reasons why you are here and why you can’t do certain jobs it’s already been laid out.”
• “There’s never a point where you sit there or get the impression of I don’t even feel like talking to you today, it’s always a sense of you know he’s always available to have any questions.”

Staff voices:

• “I think going back to understanding the barriers, I think that was really important and just knowing why, what’s going on in their heads sometimes and why they can’t get onto the job market training and then getting past that.” – Achieve Key Worker
• “It works really well sat in our office. I don’t think people would refer as much if that were not the case.” – Probation practitioner