Issue details

The main national community initiative for PCOSOs is ‘Circles of Support of Accountability’. In discussions with the sector, it was identified that there was a lack of desire to deliver the circles model as the accreditation process was considered an unnecessary burden; use of volunteers was not ideal and the small number of interventions that could be delivered. In addition, previously the volunteer model was built on ex or current CJS professionals not strictly community volunteers as such.
Therefore, organisations (Back on Track and We Are Survivors) were identified with the skills and expertise to be able to work with this cohort and they were consulted on a potential model which has been co-designed to provide a more robust and holistic approach.

Greater Manchester has the highest proportion of PCOSOs in the community outside of London. There are over 3,500 PCOSOs in Greater Manchester, which amounts to approximately 75% of people who are being managed through GM MAPPAs. These numbers have increased year on year, particularly for sexual offending, which has seen a 20% increase since Covid-19. The GM SOMU team has expanded too but can still only operate to caseloads of over 100 people. PCOSOs are often excluded from other support and/or resettlement services and face significant additional barriers to accessing mental health provision and finding progression opportunities.

People convicted of sexual offences managed through Greater Manchester’s Multi Agency Public Protection Units are known to report disproportionately high rates of neurodiversity; high rates of childhood trauma, victimisation, and child sexual abuse; to typically be generalist offenders; and to be at enhanced risk of re-offending when subject to increased stress and social isolation.
The PhD candidate is sought to work under the supervision of Professors David Gadd and Emma Barret in the Department of Criminology. The candidate will also be advised and accountable to the project advisory group, comprising Mr Duncan Craig OBE (Honorary Research Fellow and CEO of We Are Survivors), Kath Self (Senior Policy & Partnership Officer, Greater Manchester Combined Authority), Dr Polly Turner, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Dr Neil Gredecki, Lecturer in Psychology and Mental Health and Siobhan Pollitt, Chief Executive, Back on Track.
It is a core requirement of the PhD that the candidate work alongside the funder, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, to develop an evaluation framework that will ultimately assess the effectiveness of a new model of intervention. The new intervention – delivered by Back on Track and We Are Survivors - seeks to ensure a subpopulation of sex offenders desist from offending by providing additional support to help those who are also victims to process their own trauma and by providing an intervention that enables the development of core life skills a more pro-social sense of self. All those subject to the intervention will also be under the supervision of Greater Manchester Probation Service.
The PhD is scheduled to start in March 2024, with fees and stipend funded for 3.5 years. The University reserves the right to defer the start date to September 2024.

The PhD candidate will be based in the Department of Criminology, in the School of Social Sciences. Fieldwork for the project is expected to conclude after 2.5 years of full-time study. An annual (pro-rata) Research Training Support budget of £1000 to cover fieldwork and dissemination costs will be made available to the candidate. The candidate will be expected to comply with the University of Manchester’s doctoral training requirements. The full range of training and support provided to PhD students in the Dept of Criminology, School of Social Sciences and North West ESRC Doctoral training Partnership will be made accessible to the successful candidate. This will include training in research ethics, data management and security, research methods, research leadership, dissemination and impact.