In Gove We Must Trust

Listening and watching Michael Gove perform yesterday during the opening stages of the Opposition debate on the prison and probation service, I was struck just how different he is to his psychopathic predecessor Chris Grayling. Speaking knowledgeably, fluently and passionately 'off the cuff' about the state of the prison system and his plans for greater prison governor autonomy, I found there was much to feel reassured about.

I know he comes with a very bad reputation for having done damage to education, nevertheless he confirmed his limited knowledge of the justice brief and was anxious to remain in listening and learning mode. I know politicians say this sort of stuff regularly, but the difference with Gove is I think it's genuine. He strikes me as a decent guy and I have to say impeccable politeness is something refreshing to behold in a politician. 

In essence I can well understand how he was able to win early and favourable comment from Frances Crook of the Howard League basically because he is so obviously not an unpleasant bully and of course has undone much of the Grayling legacy that proved so very damaging to our criminal justice system. His honest remarks regarding the problems within our prisons I think bodes well and even the deeply cynical must be impressed that he has been willing to appoint the out-going and outspoken Chief Inspector of Prisons to be the new Chair of the Parole Board.

But lets not get too carried away. For whatever reason, Gove still seems unable to acknowledge the disaster we all know TR to be and felt obliged to trot out all that '£46 in their pocket' nonsense spouted by his predecessor. He was also very naughty in claiming '500 new frontline probation officers', rather disingenuously ignoring all those who have exited:- 

"... but we are just 12 months into the transforming rehabilitation programme initiated by my predecessor, and it is only appropriate that we acknowledge that that programme has already seen an increase in the number of frontline probation officers, again of more than 500."

I'd like to think this is just him swallowing his NOMS briefing on the matter with little thought or analysis. I'm sure I've read somewhere that he's deeply suspicious of the prison-dominated NOMS and their take on things - for very sound reasons - we just have to convince him to be just as sceptical in relation to what he's told about probation.

The dreadful utterly uninspiring junior minister Selous even had trouble reading from his NOMS script and trotted out all the usual guff.

But according to Selous, all is rosy in the garden:

"Reoffending has been too high for too long. That is why we have brought together the best of the voluntary, charitable and private sectors to join our excellent public service probation workers in bringing in our probation reforms. That has meant that we have extended probation supervision to some 40,000 short-sentence offenders who did not get it before. We have also introduced a through-the-gate service, joining up probation from prison into the community.

We have created the National Probation Service, and I should tell Members that 19 of the 22 CRCs are being run with a staff mutual or a voluntary, charitable or social enterprise sector body alongside their owners. We monitor their performance very carefully indeed, and the October 2015 performance figures showed that we are advancing in performance in almost all areas. South Yorkshire CRC has developed an action plan to deal with the issues it faces, but I can tell the House that no CRC is in a formal remedial plan. I can also tell the House that there are 560 more probation officers than there were 12 months ago. That is the largest intake of newly qualified probation officers for some considerable period."

By a strange coincidence, as Gove was on his feet on the floor of the House, Michael Spurr was on his addressing the Clinks AGM. Whatever the minister was saying, a few snippets via twitter from Rob Allen I think give an indication of tensions within the department and problems with TR:-

Spurr says Governor autonomy proposals don't fit easily with other developments (CRCs, PCCs) so a lot of questions 

Spurr confident TR will get better. Sensible NOMS engagement with CRCs about quality and interim measures. Not all about PBR 

Spurr bullish about TR but admits contracts got the estimated volumes wrong . Offenders more serious than anticipated. 

Spurr asked abt market stewardship in TR Says there are limits to what government can do to make contractors work with 3rd sectr

I wasn't able to watch the whole debate, but not surprisingly it would seem probation hardly got a mention. This situation cannot go on though and eventually Gove must get around to addressing the crisis TR has created. At some point he will realise what a thorough mess NOMS have made and a fragmented probation service will do absolutely nothing to help with his laudable aims for prison reform.   

At least Liz McInnes tried to put a case for probation: 

"The probation service, however, suffers from a staffing crisis as a result of cuts and reforms. The Government have split the service in two, outsourcing the least complex work to privately run groups known as community rehabilitation companies or CRCs. In 2015, at least 1,200 staff left the probation service as a result of planned redundancy, retirement and career changes due to disillusionment. I should like to quote a senior probation officer, who has chosen to remain anonymous:

“Collectively the service is having a nervous breakdown and my guess is that at least 80% of staff are just looking to get out by any means. The damage is done; there’s worse to come and there’s absolutely nothing that can stop it. I’m pessimistic about the future and it will take a couple of serious murders, prison riots or similar for politicians and the public to take the slightest notice”.

