Wednesday 8 February 2017

Prison Service Swallows Probation Whole

Well here it is, a day late, but confirmation of the demise of NOMS and the takeover of the National Probation Service by the Prison Service, under a smirking Michael Spurr no doubt. There's absolutely nothing here for probation and indeed the 'notes to editors' confirms it - it's all about prison officers.  

A new frontline service focused on reforming offenders and cutting crime will launch in April 2017, Justice Secretary Elizabeth Truss announced today.
  • Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to replace National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
  • new service will be responsible for rolling out government’s reform programme to reduce reoffending and protect the public
  • the service will launch new leadership programme and new promotion opportunities for staff
  • changes backed by additional £100 million to boost frontline by an extra 2,500 staff
HMPPS will have full responsibility for the operational management of offenders in custody and the community, including strengthening security in prisons, tackling extremism and building intelligence about criminal gangs.

Supported by work to recruit an extra 2,500 officers, the new service will launch leadership and promotion programmes for prison and probation officers to further professionalise and build pride in the service.

The new operationally focused service will be supported by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) taking on responsibility for overall future policy direction, setting standards, scrutinising prison performance and commissioning services.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss said:
"This new and operationally focused frontline service will implement the reforms we have announced to make our prisons safe and cut reoffending. Our prison and probation officers do a vital job and they deserve to work in a world-class organisation which supports them in reforming offenders and keeping the public safe. Creating HMPPS will bring clarity to managing our prisons and probation services while further professionalising staff and building pride in their work."
The move follows the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper which outlined an overhaul of the prisons estate with the forthcoming Prison and Courts Bill due to make reforming offenders a key duty of prisons for the first time. 

For the first time, there will also be a Board Director with specific responsibility for women across the whole system, reporting into HMPPS Chief Executive, Michael Spurr.

Michael Spurr said:
"The launch of HMPPS provides a great opportunity to focus on and improve operational performance in prisons and probation. There is a great deal to do but I am confident that with the additional resources the government are providing, we can transform the system and deliver the high quality of service the public deserve."
The service will be dedicated to professionalising the prison and probation workforce. New schemes to improve promotion opportunities have been launched, including:
  • enhanced qualifications for probation officers
  • a new leadership programme
  • an apprenticeship scheme (to launch in April 2017)
  • higher pay and recognition for specialist skilled officers dealing with complex issues such as counter-terrorism, suicide and self-harm support
This wholescale, organisational reform will be supported by measures within the Prisons and Courts Bill, which will set out a new framework and clear system of accountability for prisons, building on the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper.

Notes to editors

Progress on recruitment and retention:
  • we have made 389 job offers to new recruits wanting to join the Prison Service which puts the government on track to recruit the first 400 of the extra 2,500 frontline officers committed to be in place by the end of March 2017
  • boosting pay for hard-working staff by up to £4,000 at some of the most difficult-to-recruit prisons and those with high levels of staff-turnover, including HMP High Down, HMP Downview and HMP Coldingley
  • appointing 75 mentors for new starter prison officers to help them in their first few months in the job which we know can be a difficult time
  • providing retention payments at sites with the greatest levels of staff turnover. For example at Feltham which is close to Heathrow we provide a £3000 retention payment;
  • starting targeted local recruitment initiatives at 30 sites so that governors can more easily recruit the people they need
  • launching a new Prison Officer apprenticeship scheme next year for over 1000 new officers that will help increase diversity and make it easier to join the Prison Service
  • developing a new graduate scheme that will encourage people from a broader range of backgrounds to join the Service
  • we have launched a Troops to Officers scheme that will support people to join the prison service after leaving the military

24 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yep. Lots of new HMPPS badges to produce - no doubt MOJ will employ a team of consultants to project manage their design, manufacture and distribution.

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  2. 'staff deserve to work in a world class organisation which supports them in reforming offenders and keeping the public safe'.

    Weren't we already there before CGTR blew us out of the water???

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  3. I cant see any benefits for existing Probation Staff listed here - no doubt NPS will be losing significant numbers of staff to bolster the prisons. No mention of where the CRCs fit into all this.

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  4. The emperor has a shiny new suit. Expect similar shite business as usual. Let's make staff as miserable as we can. No doubt someone will make a packet from this racket!!

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  5. I am very distrussed indeed. She is a useless ineffective tory Muppet.

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  6. Further Proof Positive that Liars, Cheats & Thieves prosper in UK plc with the blessing of this Tory government. Noms has existed since 2004 and over the last 13 years has fleeced the Public Purse, has destroyed Probation & made some very unpleasant bullies very wealthy.

