Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme

ISSP is the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders. As its name suggests, it combines unprecedented levels of community-based surveillance with a comprehensive and sustained focus on tackling the factors that contribute to the young person's offending behaviour.

ISSP targets the most active repeat young offenders and those who commit the most serious crimes. ISSP workers are part of the three area YOT teams in Newcastle, Stafford and Lichfield.

The programme aims to:

• reduce the frequency and seriousness of offending in the target groups;
• tackle the underlying needs of offenders which give rise to offending, with a particular emphasis on education and training;
• provide reassurance to communities through close surveillance backed up by rigorous enforcement.

Responsibility for delivering ISSP rests with a dedicated team that works as part your local YOT, or with a partnership of YOTs in some instances.

Most young people will spend six months on ISSP. The most intensive supervision (25 hours a week) lasts for the first three months of the programme.

Following this, the supervision continues at a reduced intensity (a minimum of five hours a week, and weekend support) for a further three months.

On completion of ISSP the young person will continue to be supervised for the remaining period of their order.

The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is targeted at two main groups of young offenders:

• the small group of prolific young offenders (aged 10 to 17) who, Home Office research suggests, commit approximately a quarter of all offences committed by young people;
• those young people who are not prolific offenders, but who commit crimes of a very serious nature and who would benefit from early and intensive intervention.

ISSP is based on the best evidence as to what will reduce the frequency and seriousness of offending. It promises to bring structure to offenders' lifestyles, while systematically addressing the key risk factors contributing to their offending behaviour, such as educational deficits, weaknesses in thinking skills or drug misuse. For serious offenders who do not meet the definition of persistence, it plans to address their behaviour before they become habitual and persistent offenders.

Last Modified: 26/11/2007 12:24:05
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