MY ROLE as Police and Crime Commissioner goes beyond policing, and since being elected into office in 2012 I have drawn together a wide range of partners in the community to help tackle crime and its root causes.

Rehabilitation plays a vital role in supporting offenders to break free from the cycle of reoffending and it helps them to rebuild their lives by making some positive changes that enable them to turn their backs on criminality.

I’m a key stakeholder of the Gwent Integrated Offender Management (IOM) programme, which takes a multi-agency approach to managing high risk offenders. The agencies involved include the probation service, the police, local authorities, drug and alcohol services and local health providers.

The approach recognises that repeat offenders have multiple problems that contribute to their offending, which cannot be addressed by a single agency.

The programme ensures that all offenders leaving prison have co-ordinated support to help them stay on the straight and narrow. The Gwent IOM programme has been singled out as one of the best in Wales after securing a 9.1 per cent reduction in the rate of re-offending among the most prolific offenders.

Substance abuse is one of the many factors that can make it hard for people to break away from offending and that’s why I fund and support the Gwent Drugs Interventions Programme (DIP).

The programme has supported nearly 2,000 clients to date and 70 per cent of the IOM cohorts have passed through DIP. It delivers recovery and rehabilitation services that are absolutely key to my aim of reducing crime by tackling the underlying causes of offending.

I also have commissioning powers and funding to help support my remit to reduce crime. The rehabilitation of offenders is one of five themes which form part of my strategic commissioning intentions.

I have awarded funding to several projects that enhance work with prison inmates and offenders to help reduce crime.

This includes an award of £9,600 for the Specialist Treatment Organisation for the Prevention of Sexual Offending (StopSO) who are spending part of their award on providing 60 hours of subsidised psychotherapy for sex offenders and their families.

I’m also a big supporter of using innovative and more restorative approaches to divert offenders away from the criminal justice system to prevent future offending.

For example, I secured nearly £235,000 from the Home Office this year to support the creation of a Women’s Triage Scheme, a Wales-wide project that aims to divert women who have been arrested away from criminality and provide them with a new ‘restorative’ approach to their rehabilitation.

Every £1 invested in interventions saves £33 in tackling crime overall, and these partnerships and initiatives that I fund and support assist me in developing approaches that ensure people in Gwent are less affected by crime.