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Community Payback

A powerful community sentence

Unpaid Work is a community sentence used by the Courts. Known as Community Payback, it requires people who commit an offence to undertake unpaid work on a worthwhile and constructive project, to pay back the community for the crimes they have committed.

Service users (both men and women) have to undertake between 40 and 300 hours of unpaid work as part of their sentence, depending on the seriousness of their offence. A typical sentence can be 120 hours.

In line with the probation reform programme, from 26 June 2021, the unified probation service will be responsible for managing everyone on a community order or licence following their release from prison in England and Wales – including Community Payback. London and Thames Valley CRCs’ employees and services will transfer to the unified service.

Nominate a project for Community Payback (CP): new email address from 14 June

If you’d like to nominate a project in your community for CP, please email a description and the location of the proposed project to CP_@justice.gov.uk

Please do not use the CRC CP nominations email address as emails will not be forwarded to CP_@justice.gov.uk

How you can benefit from Community Payback

You’ll have a team of workers with skills and capabilities that have been matched to your project.
You’ll progress and finish projects that you didn’t previously have resource or finance for.
You’ll be supporting your wider community, helping make it a safer, more pleasant environment.

How communities will benefit from Community Payback

Service users will be able to work on projects in public spaces, including sports grounds and youth centres, ensuring that they can continue to provide a service to the community.
Resource-intensive or ‘pipe dream’ projects can become a reality with a dedicated workforce to either drive or supplement efforts.
Public areas and resources can be restored, manned and run, helping to revitalise and strengthen community pride in the area.

How service users can benefit from Community Payback

Service users will be able to put what they’ve learned into practice, developing valuable work-related skills and increasing their chances of employment.
Research clearly shows that being in employment can reduce a service user’s risk of reoffending.
Service users will also gain a sense of pride in seeing how their work has a positive effect on their community.

Demanding but meaningful work

Community Payback is a powerful alternative to custody, and therefore our projects require service users to do meaningful and demanding work. Projects can include a range of valuable tasks such as:

Clearing a public park,
Building or painting community resources,
Staffing charity shops, soup kitchens and other voluntary organisations,
Gardening and maintaining sports grounds,
And much more.

The possibilities are endless. Email CP_@justice.gov.uk to find out more.

Benefitting service users, communities and you

We aim to ensure that all our projects give service users the opportunity to learn new work-related skills, and that some will lead directly to offers of employment.

The work that service users do to create, maintain and support public spaces has a positive impact on local communities. Our teams regularly work alongside community organisations, local authorities, local police teams and residents. Known as Community Action Days, these are positive for both service users who see the immediate impact of their work and local communities who can see and appreciate Community Payback in action.

With our workforce we can also help you deliver community projects and keep community spaces accessible and safe. You can be assured of high standards of work and your deadlines being met, while also supporting service users’ rehabilitation, doing your part to help make your community safer.

“Community Payback offers the opportunity both for reparation to the community and a constructive intervention to support a service user’s rehabilitation, helping them break the cycle of reoffending."

– Linda Neimantas, Director of Community Payback at London CRC

We work with a number of organisations across London and Thames Valley.

We operate over 300 projects at any one time across the capital.

We oversee around one million hours of Community Payback every year.

Responsible, practical and safe

We take public safety seriously, always risk assessing every project. Before accepting a project we check it on a number of factors including:

The work can be done safely.
It will benefit the community.
It will not take paid work away from others.

Helping you get the job done

Community Payback is a valuable resource that you can tap into, and which ultimately should be benefitting communities, and ensuring that service users are carrying out the sentence of the Court. We will ensure that, wherever possible, service users with particular skills are placed in projects where they can immediately be effective.

We have a team of skilled community payback supervisors who are experienced in overseeing large and complex projects. In working with us, our partners who choose to supervise their own projects will also be supported through any necessary training and guidance. Feedback from our existing beneficiaries is that they feel confident and supported in this role. Your dedicated account manager will continue to support your throughout the process and provide a responsive service.

‘When the service users have finished their Community Payback hours, they still support the club and keep coming back to help!’

– Lorna Stephens, Centre Manager of Hounslow Youth Centre where Community Payback runs food banks, manages the allotments and maintains the hall.

A versatile work force

Whether you’re looking for a dedicated resource to handle regular unpaid work or you want to bolster an existing team to get a job up and running, we can help.

Find out more by emailing us today on CP_@justice.gov.uk

of beneficiaries surveyed said they would use London CRC’s Community Payback services again.

Working in collaboration with our partners, we are looking to deliver sustainable and innovative projects.

We welcome suggestions for possible projects as long as they meet the following requirements. The project should:

benefit the local community
not replace paid employment
provide basic facilities including toilets and rest area
be regular and reliable
endorse principles of valuing equality and diversity
not involve personal care or supervision of vulnerable adults or children
follow health and safety standards.

We will be able to help provide materials such as paint and tools.

It might surprise you to know the breadth and range of projects we can help you with. Examples of both end-to-end and ongoing projects include:

staffing charity shops
clearing and maintaining community sports grounds
helping to run community centres, manning food banks and tending allotments
clearing public parks or local crime hotspots
building, restoring or decorating community resources
gardening and litter-picking.

Choose what works for you

We operate over 300 projects across the capital

We can provide flexible, effective working, with resources available during the week or at weekends, for one-off or long-term, rolling projects.

Team supervision

You can choose to supervise the teams yourself whether you’re using a Community Payback team alone or using it to booster your own workforce. We are also able to provide experienced supervisors to manage the job if needed.

We’ll handle all the necessary groundwork and risk assessments beforehand. You can be confident that your job will be done safely and to a high standard.

Support over multiple sites

If your project has a variety of sites, we are able to support you on different projects across them.

We can support you across a variety of sites as required. For instance if you have multiple bases that need staffing or working on, we can manage the logistics of these.

Ensuring you have the people you need, where you need them, and when you need them.

of beneficiaries surveyed said they would recommend Community Payback to others.

How Community Payback can help you

Do you have a community space that needs some TLC?
Does your charity need regular help over multiple sites?
Do you have a community project you want to get off the ground but don’t have the resource for?
Do you need a regular workforce to maintain or help run a public service or space?

You might be surprised how Community Payback can help you and your community.

We are always looking for a wide range of Community Payback projects across London, giving our service users exciting and educational new work.

You don’t have to worry about the detail. We’ll do all the necessary groundwork and risk assessments so you can be confident your job will be done safely and to the best standard achievable.

If you’re not sure the job you have would be in scope, get in touch. We’re keen to expand the opportunities we can make available to our service users, and are more than happy to explore it further with you.

Whatever your need, get in touch and see how Community Payback could help you achieve your goals.

Contact us

Email us: CP_@justice.gov.uk

Watch this video to find out how Community Payback can truly transform lives.