What we do
We employ around 1,500 staff who work from over 40 sites across the 10 districts of Greater Manchester to provide services to manage offenders and deliver interventions e.g. unpaid work, programmes, provision of accommodation in approved premises. Staff are also based in the Wigan Magistrates’ Court, local Prisons, approved premises (hostels) and other settings.
We have one probation office in the Wigan area, which is in Atherton. We also have an Unpaid Work Unit in Wigan. In total we have just over 100 staff in Wigan.
At any time in Wigan we have approximately 1,800 offenders under our supervision, and there are over 15,000 offenders in the whole of Greater Manchester supervised by the Probation Service, who;
- are given a community order by the Court
or who
- are released from prison on licence
Our Aims
- Protect the public
- Cut crime
- Punish offenders
- Make sure offenders are aware of the effects of crime on victims and the public
- Rehabilitate offenders
National Offender Management Service
We are part of the National Probation Service which along with the Prison Service - and other organisations working with convicted offenders - is part of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). NOMS is a department of the newly-formed Ministry of Justice.
The Community Order Or Prison Licence
Offenders sentenced to a community order are expected to carry out one or more requirements ordered by the courts. This may involve, for example, carrying out unpaid work, attending a programme to deal with drug or alcohol misuse, adhering to a curfew, being excluded from entering a specified place or being prevented from going somewhere.
Those subject to release on licence can have conditions inserted in the licence, such as not approaching a particular victim of their offending, not entering a specified exclusion zone, or receiving treatment for drug or alcohol abuse.
Partnership is Key
We do not work in isolation. In Wigan we work closely with the Community Safety Partnership co-ordinated by the Council and a wide range of other criminal justice organisations to ensure effective co-ordination and delivery of quality services.
Our unpaid work unit delivers work which is specifically endorsed by partnership, so that offenders are giving something back to the local community of Wigan.
The Probation Service is also a key agency on the local Safeguarding Children Board and the Supporting People programme and we are involved in commissioning Drug and Alcohol services with other agencies across the Borough. Drug treatment staff are co-located with Probation staff at Gloucester St.
We work in partnership with Health and Social Care services with offenders suffering from mental health problems.
Did You Know?
In Greater Manchester
- On any given day we supervise over 15,000 offenders
- The Courts make an average of 3,000 new Community Orders each year
- Three times more offenders are supervised in the community rather than in prison
- We supervise over 1,600 prisoners on release
- Staff provide over 8,400 pre-sentence reports
- Over half a million hours of compulsory unpaid work is carried out each year
Visit our website at Greater Manchester Probation (External link)
