North Shore remembers the rules of the job

Senior Community Work Supervisor Liz Gates loves her work at North Shore Service Centre. (“Well, most of the time…”) She says it is even better after General Manager Katrina Casey’s ‘whistle-stop tour’.

Katrina’s area consultation meetings have really struck a chord with Liz who has been a community work supervisor for two and a half years and a senior for six months.

“I’m especially inspired by two things Katrina said: improving the communication with our colleagues from Probation and simply sticking to the rules,” says Liz.
 
North Shore Service Centre has about 900 offenders on community work sentences. “Because we see the offenders on a regular basis, community work supervisors are often the first to notice things are a bit off track.

“Every morning when we start the day we look for traces of drugs or alcohol in the offenders. If we suspect someone is under the influence, we will talk to him or her and, if relevant, discuss this with a probation officer.
 
“In her talk Katrina stated that community work isn’t going to succeed if we don’t deal with mental or health issues at the first sign. If we get probation officers involved at the start, they can deal with them a lot quicker and get the offender back on track, hopefully.”

The other bit of advice Katrina gave was to stick to the rules of the community work centre. Liz says, “This sounds easy and it is as long as you remain aware of it. Sticking to the rules is so important because the breaking of one small rule can lead to larger problems.
"For example, offenders aren’t allowed to use mobile phones while they are on community work. If you see someone breaking that rule, you can choose to ignore it because it doesn’t seem that big a deal.

“But the rule is there for a reason. The offender could very well be using his mobile phone to order takeaways of the legal or illegal kind. And then he might also just call a mate or two to come and help him sort out somebody in the work party who he doesn’t get along with. If you had just dealt with the mobile phone, the problem probably would not have escalated.”

Liz says that at the beginning of her employment with the Department of Corrections, community work staff seemed ‘out on a limb’ with the rest of the Department. “This has changed and I feel more information is being sought and taken by our colleagues, especially in the management of sentences, as encouraged by Katrina. This makes us feel we are more valuable members of CPPS.

“We are a great team, headed by Service Manager John Jessop. We have a genuine interest in helping offenders to complete their community work in the most professional manner.”