Community Payback Order: practice guidance

17. Completion

Where an individual has completed a CPO satisfactorily, a completion/exit questionnaire should be completed by the individual with the assistance of a member of justice social work staff who has not had supervisory responsibility for the individual's CPO (see Annex 6).

It would be considered good practice for a completion report (see Annex 7) to be submitted to the court by the responsible officer^[18] to advise the court of the satisfactory completion of the order, the work undertaken and the progress made. The EM service provider will provide justice social work with a completion report in respect of a restricted movement requirement and EMO within a week of the order ending.

It is important to practice in a manner that recognises and rewards efforts to desist from offending in order to encourage and affirm positive change. The final appointment provides an opportunity to purposely recognise this by offering a summary of progress such as, evidence of learning, making a contribution in the community via unpaid work or the successful completion of the order in itself.

Where a CPO has been breached it would also be appropriate, where possible, to offer the individual the opportunity to make comments identifying the difficulties the individual had in successfully completing the order and whether other supports could have been put in place.