Jill Dilks, awarded an OBE

Everyone involved in NAPA, together with all our Associates working in and with independently managed Approved Premises (probation hostels) is delighted to learn that our Chair, Jill Dilks, has been awarded an OBE in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours list - 'for services to Residents of Approved Premises and to the Wider Criminal Justice System'.. 

Jill had a long history of voluntary work with many different organisations, and then notably with the Commonwealth Linking Trust from 1974, before joining in 2003 the body that later became Progress to Change, which currently manages both Ripon House and Cardigan House IAPs. She chaired that charity from 2015 to 2023. 

Jill has been additionally involved with NAPA for much of the last 20 years, and, as Chair for much of that time, has developed it into a professional organisation that acts as the collective eyes, ears and voice of the various separate independent providers of Approved Premises. One effect of Jill’s efforts is that, after some initial uncertainty, HMPPS now sees the independent sector as a critically important element in its provision of residential services for female and male offenders across England & Wales on release from prison.

Huge respect to Jill for her 60+ years of voluntary service and achievement