Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) provide the statutory framework for inter-agency co-operation in assessing and managing the risk posed by serious sexual and violent offenders, including offenders who are considered to pose a risk, or potential risk, of serious harm to children.
Under the arrangements, Police, Probation, Prisons and Youth Offending Teams, supported by additional agencies including housing, health, education and social care services work together to identify high risk dangerous offenders, share relevant information, assess the risk of serious harm (using the relevant assessment tool) and put plans in place to manage the assessed risk. A MAPPA Meeting is a meeting of more than two of these agencies to plan how to manage a relevant offender where there is a substantial chance that they will commit a serious offence. Children’s Social Care must always be represented at the meeting when a young person is being discussed.
Agencies dealing with offenders have a duty to assess and manage the risk presented by offenders. The levels of risk may be assessed as:
- Low - No evidence of a likelihood of causing serious harm
- Medium – The offender has the potential to cause serious harm but is unlikely to do so unless there is a change of circumstances and there are identifiable indicators of risk of serious harm e.g. failure to take medication.
- High – The offender has the potential to cause serious harm, the potential event could happen at any time and the impact would be serious
- Very High – An imminent risk of the potential event happening with an impact of causing serious harm
The following categories of offenders must be considered through Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements:
| Category | Description | Duration Within MAPPA |
| 1 | Registered sex offenders. | Until the registration period expires |
| 2 | Sentenced to 12 months or more custody (including detention under hospital orders) for a violent or sexual offence. | Until the period of statutory supervision expires. |
| 3 | Any other dangerous offenders who, because of the offences committed by them, are considered to pose a serious risk of harm to the public. This may include people previously in the other 2 categories | Until such time as they are deemed to no longer pose a risk of serious harm. |
In certain circumstances individuals who are strongly suspected to have committed serious offences, but have not been convicted, may be considered. In these cases although the same process will be followed as applies to MAPPA, the cases are not officially part of the MAPPA unless and until the person is convicted of a relevant offence.
Referral should be made to the MAPPA process if it appears to a Senior Manager in the responsible agency that:
- the likelihood of harm occurring is considered to be high or very high;
- the level of harm, if this occurs, would be high and potentially life threatening;
- there is substantial chance of a serious offence being committed;
- the potential victim is known specifically or by type;
- this cannot be managed alone by the referring agency;
- this cannot be managed by normal liaison between two agencies;
- there are no other procedures under which this would normally be managed.
The core agencies to attend MAPPA meetings are the Police, Probation, Children’s Social Care and Health. Other agencies may be co-opted as required and where protocols exist. All MAPPA referrals will be passed to the Senior Probation Officer who will convene the meeting. Attendance from each agency will be at a sufficiently senior level to be able to commit resources in order to manage the situation. The Senior Manager from the referring agency will take the Chair at the meeting. Each agency will take responsibility for ensuring the attendance of any practitioner, as they deem necessary.
The process of the Meeting is as follows
- At the outset of the meeting the Chair will draw attention to the confidentiality statement and ask each member to read and sign it. Any agency representative unable to sign this document should be asked to withdraw. Specifically it should be stated that any information brought to the meeting remains the property of the agency bringing it and cannot be divulged by any other member, outside the meeting, without the permission of that agency.
- A summary of the case, the reason for requesting the meeting and the issues raised by the case, should be outlined by the agency requesting the MAPPA and this will form the basis for discussion. Notes of the meeting must be kept and the planned actions and the name of the person responsible for carrying out each action recorded.
- A media strategy should be considered and where the media are not being informed of action, then a referral point (usually the chair of the meeting) should be identified in case of media enquiries.
- At the end of the meeting the Chair should summarise the actions and ensure that each person present is aware of what their agency has agreed to progress. Agreement should be sought where it is thought appropriate to share information from the meeting with an outside party, e.g. the victim or perpetrator.
- A review date must be set at the end of the meeting. Copies of the notes should be sent to all members, by the referring agency, within three working days.
- Where liaison is required across agencies between meetings a contact point in each relevant service should be identified and their responsibilities made clear.
Where it is suspected or known that an individual subject to the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements might represent a risk to a particular child or children the Safeguarding Procedures for the Management of Individual Cases should be followed. Offenders falling within the scope of the MAPPA are dealt with according to the level of risk they pose and the level of intervention required to manage that risk. There are three levels of management within the MAPPA Framework:
- Level 1: Ordinary Risk Management – where the risks posed by the offender can safely be managed by a single agency without the active involvement of other agencies. There will often be normal inter-agency liaison and information sharing between practitioners about these offenders, but they will not require managers to be directly involved in risk management activity and will not require referral to a MAPPA meeting.
- Level 2: Multi Agency Risk Action Plan (MARAP) – where the active involvement of more than one agency is needed to manage risk, involving middle managers as well as practitioners, and the holding of regular MAPPA meetings
- Level 3: Multi Agency Risk Action Plan – where senior managers from the relevant agencies are involved in coordinating the management of offenders who pose the highest risk and/or are the most difficult and complex to manage.
Many violent offenders are appropriately managed at Level 1. Offenders would move up and down the levels as appropriate.
The ‘critical few’ requiring management at Level 3 would meet the following criteria:
- Imminence of serious harm
- Requires unusual resource allocation
- Serious community concerns
- Media implications
- Need to involve other agencies not normally part to MAPPA
Ref:
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements Guidance Manual Probation Circular 54/2004
