Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP)

Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP) is the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders.

As its name suggests, it combines unprecedented levels of community-based surveillance with a comprehensive and sustained focus on tackling the factors that contribute to the young person's offending behaviour.

ISSP targets the most active repeat young offenders, and those who commit the most serious crimes. The programme aims to:

• Reduce the frequency and seriousness of offending in the target groups
• Tackle the underlying needs of offenders which give rise to offending, with a particular emphasis on education and training
• Provide reassurance to communities through close surveillance backed up by rigorous enforcement

ISSP is now operating across all of England and Wales. Responsibility for delivering ISSP rests with a dedicated team that works closely with your local Youth Offending Team (YOT), or with a partnership of YOTs in some instances.

Most young people will spend six months on ISSP. The most intensive supervision (25 hours a week) lasts for the first three months of the programme. Following this, the supervision continues at a reduced intensity (a minimum of five hours a week, plus weekend support) for a further three months.

On completion of ISSP the young person will continue to be supervised for the remaining period of their order.

Routes onto ISSP

There is no such thing as an 'ISSP order'. Existing statutory powers are used to admit a young person onto an ISSP scheme. There are three routes onto ISSP (with slight variations between them):

1. As a condition of bail supervision and support

The programme is limited to the time that a young offender is on bail, although an offender who starts ISSP whilst on bail may be able to continue the programme once sentenced.

Although the offending behaviour and restorative justice elements of ISSP are not appropriate before a guilty verdict has been established, the young person still receives a minimum of 25 hours' supervision and additional surveillance.

Schemes are now able to deploy electronic tagging on bail under Section 131 and 132 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.

2. As part of a community penalty (either a Supervision Order or a Community Rehabilitation Order)

All of the ISSP schemes are piloting the use of tagging or voice verification under the new powers in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000, to enforce the requirements of the community penalty.

3. As a condition of community supervision in the second half of a Detention and Training Order (DTO)

ISSP covers the community element of the DTO, with assessment of suitability jointly undertaken by the secure establishment and the YOT.