WILTSHIRE Probation Service is to get a cash boost to enable it to recruit more staff.

In the past few years the service has suffered cuts in funding and has not been able to replace staff who have left.

From next April the service will be funded entirely by the Home Office and Wiltshire has been told it will get extra money so it can recruit more staff

Chris Wheeler, Wiltshire's chief probation officer, said: "Wiltshire Probation Service has not been well resourced over the last few years. We have had a reduction in staff and a reduction in funding and the staff have been taking on bigger workloads."

Nationally the Probation Service is being re-organised and from next April all the funding will come from the Home Office compared to the present arrangement of 80 per cent funding from the Home Office and 20 per cent from local authorities.

The past year has been a success story for Wiltshire Probation Service, particularly with the results of an aggression replacement training programme.

The programme, piloted by Wiltshire, is to be extended to all other probation services in England and Wales.

The programme involves offenders taking part in role playing situations and of 230 offenders who have gone through the programme re-conviction rates fell by 15 per cent compared to offenders who were not on the programme.

Mr Wheeler said: "A reduction of 15 per cent is very substantial.

"The programme teaches people to control their aggression and think before they act.

"The programme changes people's thought processes and teaches them to behave in a different way. It also makes them aware of the consequences of their behaviour."

The service has also been congratulated by the Home Office for its strict enforcement of offenders on probation and community service orders who miss appointments.

In a recent survey Wiltshire had enforced 100 per cent of cases where offenders had not kept appointments.

Mr Wheeler said: "Our enforcement policy is very rigorous. If two appointments are missed and the reasons given are unacceptable people are returned to court to be re-sentenced.

"Enforcement is the Home Secretary's key objective at the moment. It's about making community penalties credible to the public. If offenders are returned to court the public are reassured that a tough line is being taken."

Wiltshire Probation Service has just published its annual report for 1999/2000. For some objectives such as frequency of contact with offenders and increasing the standard of pre-sentence reports Wiltshire did not reach its own targets but still exceeded the national average.

Tomorrow Robert Lawton, the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, is visiting the probation service and will be told about the aggression replacement training programme. He will also visit a luncheon club in Swindon where people on community service orders work.