LIKE so many others at that age, Tina Bayliss thought she had it all. A steady job, her own flat and a car, which added together spelt independence.

Life for a 17-year-old was good and when she met the man of her dreams it seemed complete.

Yet what started as a match made in heaven quickly turned sour along an all too familiar path.

An introduction to drugs led to shoplifting followed by more serious and violent crime to feed her habit.

As the downward spiral continued, Tina lost contact with her family and control of her three children.

The turning point came when Magistrates gave her one final choice. Go to prison or seek help at the Nelson Trust’s ISIS centre in Gloucester, a secure women-only haven offering support for problems related to offending, substance misuse, safety and well-being.

“I’ll be forever thankful I made the right choice”, says Tina. “ISIS got to the bottom of why I was offending and saw something in me that I never did. They made me realise it’s more about victims than just thinking about myself.

“As a result, they boosted my confidence and helped me with employment. I’m doing my mentoring course and I hope I can go on and help someone in the same position I was in”.

Ruth Saunders from the Nelson Trust which runs the ISIS centre said: “It is [the PCC’s support] has been fantastic because it’s meant that we can really develop the group work programme we do at the ISIS women’s centre.

“It means that we can develop employability skills for women who will come into our services. We help them build their self-esteem, some really important stuff, really stepping stone stuff to help them move forward with their lives.

“Obviously there’s a cost to what we do at ISIS so it’s helped us get to get the workers to deliver the courses, to accredit them and to meet the needs of all our clients”.

Tina is now in a happy, stable relationship and the couple recently had their first child together, a baby girl. She is reconciled with her family and is also hoping for improved custody rights to her three other children.

Plenty have asked ‘What’s the point of Police and Crime Commissioners?”. Well, as I approach the mid-point of my term office, Tina’s story is a heart-warming example of just one of the 105 projects I am funding under the umbrella of my police and crime plan. Building on what we have started will not be easy when all PCCs have been told to expect a further tightening of budgets whoever forms the next Government. Here in Gloucestershire, though, we are well placed to meet the challenge.

A three year financial plan has meant a more business-like approach. Where a former chief constable said the Constabulary was ‘on a cliff edge’, now, thanks to the work of the current Chief Constable Suzette Davenport and the combined Constabulary and OPCC teams, we are moving forward with important projects that had stalled under the old regime.

We cannot turn back the clock to when there was a police station – and a pub, a school and a post office – in every village.

However, I believe the template the Chief Constable is finalising will maintain a service the police in Gloucestershire have provided for 175 years and continue to keep the county safe.

It has not been an easy baptism for PCCs. Most England football managers have enjoyed a longer honeymoon period and although I think the Government’s lack of planning and foresight was to blame for much of the scepticism and hostility, it is too late now and no-one wants to hear about that anyway.

We do hear constantly that Labour and the Liberal Democrats favour yet another change, though their big idea of some form of elected assemblies sounds like Police Authorities by another name. Police Authorities did not work before and there is no reason to believe it would be any different in the future.

Here in Gloucestershire, a great deal of restructuring, re-organising and planning has gone into stabilising the Constabulary and improving its infrastructure.

As a result, we are well on the way to providing a legacy that will serve the county not just for the next two years but for many, many years to come.