Protecting the public is our top priority. Under our reforms, management of the offenders who pose the highest risk of serious harm, or who have committed the most serious offences, will be the responsibility of the National Probation Service (NPS), and management of medium and low risk offenders will be the responsibility of the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). CRCs will be required to refer a offender to the NPS if they believe the risk of serious harm is escalating to high. If a CRC refers a low or medium risk offender to the NPS, and the NPS decides that the risk of serious harm has escalated to high, the responsibility for the management of the case will transfer to the NPS. These case transfers will happen in a way that minimises the chance of destabilising the offender. For example, the CRC could continue to be involved in delivering interventions to the offender even though the case responsibility has moved. The NPS and CRCs will be expected to work closely together and we expect that partnership working would often be facilitated by co-location.