Why Be a Probation Officer?

A reflection on yesterday's NPS FAQ:-

'ambition, anticipation, hope, envisage, informed by, due to be, no current plans, yet to finalise, transforming'

And the grip of HMPPS is very much around probation's throat. This is my mash-up from the Q&A:

"The benefit of these reforms is that it gives us more control of probation services. The reform programme is still finalising the target operating model and the design [which will be] informed by market and stakeholder engagement. Following the staff assignment process, we will reach a position to clarify plans [and] existing NPS staff will be impacted to a greater or lesser degree by the transfer of staff from current providers in 2021."

TR2 is here. Brace yourself.

--oo00oo--

The whole thing certainly depressed me and many others I suspect, containing as it does gems such as:-

"The NPS is suffering from low morale. There are recruitment problems." 

"The benefit of these reforms is that it gives us more control of probation services."

Filled with caveats and mealy-mouthed statements such as "We are currently looking at our vetting policies", it's pretty clear what the future holds under the dead hand of civil service command and control. A lot of people are not going to get through vetting and many wouldn't want to. Unless I've missed it, there doesn't seem to be any mention of volunteers, always a key aspect of the probation ethos right from the beginning and helping to ensure a diverse workforce. If starting out now, would I want to become a probation officer? No, absolutely not!

--oo00oo--

As if to underline things, yesterday's HMI report on NPS in the North West confirmed:- "There is a national shortage of POs". Now I wonder why that is? When is anyone going to join the bloody dots up and recognise that the probation service we are now rapidly moving towards is really not worthy of the name and the 'strong and effective leadership' have simply lost the plot. I suspect there are going to be many more similar reports confirming all the classic hallmarks of civil service bureaucracy:-

"There are important areas where the division relies on the central functions provided by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice. When these functions do not work well, this has a negative impact on the division’s ability to deliver a high-quality service. The national training team has insufficient resources to deliver mandatory training in child and adult safeguarding and several buildings in the division remain in a poor condition. While the governance of the Ministry of Justice’s contract for centrally managed facilities has been strengthened, the priority given to repairs and the length of time taken to complete work still falls short of requirements."

Foreword

This is the first in our second round of inspections of the National Probation Service (NPS) against the new set of standards we launched in 2018. We previously inspected the North West NPS division in October 2018. The overall rating for this NPS division remains as ‘Good’. 

We found experienced, enthusiastic leaders, focused on providing a high-quality service. There has been an increased focus on staff engagement, wellbeing and building resilience. Although leaders have tried to mitigate the stress of high workloads, they remain high for too many probation officers (POs). Thirty per cent of POs have a workload of over 110 per cent, as measured by the NPS workload management tool. 

There is a national shortage of POs, and when we last inspected the division it had a 20 per cent shortfall for all staff. We commend the division for its commitment to recruiting 153 individuals to undertake the Professional Qualification in Probation. In April 2020, the division became fully staffed for all grades, for the first time since Transforming Rehabilitation. 

Stakeholder engagement is good. The division’s approach to ensuring that it provides services that address the needs of those subject to supervision is encouraging. Effective partnership work has enabled several local co-commissioned projects to address areas linked to offending. Access to services in some rural areas is more limited. 

We found that pre-sentence reports assisted judges and magistrates in deciding on the most appropriate sentence. Individuals under probation supervision were adequately involved in planning and delivering their sentences. Assessments identified and analysed offending-related factors, and sentence plans were sufficiently focused on keeping others safe. Supervision started promptly. The service provided to victims who had opted into the victim contact scheme was good. 

There were shortfalls. Some elements of practice were not as good as we found in our previous inspection. Safeguarding information was not consistently requested from police and local authorities. In too many instances, supervision was not sufficiently focused on addressing factors related to offending. We encourage the division to continue to invest in staff professional development to drive improvement. 

There are important areas where the division relies on the central functions provided by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice. When these functions do not work well, this has a negative impact on the division’s ability to deliver a high-quality service. The national training team has insufficient resources to deliver mandatory training in child and adult safeguarding and several buildings in the division remain in a poor condition. While the governance of the Ministry of Justice’s contract for centrally managed facilities has been strengthened, the priority given to repairs and the length of time taken to complete work still falls short of requirements. 

Justin Russell 

Chief Inspector of Probation