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    1. And will continue to do so wearing the shiny new cloak of HMPPS. Huzzah for nepotism!

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  7. More fucking insults, if ever more were needed, from this shower of shit:

    "The service will be dedicated to professionalising the prison and probation workforce."

    I'm off.

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  8. The wave of rprobarion retirement emails has already started. Similar to the wave of departures immediately prior to TR implementation. Expect it to steadily increase over the next few weeks/months.

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    1. Cathrine holland ceo swm crc is leaving at end of the month

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  9. I wonder if the delay by a day, which some are suggesting has happened, is a "bury bad news" attempt on a day Brexit is to the fore with generationally critical voting in The House of Commons going on now. Prisons, let alone probation has not made the Channel 4 News programme's headlines. Will it even get a mention in tomorrow's national newspapers?

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    1. Using A50 as cover was undoubtedly part of the plan, alongside the announcement that the tories are aligning themselves ever closer with Trump's racist, xenophobic policies & withdrawing from the arrangement to house lone children refugees. If I remember correctly (shout if I'm wrong) a Lords' bill secured a UK tory government agreement to accept 2,000 lone children from the 90,000 or so who had escaped to the EU. In the period to date I think about 200 have actually arrived and now the tories are claiming the UK is full & can't house anymore. It was snuck out during today's proceedings between PMQs & A50 debates.

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    2. From some news website, just to confurm the figures guesstimated above:

      "Two hundred children have so far been relocated in the UK thanks to the Dubs Amendment, with a further 150 expected before the end of the year.

      Labour peer Lord Dubs - himself a survivor of Kindertransport during the Second World War - said it would be "shameful" for the Government to end the scheme."

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  10. Very strange or is it just expected because we work for a bunch of Tory cunts. We work in probation, now a government agency, and this week became HMPPS and engulfed in the big bag of shit this entails. I found this out by reading this blog because there were no warnings, no announcements, nothing. Imagine Barclays Bank becoming HSBC and nobody telling the staff in either company!!

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    Replies
    1. This must impact somehow on the terms that the privateers signed contracts on? Will they be requesting money to make alterations? Have some agreements already been made?

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    2. It'll make no difference to the crcs at all.

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  11. Probation will not see any rue in the demise of NOMS, it was not a Probation Champion, what did it ever do for us. Neither was it a defender of Prisons. Overall how will NOMS be remembered? I would say an undoubted failure, their impact retrograde in most respects. On that note good riddance. What culture will now emerge under HMPPS, surely culture is at the heart of the matter, remains to be seen.

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  12. All they have done is formalised the supremacy of the Prison Service over NPS and CRCs. NOMs was crammed full of ex Prison service staff since its inception in 2003/4. HM Insp of Probation is HM inspection of Prisons and Probation so all management has clear lines . Prison, NPS and CRCs that is their order of merit and importance.
    CRCs have contract Managers embedded into the Headquarters of all CRC areas from NOMS (HMPPS) who report back to Spurr. The culture will always be prison led with subordination from NPS and CRCs. That is the order of things and lets be honest , a true reflection of how it is seen by our great British public... cheap re branding :yes.
    A sign of the times : sadly yes...

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  13. I notice mention in the announcement of a new "Leadership" programme. Also that the Director of Probation is to have the role of Board Director for Women across the system. Does anyone know if this is an add-on to her day job of leading Probation? If ever Probation needed a strong, incisive Leader, this will be it. Really pleased to have a focus on women in the CJS, but Probation must have at its helm, a person single mindedly establishing the identity of our service, and the need to reduce the prison population and invest in community supervision and rehabilitation

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    1. The reality is that'll never happen in the Civil Service. I agree it would be great to have such a leader. But as a Civil Servant, the National Director of Probation is required to implement the wishes of the Government of the day.

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  14. The director of probation and the probation senior management teams are the next generation breed from the former CEO's of Probation Trusts (PCA and PA included) that sold probation down the river in the run up to TR. Don't expect miracles!

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  15. Bit late seeing as three quarters of my CRC were made redundancy or took voluntary redundancy. I left 4 weeks ago after 8.5 years of service as a PSO! It's a bit of a joke to be honest.

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  16. NOMS got off to a bad start and it just steadily got worse. Built on shaky foundations, it was never going to stand up well. Read Nick Davies' article from The Guardian entitled "A System in Chaos" (23rd June 2005) The link is here... https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/23/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime

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