Lancashire Probation

Probation Board and Members

The role of the Lancashire Probation Trust Board is to oversee the work of the National Probation Service in the Lancashire area. The Board is accountable to the regional Director of Offender Management for the performance and delivery of services throughout the county. It is also responsible for meeting national targets. The area Service is scrutinised by HM Inspectorate of Probation and local and district auditors.

The main duties of the Board are to:

• employ the area Service`s staff;
• provide for efficient probation work in the Lancashire area;
• oversee the area`s annual budget; and
• ensure that offenders and the community know about the work of
  Probation and understand probation services.

• Roy Male CBE, MA - Chairman
• Bob Mathers - Chief Officer
• Ron Barker JP
• David Booker - Chorley
• Simon Evans
• Tony Harrison - Burnley & Pendle
• Leslie Sewell JP - Chorley
• Christine Threlfall
• Charu Ainscough

Roy Male CBE, MA
Educated at Nottingham High School and King’s College School, Wimbledon. Philosophy graduate of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Joined the NHS as a management trainee and worked for 35 years in the North-west and East Anglia, where for a brief period he served as a JP on the Norwich Bench.

Spent over 20 years in personnel management before becoming Chief Executive of Addenbrooke’s Hospital , Cambridge and then Chief Executive of Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Hospitals. Awarded CBE in 2003 for services to the NHS.

Has family links in Lancashire, and in earlier years lived in Ormskirk and Charnock Richard before his return to live on the Fylde Coast. He is a member of St Anne’s Rotary, plays for St Anne’s cricket club in the Fylde League, and enjoys keyboard.

Since retirement from full time work he is :

Independent Member, Disciplinary Tribunals, ILEX
Independent Member, Standards Committee, Lancashire Combined Fire Authority
Chairman, Sydney Driscoll Neuroscience Foundation Trust at Royal Preston Hospital.

Appointed as the Chairman of the Board to NPS - Lancashire on 1 April 2007.

Bob Mathers
Bob Mathers took up his post as Chief Officer on the 1 March 2005 and previously was Deputy Chief Officer and then Acting Chief Officer of Greater Manchester Probation Area. He is a former member of the Parole Board for England and Wales with additional responsibility for the selection of Life Sentence Prisoners for release. He is the Chair of Lancashire Criminal Justice Board and a member of the Home Office Efficiency and Effectiveness Board. Educated at the University Of London , Goldsmiths College and Bristol University, he worked for a short time in the United States before joining the Probation Service. Subsequently he undertook a Masters Degree in Business Administration . Bob is a past Trustee of the Rhodes Foundation Scholarship Trust and a Member of the Legal Aid Board Duty Solicitor Committee. He is secretary of the Executive Group of the North West Probation Board and Chairs the Regional Prison and Probation Services Joint Diversity Working Group.

Ron Barker JP
Ron Barker has been a magistrate for 27 years sitting mainly in Southport. He was a member of the Merseyside Probation Board for 6 years and represented the Employers in national negotiations over salaries and conditions of employment for probation management and staff. Prior to retirement he worked in insurance, HR and IT and has experience in the private, public and charitable sectors.
He now works part time as a business consultant and is involved with Wine both as an executive committee member of the International Wine & Food Society (he is also secretary of the Blackpool Branch) and as a judge in the International Wine Challenge. He helps organise wine appreciation groups in Longridge and Liverpool and leads and organises trips around the world to study winemaking. He has three children and seven grandchildren.

David Booker
David is Head of Volunteer Development (UK) within Barnardo’s, the children’s charity. He joined Barnardo’s, in 1983 as Assistant Director (North West) and was involved in developing new services throughout the region, including projects to support young people leaving care. During this period he gained an MSc in management studies. David trained initially as a social worker in inner city areas specialising in work with young offenders. He worked for Lancashire Social Services Department for a number of years in a variety of roles including voluntary sector development and emergency planning.

