What is a Community Order?
A Community Order is made by the courts when someone is found guilty of an offence. It details what punishment people must receive for their offences.

A community sentence, or a non-custodial sentence, means that people serve their punishment in the community.

There are 12 Requirements available to the courts under the Community Order. Someone sentenced to any of the Requirements listed here will be under the direct supervision of the probation service (with the exception of a stand-alone Curfew Requirement, which can be monitored by a private electronic monitoring service).

Judges and magistrates are able to choose a single or combination of Requirements depending on the seriousness of the offence and the potential risk of harm the offender poses.

There are other orders for young offenders (people aged under 16). These are not dealt with by the probation service although close working links exist between the probation service and youth offending service.

The Community Order's 12 Requirements are:

• Unpaid work –between 40 and 300 hours, to be completed in 12 months. Each year probation staff in the Thames Valley will supervise some 162,000 hours of unpaid work by offenders in local communities, to ensure that they meet the requirements of their Community Order/Unpaid Work Requirement.

• Specified activities – this could consist of packages of work on Basic Skills, Employment, Ttraining and Education or include activities whose purpose is that of reparation. The aggregate number of days specified for the activity can be up to 60.

• Programmes aimed at changing offending behaviour – these are Home Office accredited programmes designed to address the attitudes and patterns of behaviour that contribute to offending, such as programmes for sex offenders, domestic violence perpetrators or those who misuse drugs.

• Prohibition from certain activities – the offender must refrain from participating in activities on a specified day or days or during a period.

• Curfew  (usually with electronic monitoring) – the offender must remain for certain periods at a specified place; the order may last for up to six months and may be for up to 12 hours a day.

• Exclusion (usually with electronic monitoring) from certain areas – the offender may not enter a specified place for a period up to two years.

• Residence Requirement – the offender must reside at the place specified.

• Mental health treatment  – the court must be satisfied that the mental condition of the offender is such as requires and may be susceptable to treatment. This Requirement can only be given with the consent of the offender.

• Drug Rehabilitation – the offender is required to have treatment to reduce or eliminate his/her dependency on or propensity to misuse drugs and provide samples for testing whether or not s/he has any drug in his/her body. This Requirement can only be given with the consent of the offender.

• Alcohol treatment – the offender is required to attend treatment to reduce or eliminate dependency on alcohol. This Requirment can only be given with the consent of the offender.

• Supervision Requirement – requires the offender to attend additional appointments with the National Probation Service or another nominated responsible officer. The purpose of supervision is support the work undertaken through other Requirements.

• Attendance centre Requirement (for under 25s) – the offender must attend at an attendance centre for between 12 and 36 hours. Not available in Thames Valley
  

Youth Offending Teams are a separate service from the National Probation Service. They deal with young offenders.

For further details and local contacts visit the website of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. Some probation staff are seconded to the Youth Offending Teams in the county.

The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales will help rebuild communities and promote decent opportunities for all by preventing offending by children and young people.
www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk