Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal visited Derbyshire Probation Area’s Chesterfield offices on Wednesday 25 June 2008 in her capacity as patron of the Butler Trust. 

In 2007 Derbyshire Probation won the Butler Trust Education and Skills Training Award for its work with Broomfield Hall, Derby College for the developing and delivering of courses leading to City and Guilds qualification in horticulture, for offenders undertaking Unpaid Work Orders.   Princess Anne is to visit Derbyshire’s Chesterfield offices to learn how the award winning project has developed over the past year and to meet with staff from across the county. 

Since the project began in May 2004 at the Broomfield Hall site near Derby it has proved highly successful and has expanded so that now the City & Guilds course is offered across the county.  It is designed to deliver horticultural knowledge and skills through practical experience, with a college tutor working alongside a group of offenders and a community payback supervisor.  Whilst the course focuses on the acquisition of practical skills and abilities rather than academic knowledge, an important element is the emphasis on embedding basic skills of literacy and numeracy throughout the teaching.   

Denise White, Chief Officer of Derbyshire Probation Area said;

“We were delighted and honoured that Her Royal Highness visited us.  Since winning the Training Award last year, the support received from the Butler Trust has been tremendous and has been of great help to all those involved in taking our project forward.  

Those offenders taking the City and Guilds course have achieved work related qualifications, improved their basic skills, their teamwork and social skills, and have increased their self-esteem.  These are all proven to lead to a reduction in re-offending, a key focus for the probation service.”     

After meeting Community Payback and Education, Training and Employment staff and representatives from Derby College, Princess Anne completed her visit by touring the Chesterfield offices and meeting staff drawn from across Derbyshire and representing all aspects of probation work. Amongst others she met with Hostel and Substance Misuse team members, Interventions staff, saw an offenders’ Basic Skills class in session and met Divisional and Headquarters staff and members of our Prison-based teams. 

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