The Strategic Oversight of PPANI

ACC George Hamilton Chairperson

Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton was appointed in December 2011 with responsibility for the Criminal Justice Portfolio.  One of his responsibilities is Public Protection which includes chairing the Public Protection Arrangements in Northern Ireland.   ACC Hamilton holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics and Economics and a Masters in Business Administration. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Leadership Association.  The Strategic Management Board meet on a quarterly basis and is chaired by a senior representative from the main criminal justice agencies - police, probation or prisons.  The post of chair is rotated between police, probation and prisons, the PSNI currently fulfil this role.  The role of the chair is to facilitate discussion between the strategic management board members in order to progress the business relating to the strategic oversight of the operation of the arrangements.   The chair does not carry accountability for decisions made by the forum.  Accountability rests with the individual agencies involved with delivering their role in the public protection arrangements in Northern Ireland  

Cheryl Lamont, Deputy Director of Probation (Operations)

Cheryl is Deputy Director of Probation (Operations) and leads on amongst other areas public protection. Cheryl has been involved in the strategic multi-agency group on public protection since 2005.

Cheryl has 28 years’ experience working in criminal justice in both the voluntary and statutory sectors and holds professional qualifications in Social Work and Management.
 

Maurice Rooney, Principal Officer, Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE)

Maurice Rooney is employed as a Principal Officer within the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and has primary responsibility for the development and interpretation of policies covering the allocation of social housing in Northern Ireland in line with The Housing Selection Scheme, as approved by the Department of Social Development.

Maurice is also the chair of one of the four sub groups, the Accommodation Sub Group, which has developed an accommodation strategy aimed at addressing the issues relating to the housing of sex offenders and in response to the recognition that access to sustainable and suitable accommodation is a significant factor in preventing re-offending.

Cecil Worthington, Director of Children's Services & Executive Director of Social Work

Cecil Worthington is the Director of Children's Services and Executive Director of Social Work in the Northern Health & Social Care Trust.  He is a qualified Social Worker and has been working in Children's Services specifically over the last 15 years.  His role on the Strategic Management Board is to represent all five Health & Social Care Trusts in relation to Social Services role in this area of work.

Alan Smyth, Head of Licensing, Legislation and Public Protection, Northern Ireland Prison Service

Alan Smyth is Head of Licensing. Legislation and Public Protection within the Northern Ireland Prison Service.  He has primary responsibility for releasing offenders into the community on a range of  Department of Justice licences.  This work involves working closely with other criminal justice agencies to ensure that appropriate and proportionate licence conditions are put in place that allow offenders to be managed in the community following release.  Alan is also responsible for prisons related legislation, for the Prison Service's human rights and equality responsibilities in relation to offenders and for a range of other judicial matters that impact on NIPS including prisoner transfers, the recall of life sentence prisoners and responses to Judicial Reviews.

Alister Wallace, PSNI representative on the board

Superintendent Alister Wallace is the PSNI representative on the board.  He works within the Criminal Justice department and heads a team of operational and support staff committed to risk managing both sexual and violent offenders within the public protection arrangements