Greater Manchester CPS wins Diversity and Equality award for 'Know your CJS Day'

Sergeant Kate Crompton - Greater Manchester Police, Julie Davies – Wigan and Leigh People First, Dale Simon – Director of Public Accountability and Inclusion – Crown Prosecution Service, Stacey Davis Public Accountability and Inclusion Manager – Crown Prosecution Service (North West), Alison Mutch Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor, Cheshire and Mersey and Sir Bob Kerslake (presenting the award to the team)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Greater Manchester has won a Civil Service Diversity and Equality Award for a programme to help people with disabilities or learning difficulties understand how the legal system can help them.

The awards identify and celebrate the many exceptional achievements that are made across government every day. They demonstrate the importance of promoting diversity and equality in the workplace, and provide an opportunity to share knowledge and best practice.

The CPS team based at Sunlight House in Manchester won the Excellence in Service Delivery award today for Know your CJS Day - a programme to help people understand how the legal system can help them.

Know Your CJS Day was developed in response to concerns from disabled people and particularly people with learning disabilities about reporting crimes – including hate crimes – to the Criminal Justice System (CJS).

Reasons for concern included worries about not being believed, poor understanding of what constituted a hate crime and fear of attending court.

Cases which are not successfully prosecuted due to the victim or witness withdrawing or not attending court costs the tax payer hundreds of thousands per year. Between 2011 and 2012 the number of convictions for disability hate crime fell from 579 to 480 as did the proportion of successful outcomes from 79.8% to 77.3%. A contributory factor was the increase in unsuccessful cases due to victim issues which increased from 15.6% to 19.1%.

In response to this, the CPS in the North West worked with a learning disability group and local partners to develop “Know Your CJS Day”. The event involved inviting disabled people into police stations and the Court to meet staff who could explain the criminal justice process. Participants also engage in role play and other interactive activities to ensure the day was as accessible as possible.

Since December 2012 there have been five Know Your CJS Day sessions which took place in Oldham, Trafford, Tameside and Manchester and Salford. The sessions were attended by a total of 186 disabled people, many of whom have learning difficulties. When collated, the feedback from the days demonstrated a marked improvement in understanding.

At the beginning of the day 85% of attendees said they did not understand how the CPS prosecuted crimes and 72% said they would be scared to attend court. At the end of the session 92% of attendees said they had a better understanding of the Criminal Justice System and the support available to them and over 77% of attendees said they would attend court.

The success of the Know Your CJS Day was helped by the fact that other agencies, including the police, Courts, Witness Care and Victim Support, all worked in partnership with the CPS. The group also sought feedback from disabled people themselves to help understand the difficulties they faced, and self-advocacy charity Wigan and Leigh People first gave advice on how to make the sessions more interactive and accessible so that people with learning difficulties would benefit from the visits to the police station and courts.

Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake said: “Many congratulations to the CPS on their award.

“I have long said that the Civil Service is at its best when it is representative of the society it serves and they have shown what we can achieve with a fully inclusive workforce that puts our understanding of diversity at the heart of the public services we deliver.”

Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Alison Mutch and Public Accountability and Inclusion Manager Stacey Davis said: “We developed the project having listened to the views of communities across the North West. We are pleased to have received this national Civil Service Award which recognises the commitment and hard work of so many people who helped to deliver the Know Your CJS Days.”

Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West Area said: “I am absolutely delighted and proud that the North West CPS has been awarded the prize. My colleagues reached out to disabled people and in particularly those with learning difficulties to help build confidence in the CJS. The fact that we substantially increased their confidence demonstrates the value of this sort of approach.”

Sgt Joanne Edwards from Greater Manchester Police said: "The events are about ensuring that everyone has a better understanding of hate crime. We were able to reassure all who attended that it's not a scary process to go through, to give them confidence to come forward in the future. We do not want people to suffer in silence and we encourage reporting, so that we can do something to stop it”