Staff Skills Required for

Desistance Focussed Practice in

Approved Premises
with Sex Offenders
Dr Francis Cowe, Deputy Director
University Heads of the Valleys Institute
and University of Wales, Newport.
francis.cowe@newport.ac.uk
 Some Caveats..
• Multiple Meanings of Desistance

• Multiple Meanings of Sex Offender(s)

• Multiple Meaning of who we mean by ‘Approved  

Premises  or  Hostel  Staff’

• Approved Premise/ Hostel is not an Island of

Practice.
 Evidence Base
• Initial in depth ethnographic study in two AP by Cowe 2002 – 2008
•
• 24 residents and 24 staff in phase one (2002)
• 30 residents and 24 staff in phase two (2006-7)
• Visits and Observation - Participation in some external facing activities with residents and staff
• Follow  up  with  ACO’s  and  hostel  mangers  in  2008.
• Exploration and Lit Review of Policy Changes and Longer Residential Legacy (1756)
•
• 2008 – 2011 follow up questionnaires with staff (mangers and deputies from over 32 hostels) and
over the last 3 years one/ two days a year focussed work on effective practice in regimes in Nov and
or March with hostel staff. Continued focus on policy review and training for new managers and
deputies.
•
• On going literature review on desistance and desistance with sex offenders.
•
• Also influenced and informed by a similar study by Reeves, C
• 24 residents and 17 staff (2004)
• MARAC  ‘s  -12.

• Works in progress, references and forthcoming edited collection listed at end.

 Possible purposes of hostels for sex
offenders include:
• A  ‘community  based’  containment  function
• A site for treatment or intervention (should
it?)
• A transition mechanism for those moving from
custody to the community
• A place for monitoring behaviour
• An alternative to custody for some offenders.
AP -Staff- Ethos - Regime - Change
Desistance focussed practice in hostels/ AP is an active
process that requires the engagement of the social agency
of the individual as much as the interference of external
inputs or sanctions.

No ‘Damascus moment’ is postulated as critical to such

change... however the relationship with staff, hostel ethos
and day to day messages (spoken and unspoken) about
what is possible for offenders are critical to the narratives
they develop about themselves and the honesty with which
they may disclose their real intentions, hopes and fears to
staff. It may also shape if they come back when they
experience problems post residence...
 Is the focus on what is needed... over
what  ‘sounds  on  message’?                                
• By emphasising the moral agency and rights of
offenders in a desistance focused approach,
researchers, practitioners and policy makers may risk
not being heard by those they most need to bring to
the table.

• There appears to be a need to consider what skills staff

actually need in this area. A desistance focussed
emphasis can make staff feel less engaged in ‘moral
dirt’ ( see Harry Ferguson..) The regime ethos shapes
how staff feel about, themselves, their work and how
they see and relate to family and the wider world.
 Holistic nature of the regime
• All hostel staff shape and influence the ethos
and efficacy of the regime.
• All hostel staff have the potential to influence
offender attitudes and behaviour.
• Contracting  out  doesn’t  mean  these  staff  
have no impact....
• All staff can contribute to risk assessment
(housekeeper factor).
 Current Recipe for Practice Includes

• Containment
• Monitoring
• Risk
• Resettlement and Rehabilitation
• Desistance

• There is risk that we think that skills in relation to

the first three are needed and not the other two.
Such separation is counter productive to both risk
and change focussed practices.
 Practice Cul De Sacs ..
• Prisonisation
• Exclusion
• Focus on Control and
Containment
• Negative facing as opposed to
proactive relations with
outside agencies and
residents.
• Assuming internal conformity
and control is indicative of or
likely to lead to internalised
change and long term
desistance patterns.
• Offenders can end up feeling
they should close down and
not talk about what they really
think/ feel.
• Risks of neutralisation of staff
impact  if  we  create  a  ‘them  vs
us’.  (screws  on  wheels..)
• Potential to see the hostel as a
place to get through( like a
sentence).
• Whilst at the same time
building networks with other
sex offenders...
 Positive Potential to Develop
• Constructive and Holistic Regimes
• Pro Social and Balanced Staff Approaches
• Inclusion of all Staff in the Protective and
Rehabilitative Functions
• Message of constructive engagement
alongside healthy scepticism
• Longer term focus towards move on and
changed life script.
 Wavelengths of Practice

