Assess, Protect and Change

There's nothing more eagerly awaited by front line probation staff struggling on a daily basis with the endless bureaucratic and data-entry requirements of the job than publication of 220 pages about the new Target Operating Model and new National Standards. There are new acronyms, new titles and a new strap line 'Assess, Protect and Change'. Officers become 'Probation Practitioner' and clients 'supervised individual'. Here's a taster:-   

Introduction 

This chapter provides the context for our target operating model, outlining what we hope to achieve through our reforms and the additional investment being made. It also sets out some key considerations that have informed our proposals, including alignment with the HMPPS Business Strategy, how we can create a more equitable, diverse and inclusive system, and how our proposals link to wider changes and improvements to the criminal justice system.

About this document 

This document supersedes the document ‘A Draft Target Operating Model for the Future of Probation Services in England and Wales,’ published in March 2020. It sets out the further design detail and key design changes that have developed since then. 

It is aimed at staff and stakeholders involved in probation delivery and is intended to establish a common understanding of our aspirations for the future of probation services in England and Wales. 

Its focus is, therefore, on how we anticipate the key features of the model working once we have implemented the reforms. We recognise that it will take time to get there, not least given the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the subsequent recovery work needed to get probation services onto a stable footing. The position as of June 2021 – when Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts end – will, therefore, look quite different, as our focus will be on the smooth transition of services. We provide an overview in Chapter 2 of what services will be in place as of June 2021 (‘Day 1’) and key milestones post Day 1 to get us to our target operating model.

In accordance with the HMPPS Business Strategy principle of an open, learning culture, we will need flexibility to update this target operating model to be able to apply lessons learned from how it is working in practice. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted that events or wider changes outside our direct control may impact on how our probation system operates. We therefore expect that there will be further iterations of this target operating model following the transition to the new model. 

We have used language intended to resonate with stakeholders and best reflect the intentions behind the new model and the benefits that we are seeking to achieve. In describing the new probation system, this document will, therefore, and as far as possible, use: 

• ‘Probation Practitioner’ to denote the formerly-used terms ‘Offender Manager’/‘Responsible Officer’ and ‘Officer.’ 

• ‘Sentence Management’ to denote the formerly-used term ‘Offender Management.’ 

Learning from the more progressive approach CRCs have taken, we will also move away from the term ‘offender’ in those contexts where it is an unhelpful label, instead referring in this document to supervised individuals or individuals. 

Exceptions to this approach will be either to denote a specific Criminal Justice Context (such as Responsible Officer when referring to key legislation requirements) or when referring to parallel programme features, such as Offender Management in Custody. A comprehensive glossary is at Annex B.

The purpose of probation

As set out in law, probation services have multiple aims that relate to protecting against further offences (protecting the public, empowering those that commit crimes to want to make positive changes and reducing the likelihood of reoffending) and addressing the harm caused by the original offence (highlighting the effects of crime on victims and facilitating appropriate punishment). 

These aims are not mutually exclusive and there is overlap across them. For example, by challenging and empowering people to embrace the opportunity to make lasting changes to their lives, Probation Practitioners will, in turn, advance the key aim of protecting the public by reducing reoffending. Indeed, a renewed focus on change work forms part of the Government’s broader approach to the Criminal Justice System, particularly through the ambition (set out in the White Paper ‘A Smarter Approach to Sentencing’) to make greater use of robust and effective community sentences as a credible alternative to custodial sentences. Through increasing the use of appropriate community sentencing options, we will be better equipped to address the complex needs of supervised individuals and to target the underlying causes of offending behaviour, thereby breaking the cycle of offending and keeping the public safer.

Our reform of probation services offers a valuable opportunity to not only stabilise the probation landscape, reinforce its ethics and ensure that core services are properly delivered, but also to innovate and improve the way these services are delivered such that we can better achieve probation’s key aims. In defining the future operating model, we have, therefore, considered the foundations of a strong probation service to be able to achieve this and have distilled it into a simpler description of ‘Assess, Protect and Change’. 

Probation’s statutory aims revolve around three distinct groups with differing perspectives (those that commit crime, victims and the public). We have, therefore, outlined in Figure 1 (below) what Assess, Protect, Change means in the context of both probation services themselves and those that they are intended to serve. 

In Chapter 3, we further consider the implications of Assess, Protect, Change on the role of the Probation Practitioner in the context of delivering advice to court, Sentence Management and resettlement support.