Almost half a million pounds of goods were not stolen from the shelves of shops across the West Midlands thanks to our Offender to Rehab scheme.
The programme has been ongoing in Erdington NPT, Birmingham East since 2018. In July 2021, a pilot commenced to expand the programme, covering both Birmingham East and Birmingham West Neighbourhood Policing Units (NPUs).
This has involved four police officers taking on the role of ‘Offender to Rehab Facilitator’ and a Sergeant (part time) to oversee the programme during the pilot. The first 12 months of the pilot have been assessed by Professor Emmeline Taylor. This is Professor Taylor’s report, which paints a positive foundation for the project.
During the pilot, 27 service users entered through the doors of residential rehab. Through this we have been able to measure that, during this period spent in rehab, £466k less is being stolen from stores across the West Midlands. Thirty percent of these people have continued to be abstinent post release from rehab, which is an additional £325,000 less being stolen from stores to date. The programme has also saved £185k to policing through freeing up of policing resources.
Continuous reviews during the pilot have allowed for process improvements and increased partnership working with external agencies and the business community. Data has been captured throughout, through documentation, interviews and meetings to allow for an independent process evaluation to be developed.
This evaluation report forms a foundation for taking the project forward, stabilising it and, hopefully, expanding it.
