John Bensted, Chief Executive of Gloucestershire Probation Trust writes about community payback schemes:

JUDGES and magistrates in Gloucestershire have a wide range of community sentences available to them to tackle and reduce criminal behaviour.

One of the best-known carried out by Gloucestershire Probation Trust is Community Payback. It has a significantly better success rate for some offenders than a short-term prison sentence, and has been developed over many years. It is a combination of punishment and rehabilitation, which is of benefit to both the community and the offender.

In today's Echo you will have read how a Community Payback sentence changed the life and prospects for Hayley Lloyd, and there are many other success stories like Hayley's.

Unfortunately, a rather negative view of Community Payback was portrayed on the TV last night, but I can assure you that the story in Gloucestershire is very positive one.

Community Payback is highly regarded by local sentencers, MPs and a wide range of community organisations who have benefited from the 70,000 hours of unpaid work carried out by offenders across the county. This equates to about £385,000 worth of work (costed at minimum wage) to communities and voluntary agencies.

So far so good, but the even better news is that it really does reduce re-offending. Our latest figures show that only 11 per cent of those sentenced to Community Payback return to us after 15 months. The re-offending rate for short-term prison sentences is 61 per cent.

The Government is calling for a "revolution in rehabilitation" and I am sure that Community Payback will be central to the challenge of tackling crime. In Gloucestershire we have a team of dedicated and trained staff who supervise and motivate about 350 offenders undertaking 27 different projects every week.

Our supervisors provide stringent oversight of groups of up to eight offenders wearing high-viz jackets and they insist that offenders don't malinger. Although some offenders may down tools and say they'd rather be back in prison, others request to stay beyond their allotted hours.

The process starts at court, when probation staff undertake an initial assessment of suitability (not all offenders are suitable). Sentencers can then impose up to 300 hours of unpaid work to recompense the community. All unemployed offenders sentenced to more than 200 hours must work at least 18 hours a week and employed offenders complete their Community Payback at the weekends. In addition, sentencers have the option of imposing electronic tags for some offenders to restrict their movements.

All offenders are assessed for their suitability to undertake work in a particular setting, taking into account the type of offence, potential risk of harm and health issues. For some offenders this may be their first taste of structured work experience where they can learn new skills and gain qualifications. They are also offered the opportunity to gain basic skills in the 3 Rs as well as completing CVs.

All of these skills and education opportunities increase the chances of gaining employment and thus reduce the risk of re-offending. The organisations that benefit from Community Payback are in every part of the county, including schools, parish councils, charity shops and lunch clubs for the elderly.

The range of work undertaken includes ground clearance, decorating, providing meals, clearing graffiti, restoring park benches and building school playgrounds, and we regularly receive glowing feedback for jobs well done.

This is only one area of important work that probation staff undertake as part of their role in the Criminal Justice System. Hayley's story is evidence of how Community Sentences can have the desired effective outcome, benefiting the community and saving the taxpayer the £30,000 per year to keep somebody in prison.

* John Bensted is chief executive officer of the Gloucestershire Probation Trust.