Assessing Performance

Introduction

This topic describes how offender performance in the BWLS programme is assessed, and outlines satisfactory completion.

Note: Based on the assessment of performance, the service manager decides whether the hours are to be credited/not credited.

Assessment

On completion (or termination) of the BWLS programme the senior community work supervisor or probation officer:

• writes up a BWLS completion report using the BWLS Completion Report template
• assesses the offender’s overall response to the programme
• rates overall attendance and cooperation, and
• makes a recommendation to the service manager to count/not count the BWLS hours.

Note: The completion report can largely be completed from the monitoring timesheets. A brief discussion with the programme provider (or Work and Income) may be required to obtain an overall rating and qualifying comments on attendance and cooperation.

Satisfactory completion

The BWLS programme is considered to be satisfactorily completed for the purposes of the sentence of CW if:

• the offender has satisfactorily completed the full BWLS training programme as planned, or
• the training programme is continuing, but the offender has satisfactorily completed their BWLS hours as specified in their BWLS ITR.

Exceptions to satisfactory completion

An exception to the definition of satisfactory completion can be made where the offender satisfactorily completed a portion of the training programme, and then had to withdraw from the programme, or became ineligible to continue on the programme because of one of the following changes to their circumstances:

• they obtained full time employment
• they took up full time study
• they were unable to complete the programme due to illness or force majeure (e.g. civil defence emergency or natural disaster), or
• the BWLS programme was terminated (through no fault of the offender) prior to them being able to complete the BWLS hours.

In any of the above situations, the offender will be deemed to have satisfactorily completed the programme, and the actual hours completed will be counted as CW hours.