A NEW face has joined the line-up of the senior management teams for the probation service in North Yorkshire.

Mike Ryan, who is married with four children, has been appointed as the service's assistant chief officer.

He will be in charge of interventions, the structured and planned pieces of work for offenders, whose purpose may be punishment, rehabilitation or public protection.

His responsibilities will include the delivery of accredited offending programmes, curfews with electronic monitoring, unpaid work, resettlement, education and employment for offenders.

He succeeds Kevin Robinson who has been appointed to a new post within the National Probation Directorate, in London.

Before coming to North Yorkshire Mr Ryan worked for the North-East Regional Offender Manager where he worked on the implementation of the national Offender Management Model.

Chief Officer Roz Brown said: "Mike has been appointed from a very strong field and has a vast wealth of probation experience.

"Interventions are essential in helping offenders take common-sense steps towards learning to live law-abiding lives and reducing the likelihood of them re-offending."