‘What we need is an unswerving commitment

to their potential to change and lead useful
lives alongside a realistic engagement and
awareness of the real harms they have caused
and  might  again  cause’.
 Core Skills for AP Staff
• Listening • Aware of blocks to
reintegration
• Self Awareness
• Risk assessment skills and
• Empathy but not the range of specific sexual
collusion offences & motivations
• Scepticism but not • Making use of the mundane
nihilism to promote change and
monitor risk.
• Able to understand and • Ability to manage and
practice a range of pro understand their own
social skills emotions.
• Mentoring Skills • Team work and multi
agency work.
 Value the whole team &
consider the staff social, personal
and hobby related skill sets and
what these can offer to the regime
and range of residents
 Practice Frameworks that support
desistance include:
• Good Lives Model ( and GLM _D)
• Support during and after residence
• Developing Social Capital (including employment)
• Creating a positive identity or potential for one (but
not naive).
• Emotional Literacy of Staff (Salovey and Mayer (1990)
identify 5 key areas of emotional intelligence:
self-awareness, affect regulation, motivation, empathy
and social competence)** see forthcoming work by
Knight
 Important not to underestimate the
power  of  the  ‘mundane’
• Cooking
• Cleaning/ Domestic Chores
• Gardening
• Outdoor Activities
• Sharing Meals
• Appropriate external connections and active and
responsible  ‘friends  of  hostel’  and  or  volunteers  (circles?)
• The mundane can offer monitoring as well as pro social
modelling and allow the development of resettlement and
desistance focussed skills.
• Need to focus on core independent living skills including
paying rent and budgeting... (policy implications).
 Specific issues arising from Sex
Offender Profile of Resident
Population

• Risk of normalisation and pathologisation.

• Danger  of  seeing  them  as  ‘moral  dirt’
• Potential benefits from pro social charitable
work – social efficacy and community
relations.
 Regime Orientation
• Consider  ‘in  reach’  from  a  range  of  agencies:
• Occupational Therapy
• Mental Health
• Drugs and Alcohol
• Employment
• Basic Skills (remember pasty man!)
• Volunteers and staff to accompany gradual
outreach and resettlement.
• Enabling transition at the pace of the individual
resident.
 A Resident Perspective

‘It’s not a normal life here, getting up not having a

job or being encouraged to get one because they
are scared I’ll offend – I could do that anytime if I
wanted, you watch tv, play pool and have your
meals made for you – it doesn’t prepare you for
life outside. I had more freedom in prison. Apart
from keeping me in, I am not sure what the
purpose of being here is for.’

Resident (Cowe, study 2)

 To develop and retain desistance focussed skills staff
may need:
• Debriefing and support (long
term impacts too).
• A belief in and ability to
communicate the possibility of
change whilst holding very real
risks and potential for
reoffending at the fore front.
• Strong skills in listening, giving
feedback,
• Emotional Literacy Skills
• Understanding of how period of
residence fits into longer term
desistance strategy.
• Permission to engage in
resettlement and change
focussed behaviour.
• An understanding of the range and
type  of  ‘sex’  offenders/  offences  and  
the different risk profiles
• Respect  from  those  ‘qualified’  to  run  
programmes  and  ‘experts’  out  of  the  
hostel. Proactive two way process
with those in programmes and teams.
• Awareness of types and range of
specialist interventions and particular
sessions residents are doing and
possible impact on them when they
come back to the hostel/AP.
• Need to know and be able to pass on
information to relevant agencies etc, a
joined up picture.
• Able to hold the personal and
professional tensions between change
focussed and public protection
practice.
 Questions and Challenges
• We do have a good idea of the basic skills and
ingredients required to both manage risk and
get alongside and motivate change with sex
offenders in hostels / AP.
• Are the structures and drivers in place to
ensure maximum leverage from a period of
hostel / AP residence?
• Is relevant support and training being
provided in line with the challenges of the
resident population?
Brayford, Cowe and Deering (Eds) (2010) What Else Works ? Creative Work with Offenders,
Devon, Willan

Cowe and Reeves (forthcoming 2012) Residential Work with Sex Offenders - Places of Collusion
and Segregation or Preparation for Resettlement and Reintegration ,pp?? in Brayford, Cowe
and Deering (Eds) Sex Offenders Punish, Help Change or Control? Theory, Policy and Practice
explored, London, Routledge, Frontiers of Criminology.

Cherry, S. and Cowe F. (2010). Residential work with adult offenders: Greenhouses or
Warehouses? Pp117 -137 in. Brayford, Cowe and Deering (Eds) What Else Works ? Creative
Work with Offenders, Devon, Willan

Cowe, F ( 2008) Greenhouse or Warehouses? An ethnographic and theoretical study of the

origins, development and purposes of approved premises, PhD Thesis, Cardiff.
Knight,  C  (2012  forthcoming)  ‘Soft  Skills  for  Hard  Work’:  Using  Emotional  Literacy  to  Work  
Effectively with Sex Offenders in Brayford, Cowe and Deering forthcoming Sex Offenders
Punish, Help Change or Control? Theory, Policy and Practice explored, London, Routledge,
Frontiers of Criminology.
Laws, R and Ward.T (2011) Desistance From Sex Offending – Alternatives to Throwing Away the
Keys.London and New York , Guilford Press
Reeves,  C.  (in  press).  ‘The  Role  and  Purpose  of  Probation  Hostels:  
Voices  from  the  Inside’.    British Journal of Community Justice.

Reeves,  C.  (2010).  ‘A  Difficult  Negotiation:  Fieldwork  Relations  with  Gatekeepers’. Qualitative
Research. 10 (3): 315 - 331
Reeves, C. (2009). Hostel Life: Sex Offenders' Experiences of a Probation Approved Premises.
VDM, Germany