General Requirements for Approving Absences

Introduction

This topic outlines the general requirements for approving any type of absence for an offender subject to CD.

Curfew schedules should be carefully considered at pre- sentence stage to avoid the need for absences.

Any regular or on-going absence requirements should be managed by an application to the Court to re-consider the curfew period.

Note: The only absences that may be approved (if the offender is subject to CD without concurrent supervision or intensive supervision) are those requested on humanitarian grounds.

Guiding principles

Requests for absences should only be approved if all of the following guiding principles apply. These are that the:

• absence meets legislative requirements
• absence is consistent with the business rules for the sentence
• absence activities meet the guidelines for suitable activities while on EM and are approved by the PO
• absence will not undermine the integrity of CD
• absence has been requested by the offender at least 24 hours in advance, and
• location of the offender during the absence is able to be reliably confirmed at least once, either during the absence or in retrospect.

When service manager approval is required

For any absence where the offender is subject to only CD or CD/CW, absences must be approved by the service manager and only for humanitarian grounds (these are defined in the next topic).

Service manager approval for CD combined with Supervision or Intensive Supervision is required where the absence:

• is requested on humanitarian grounds (this is defined in the next topic)
• is outside the hours of 7am to 9:30pm unless for the purpose of employment
• is overnight
• is outside the local CPPS area
• has potential for negative public or media attention
• has the potential to put into question the integrity of CD (e.g. licensed premises, public events, etc), or
• does not meet the guiding principles for considering requests for absences.

Note: Where service manager approval is required and given, service managers should sign the Direction Notice for Approved Absences, instead of the probation officer or the senior community work supervisor.

Absences without approval (or emergency absences)

Offenders subject to CD are permitted to leave the address without approval:

• to seek urgent medical or dental treatment, or
• to avoid or minimise a serious risk of death or injury to the offender or any other person

The offender must provide evidence if they have to leave the address for these reasons. These absences must be clearly documented in case notes.

General Reference: See information in this part, Chapter 2 – ‘Emergency Absences’.

Responsibility for approving absences

The following table specifies which CPPS staff member is responsible for approving absences.

Offender must provide information

When making an application for an approved absence, the offender must provide the probation officer or senior community work supervisor with the following information:

• the exact location of where they want to go
• the purpose of the proposed absence
• the duration of the proposed absence
• contact telephone number at the location (if available), and
• name and contact details of any proposed sponsor/programme provider.

Approved absence form

A ‘Direction Notice for Approved Absences’ must be completed and issued to the offender for each absence approved. A copy of the ‘Direction Notice for Approved Absences’ must also be kept on the offender’s file.

The offender is expected to report to the local CPPS office to sign and uplift the ‘Direction Notice for Approved Absences’ prior to the commencement of the absence.

Offender to carry documents

The offender must carry the following documents with them during any absences:

• signed ‘Direction Notice for Approved Absences’ issued by the senior community work supervisor, probation officer or service manager, and
• a copy of their CD order.

Advising the monitoring company

Staff are not required to notify the monitoring company of any approved absence during the curfew period.

This is because monitoring of CD is retrospective, i.e. there is no requirement for the EM company to respond, other than supplying the daily monitoring report.

Note: The daily monitoring report needs to be interpreted in respect of an absence being authorised.

Record-keeping

If a request for an approved absence is made, then the following points must be recorded in IOMS casenotes:

• details of the requests
• whether the request was approved or denied
• reasons for the decision
• if approved, how the approved absence will be monitored or confirmed
• the date, time, location and purpose of the approved absence, and
• confirmation, from EM records, that the offender was absent only at the approved time(s).