About Us
A short introduction to CEP
CEP is the Confederation of European Probation. It aims to promote the social inclusion of offenders through community sanctions and measures such as probation, community service, mediation and conciliation. CEP is committed to enhance the profile of probation and to improve professionalism in this field, on a national and a European level.
CEP therefore promotes pan-European cooperation by organising conferences on actual topics in probation. By making the reports of these events available, by publishing its digital newsletter and through this website, CEP stimulates the exchange of ideas on probation. In this way it makes an important contribution to the development of community sanctions and measures.
Its members are organisations working in the field of probation and interested individuals. CEP thus brings together practitioners, managers, academics, stakeholders and others working in the field of probation and criminal justice from all over Europe. Together they represent a unique network of expertise about positive ways of working with offenders in the community. Their common concern is how to protect society without resorting to the expense of prison.
To European bodies such as the European Union and the Council of Europe, CEP is the spokesperson for the sector of probation, providing expertise and comparative data. It is therefore the voice of probation in ‘Brussels’.
CEP was founded in 1981 as the ‘Conférence permanente Européenne de la Probation’. Since October 2013, CEP is an acronym of Confederation of European Probation.
Vision for Probation in Europe
“To contribute to safer communities by rehabilitating and reintegrating offenders and providing the best possible interventions to reduce offending and the impact of crime.”
Aims
- Creating an excellent international member organisation that is transparent, efficient and innovative;
- Appreciating diversity and difference;
- Demonstrating leadership and modelling effectiveness;
- Making probation understandable and accessible;
- Advocating probation at an international level;
- Focussing on dissemination of probation policy, knowledge and expertise;
- Participating in projects relating to probation and communicating outcomes;
- Bringing together the knowledge base, research and practice to improve learning and outcomes;
- Building effective partnerships across the criminal justice sector in Europe;
- Representing the probation sector to European institutions;
- Reaching out to other jurisdictions.
Financial Strategy
- Membership fees – to hold membership fees at a level that avoids increasing the pressures on members; to seek to widen the membership and increase numbers of organisations in CEP according to the statutes;
- Operating Grant – continue in supporting the core business of CEP and delivering excellent services;
- Action Grants – to be an active participant in European projects and be paid to contribute using our pan-European links and services; to take the lead in an EU project and deliver project management;
- Generating income – identifying new ways of generating income in line with CEP’s values and objectives;
- Developing partnerships – expanding sponsorship for specific events.