Simon Evans
Simon Evans is a solicitor and manager who has worked in the court system for the last 27 years starting in Cheshire, he has held positions in West Midlands, Hampshire and Cornwall, before coming to the north-west in 1988 on appointment as Clerk to the Justices at Barrow-in-Furness. Later becoming Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Courts Service in Cumbria, in 2005 Simon piloted the courts through the merger that created Her Majesty’s Courts Service (HMCS) responsible for all civil, criminal and family courts in the county. He was the first Area Director for HMCS in Cumbria until March 2007. A founding member of the Cumbria Criminal Justice Board he has worked extensively with Chief Officers of criminal justice agencies across the north-west on a number of projects. Most recently he was responsible for the National Enforcement Service Pathfinder project in the region, which seeks to build effective structures to ensure that all court orders are effectively carried out. A former member of the Judicial Studies Board he took his law degree at the University of Leicester. He lives with his solicitor wife and two children.

Tony Harrison
Tony is a retired police officer and has worked in therapeutic community working with former psychiatric patients. Currently he works part-time in a unit training people with learning disabilities for independent living. A former local councillor in Burnley and ex-chair of Cliviger Parish Council, he is vice chair of Burnley Pendle and Rossendale NHS Primary Care Trust. He is Chair of the George House Trust and a trustee of Urban Forum, a national body representing the views of local community groups. He is a member of Burnley's Local Strategic Partnership representing the PCT and serves on the co-ordinating group as chair of the Health and Social Care sub-committee. He is involved in various local charities including Burnley Lesbian and Gay Forum and Fifty Something Theatre Company.

Leslie Sewell JP
Leslie is employed by the Edexcel Foundation, a provider of vocation qualifications and working with colleges and training organisations on their performance as vocational training providers. He has also worked as a consultant to the Distributive Occupational Standards Council scrutinising the work of partner training providers. He had a 32 year career with British Telecom for which he held a variety of engineering and material management roles. He is a magistrate and a member of his local magistrates' bench training and development committee. He is a volunteer on the Local Crime Community Sentence project, jointly sponsored by Probation and the Magistrates' Assocation, promoting public awareness and confidence in community penalties. A graduate of Lancashire Polytechnic and Liverpool John Moores University, he holds a BA in Business Studies, a Diploma in Management and an MSc in Human Resource Development. He is married with two adult daughters.

Christine Threlfall
Joined the Board on 1 April 2007.

Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development, is a senior Human Resources Manager, with over 35 years experience. After studying Business Studies her early career was in manufacturing industry in the 1970s and early 1980s. Following a short break when her children were born she returned to full-time employment in 1983 with North British Housing, now Places for People, one of the largest national social housing and regeneration groups in the country. Her experience covers all aspects of HR management, including successfully leading the people aspects of several major national change and expansion programmes. She retired from full-time employment in July 2006. She is also a Board member of East Lancs Moneyline, a community-based organisation providing financial assistance to those in greatest need.

Charu Ainscough
Mrs Charu Ainscough is currently the Human Resources Manager with responsibility for Employment, Equality and Diversity (Race & Religion and Belief) at the Lancashire County Council. Since 1975 she has been actively involved, in both a professional and voluntary capacity, with promoting good community and race relations. She has been responsible for setting up a number of voluntary organisations whose objectives are to enhance the status, life chances and skills of, and resources available to, minority ethnic communities and in particular women.

She was born in Uganda, educated in India, Uganda and England where she qualified at the Bar. Since then she has also completed a Diploma in Management Studies and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development qualification. She served as a Magistrate for 18 years and then in 1999 as a Non-Executive Director for both Preston Guild Community Healthcare Trust NHS Trust and then the Preston Primary Health Care Trust till 2005/6.

Charu’s current voluntary activities include the role of Chair of the Lancashire Constabulary’s Strategic Independent Advisory Group, Executive Committee member of the Lancashire Forum of Faiths, founder Board member of Preston Mela Trust and co-opted Governor of Cardinal Newman College.

Upcoming Meetings