Boss Gets the Push

Justice News

9 November 2016
Update from Paul Hindson

I’m really sad to tell you that I will shortly be leaving Working Links. I am very disappointed about this because I am wholly committed to the work that we are doing and wanted to see it right through to a steady state position and beyond over the next few years. However, Working Links has taken a decision to join up the justice and employability parts of the business under one Executive Director and it has chosen Brian Bell to undertake that role. He will assume full responsibility for both sides of the business from 1 January 2017.

When telling me of the decision, Phil Andrew was very complimentary about the work I have done for Working Links since joining in May 2015 and he has followed this up with very fulsome praise in the messages sent to senior managers and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), which I feel proud of.

I am disappointed to be leaving before all the changes we are currently implementing have settled. I realise that the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are going through a very challenging period of transition at the moment and I know that is painful for some people, but I am very happy to see that through and support all of you through that period to the best of my ability and in line with the principles I believe in. I will keep doing that as well as I can until I leave. 

In the coming weeks I will be handing over responsibility for the work of the business. So I thought it would be useful to reflect on how the justice work is performing and where we have got to on our transformation journey at this point. In terms of how we are doing the answer is: extremely well. Despite all the changes that are going on you continue to perform to a very high level. At our latest Justice Management Meeting on 4 November Simon Curtis presented the most recent performance data and told us that, for all of our CRCs together, we are the joint second highest performer on Transforming Rehabilitation. As you know, we are also subjected to numerous audits and close scrutiny of our work and this continues to report good findings, particularly the latest programme audits in the South West as well as very positive reports from the Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) review in Wales. We also had Wales at the top of the risk audit that took place earlier in the year and the positive references to Through the Gate (TTG) in Parc. 

We continue to meet regularly with the MOJ and report on our work and our plans for transformation and they have not identified any significant areas of concern with our service delivery, aside from some areas for improvement that I’ll mention below. This is down to all of you and I have immense respect for what you have accomplished whilst all the changes are going on around you. You have also achieved it with no reduction in caseload and within budget. Thank you for the effort that has gone into making that happen and for remaining focused on the work that really matters: the services we are delivering to our users.

I don’t want to sound glib though: there are problems that we need to address and some of these will really test us. I have picked out a few below:

• Sickness levels – apart from in BGSW CRC we continue to have high levels of sickness and we will continue to address this. 

• Positive engagement – I believe that we can do a lot more to develop a positive, forward looking culture that is shared across the CRCs and the rest of the business. At the moment I still think there is a lot of suspicion in the CRCs, which was probably aggravated by the use of the term “The Working Links Way”. We would be in a better position when everybody in the CRCs feels that they are a valued part of an organisation with shared ownership of a culture created by everyone. 

•  Areas for improvement – we have a few areas where we are not delivering as well as we should. For instance, we are not delivering intensive Community Payback at present and the MOJ does want us to address that via our new Community Payback (CP) model. 

Turning now to the question of where we have got to on our transformation journey, again, this is a very positive message in relation to operations. All of the new developments are moving ahead in line with the plan. Obviously all of our TTG services are up and running and have been for some time and we continue to make improvements. We have also implemented nearly our entire new partner delivered services, such as accommodation support and mentoring. The Operational Hubs (OHs) are rolling out and gradually picking up more and more of the administrative work. Similarly, we are building up the In Touch case management services in the hubs. In terms of the wider case management, the BRAG methodology is rolling out successfully and we are now introducing the new case allocation and induction arrangements. The Community Hubs (CHs) have received a lot of very positive attention and continue to provide us with a uniquely community based delivery option. We are on track to set up the interventions teams across the business and the plans for Community Payback have been presented to the MOJ and will now roll out through to April. Alongside this, all of the people changes are on track and the voluntary departure schemes have been very effective.

But, again, I’m not pretending there aren’t challenges. Here are a few:

• Community Hubs – for the model to work effectively case managers need to use CHs far more than they are currently. The model assumes that a significant proportion of cases will be seen in a hub during their sentence. To achieve this we need to ensure that CHs are accessible to all case managers across the area and that they are fully used. 

• Front office administration – we have a shortfall of administrators left in the front office to deal with front office tasks following the move of admin services into the OHs and we are trying to remedy this.

• Operational Hubs / front office caseload balance – as we roll out In Touch case management we have some spikes in the front office caseload. We have developed a case migration methodology to address this, but, in the short term, we need to ensure that front office case managers are not overloaded. 

• Infrastructure – there are still quite a lot of infrastructure issues that are making life harder, not least the IT arrangements. Hopefully these will be remedied as we move off the MOJ systems in the coming months. 

But, let’s remember, that this is a major transformation of the way in which we deliver our services and I think it’s an immense testimony to the commitment and skill of all of you – probation directors, admin assistants, LDU leads, PSOs, everyone – that things are going so well. Yes, we have issues to address, and, yes, further risks lie ahead – but we have also come a very long way in a short period of time thanks to all of you.

I want to highlight this point, and end this week’s update, by referring back to the Justice Management Meeting last Thursday. At those meetings I’ve tried to save time on the agenda for local people to attend and ask questions or make suggestions. We were in Exeter on Thursday and we had around ten people turn up to ask us questions during lunch time. The questions they asked were thoughtful, reflective and intelligent and demonstrated a detailed understanding of probation and a commitment to contribute to future developments. I found this really heartening, as I have found in all the local interactions that I’ve had with you. I think we’ve got great people who have an awful lot to offer and I really hope you continue to get the opportunity to demonstrate the value of your contribution. I want to end by thanking all of you for offering so much to me during my time here.