Community Payback Order: practice guidance

1. Introduction

This practice guidance has been agreed with a range of relevant organisations and agencies and is intended to support practitioners and managers to improve their performance.

To support this guidance a number of proformas have been attached as annexes. These were provided at the request of a number of practitioners. Developed by a practicing justice social work team manager, these are designed to help inform and improve the long term effectiveness of service delivery. It is for individual managers to judge the practical benefits of these proformas and the extent to which they will be used, or might usefully be adapted to suit local circumstances.

This guidance is aimed primarily at those practitioners and managers engaged in the delivery of justice social work services and specifically Community Payback Orders (CPOs), but should also be of assistance to those employed in other agencies and involved in the delivery of CPOs. Effective inter-agency and inter‑discipline working is critical to the success of CPOs in providing courts with an effective and robust community-based sentence for appropriate individuals. The guidance should be read both in conjunction with other relevant national standards and practice guidance, in particular the Criminal Justice Social Work Reports and Court Based Services guidance, designed to assist courts with arriving at the most appropriate sentencing option.