Those are the words of someone working in the probation service, and I truly hope that they do not come true. I hope that we can address the crisis in the probation service. The staff and the work that they do are valued, but they are struggling with an excessive workload and loss of expertise, which has had a detrimental effect on complex cases, including those involving sexual and domestic violence."  

--oo00oo--

It's quite obvious to many that Gove is much better news for criminal justice policy and here is much-respected Joshua Rozenberg writing on the BBC website. Probation and TR don't get a mention, but I simply refuse to believe that it too will not ultimately succumb to pragmatism and commonsense as well:-

Gove's actions 'give hope' for justice policy

A debate on prison policy in the House of Lords last week "showed how much goodwill there is for the new justice secretary", according to the Conservative backbench peer who initiated the discussion. Lord Fowler said policies being introduced by Michael Gove, who also holds the post of Lord Chancellor, "give more hope for advance in prison policy than anything I have heard for many years".

From the Labour front bench, Lord Beecham said: "It would be churlish not to welcome Mr Gove's appointment as Lord Chancellor, although almost anyone would have been an improvement on his predecessor".

Chris Grayling was Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor from September 2012 to May 2015, the first non-lawyer to hold the post for more than four centuries. As such, he was never going to have an easy ride from the legal profession in his first cabinet post. He was also required to save large sums of money from the Ministry of Justice budget, leading to cuts in legal aid and colourful protest meetings by lawyers.

Some lawyers also objected to his planned human rights changes, although in this he was merely seeking to do the prime minister's bidding and these were never implemented.

But some of Mr Grayling's less well-known policies, such as restructuring of the courts in England and Wales, are being carried through by his successor.

Pragmatism before ideology

One reason Mr Gove has earned the respect of his political opponents is his willingness to reverse many of Mr Grayling's least effective decisions. There is speculation the next policy to be abandoned will involve the award of criminal legal aid duty contracts.

These contracts, under which solicitors agree to cover police stations and magistrates' courts in England and Wales, are the gateway to legal aid work for law firms. To make up for cutting solicitors' fees by 17.5% over two years, the number of contracts was to be reduced from 1,600 to 527 - making each contract much more valuable.

But the Ministry of Justice had to postpone the new contracts - which were meant to take effect this month - after solicitors launched legal action alleging the allocation process had been unlawful. If Mr Gove does decide to put pragmatism ahead of ideology, it won't be the first time.

A couple of months after his appointment last May, the former education secretary lifted restrictions on the number of books that prisoners could keep in their cells. Also last July, Mr Gove scrapped plans to spend an estimated £85m building a huge prison in Leicestershire for 320 young offenders.

Judges' pay rise

Risking a clash with the Foreign Office, the justice secretary pulled out of a £5.9m prisons deal with Saudi Arabia. This had been set up under a commercial arm of the Ministry of Justice established by Mr Grayling and scrapped by Mr Gove.

Last month, the justice secretary abolished the much-criticised criminal courts charge, which Mr Grayling had insisted would make criminals "pay their way". And, this month, Mr Gove supported a 3% pay rise for high court judges, to be funded by increasing salaries for the most junior judges by less than the 1% they would otherwise have received.

One reason, he said, was it had not been possible to fill a vacancy in the high court family division last year - at a time when Mr Grayling was insisting that implementing changes recommended four years earlier would have increased the total pay bill by an unacceptable 2%.

Improved relations

Despite praise for his prison policy, Mr Gove was criticised by a former law lord last week for continuing to detain 4,500 prisoners given indefinite terms of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) under a schemed abolished in 2012. About 3,500 of these IPP prisoners have already served the minimum punishment periods set by the courts.

But the biggest difference between the two secretaries of state is the one that is the least obvious: Mr Gove has managed to establish much better relations than Mr Grayling ever had with what the Ministry of Justice regards as its stakeholder groups, notably the judiciary.

While well aware they can no longer rely on the lord chancellor being a lawyer, the judges are relieved to find the minister responsible for the legal system in England and Wales is now someone they can do business with.