The Future Belongs to PSO's

I bet most people 'on probation' assume that the person they see on a regular basis is a probation officer. This would be a reasonable assumption for sentencers to make as well, be they Magistrates, District Judges or Crown Court Judges. But they would almost certainly be wrong as in reality supervision of all but the most risky cases is now undertaken by people with the confusingly similar title of Probation Services Officer. What many might also find surprising is that most have no relevant qualifications and only a minimum of training. Indeed in my own Service there have been recent examples of clerical staff being appointed as temporary Probation Services Officers. As a cost saving measure it is now most unlikely to find a qualified probation officer serving as court duty officer in any Magistrates Court, all having been replaced with PSO's. In a few years it will be the same even at Crown Court and already PSO's are replacing qualified staff in prison, including the Maximum Security Estate. Whatever management might say, it's self evident that the quality of service is not going to be the same.

It was finally decided in April this year what the new training regime will be for probation officers. For the last nine years or so each probation area had selected Trainee Probation Officers as part of a centrally organised national recruitment programme and each was paid a salary as they undertook the two year distance learning degree and level four NVQ. From now on the only route to probation officer qualification will be via progression from Probation Services Officer and a similar distance learning course. However, the suspicion has to be that in order to save money, the number of PSO grades will continue to rise at the expense of qualified probation officers.

As far as I am aware it is still a legal requirement that Pre Sentence Reports for court can only be prepared by a qualified probation officer. However, the situation was confused some time ago when Fast Delivery Reports were conceived, partly as a replacement for the previous ad hoc 'Stand Down' verbal reports at court. Basically FDR's were introduced so that unqualified PSO's could prepare them and as a cheaper alternative to full PSR's. But things have moved on further now and some Service's are getting PSO's to write full PSR's with a nominal counter signing by qualified staff. Surely sentencers must have noticed these changes and a corresponding reduction in quality of reports? For goodness sake speak up or before we know it the system will be completely discredited and there will be suggestions that reports are becoming superfluous as an aid to sentencing. That will not only be bad news for the probation service, but for justice itself in my view.