Theres Summat about Himmat

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Theres Summat about Himmat

• Emma Robinson Senior Research Officer
• West Yorkshire Probation

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Introduction

• What is the Himmat project?
• Working with the Probation Service
• Local evaluation of the Project
• Conclusions/key learning points

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The Himmat Project

• Established in 1991, supported by Home Office
  grant
• In 1996 Himmat became a charity and limited
  company
• Centres in Halifax, Bradford and
• Keighley (Ummid)

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Himmat WYPA Partnership

• The Himmat project is focused on complementing
  the work of Offender Managers to ensure that
  clients from South Asian cultural backgrounds
  have better and relevant access to service
  provision

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How?

• Acting as a bridge between South Asian offenders,
  their families, Offender managers and Youth
  Justice Workers.
• Working as consultants (cultural interpretation)
  with Offender Managers in the preparation of
  court reports.
• Supervising Asian offenders on statutory orders
  with due regard and understanding of the
  religious and cultural dynamics of the clients.

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Evaluation

• Do Himmat help to improve order completions?
• Do Himmat help to improve offender compliance and
  reduce the likelihood of breach?
• Do Himmat enable more appropriate proposals to be
  made in court reports?
• Do offenders value the service?

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Method

• Used quantitative and qualitative methods
• Data extracted from probation case recording
  system (CRAMS) and performance information to
  look at
• - appointments kept
• - of cases without breach
• - whose order/licence had been
  
• successfully completed
• Interviews with offenders and offender managers

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Results File Read

• Of 903 NS appointments arranged, 801 (90) were
  kept by offenders in the Himmat sample
• A total of 31 offenders (91) did not have any
  breach action instigated in the first 26 weeks of
  their order/licence and 21 offenders went on to
  complete their order or licence period
  successfully (88 excluding those with ongoing
  orders)

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Results Compliance

• 2006/7 Asian offenders in Calderdale showed
  compliance rate of 90, compared to
• -79 for total Calderdale
• -84 for Asian offenders across area
• -76 for area total (all offenders)
• 2007/8 figures much closer but high compliance in
  Calderdale maintained (93)

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Results - Interviews

• Offender Managers appreciative of support
• ability to challenge Asian offenders

Oh yes, without a doubt, I mean you can do
things between you that you cant do by yourself.
I mean you cant challenge someone who says
this is my culture even if it seems like its
clearly not
There are some interviews Ive done where he
hasnt been involved in the interview but Ive
still talked to him about the case and it is
useful to talk to him about things like religion
and domestic violence in the community. He knows
a lot about feuds in the area. He knows the
undercurrent stuff and its quite useful to know
because it enables you to challenge things
I am already confident being an Asian myself but
their input and knowledge of family dynamics
locally was extremely useful. Gave an additional
perspective and enhanced the work I was able to
do
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Results - Interviews

• Offender Managers - value of Himmat seen in the
  way they can assist Asian offenders in dealing
  with personal issues linked to relationships,
  employment, family and health, whilst taking into
  account the offenders culture
• Offenders - spoke of the value of Himmat in
  terms of having flexibility around arranging
  appointments and how this had impacted positively
  on their compliance with probation supervision
  requirements.

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Results - Interviews

• The value of having a service with an
  understanding of the Asian community was
  mentioned by both staff and offenders. Offenders
  felt it was easier to open up to someone from the
  same community and the same cultural background.
• Belief amongst respondents that service should be
  expanded to other areas (main suggestion for
  improvement)

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Recommendations/Next steps

• That the service continues and the Management
  Committee looks into possible expansion out to
  other West Yorkshire districts.
• Consider whether a similar flexibility could be
  given to offenders across the West Yorkshire
  caseload as a way of potentially increasing
  compliance (e.g. increase the number of home
  visits offered.
• Where the HIMMAT service is available (and
  similarly for UMMID in Bradford), all offender
  managers should be made aware of the organisation
  and its aims in terms of meeting the needs of
  Asian offenders as usage may be variable amongst
  probation staff at present.

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Questions?

• Contact
• emma.robinson_at_west-yorkshire.probation.gsi.gov.uk
• View all our reports on
• www.westyorksprobation.org
• THANK YOU FOR COMING AND ENJOY THE REST OF THE
  CONFERENCE!