Latest From Probation HQ

Here we have edited highlights from episode 9 of the Probation Changes Bulletin published yesterday:-

1. Introduction from Amy Rees, Director General of Probation and Wales

Welcome to the latest bulletin, reporting on key updates and progress across our three probation programmes – reform, workforce and recovery. A key milestone for the Reform Programme is the recent publication of our Target Operating Model for the future probation services in England and Wales. This document sets out our plans for how probation will be structured and how services will be delivered from June 2021, when we come together with our CRC colleagues as a new probation service. You will read more on this from Jim Barton below. Ian Barrow also provides updates on our progress with our recovery and workforce programmes.

Clearly, we continue to be focused on our response to coronavirus, but the plans we put in place some months ago remain robust and offer the agility for each region to adapt to changing circumstances. I want to reiterate my enormous thanks to people across the probation service for their continued resilience, adaptability and sheer hard work as they respond to the challenges we face. It is down to this incredible commitment that we continue to deliver our core critical services.

2. Update from Jim Barton, SRO, Probation Reform Programme

Work continues at pace on our planned probation reforms and we remain on track for the safe and stable transition to the Unified Model by June 2021. As we look to this date, we have just published our Target Operating Model for the future of probation services, which sets out how the probation services will be run from 26 June 2021. You can find the full document here along with an executive summary.

This replaces the draft version published in March and provides further detail on key aspects of the new model, including further detail on announcements made in June 2020 around bringing defined interventions into the new probation service.

Updated National Standards, which come into effect in June, have also been published to enable us to outline how we will support the new operating model. National Standards set out expectations for staff about what work activity needs to be completed to support effective delivery.

We are investing an additional £155m a year to establish a strengthened unified probation service that keeps the public safe, supports victims of crime and gives the right rehabilitative support to address the often-complex causes of offending. This will support a Criminal Justice System that commands public confidence.

Our operating model will unify probation services, bringing into one place Sentence Management as well as the delivery of Unpaid Work, Accredited Programmes and Structured Interventions, taking the best of current CRC and NPS practice. In this way, we will simplify delivery, making it easier for those we work with and giving us greater control of staff and resources to be able to deliver reform.

In Sentence Management our focus will be on strengthening the Probation Practitioner’s relationship with those they supervise. We will help Probation Practitioners use the right key skills, activities and behaviours to achieve the most effective outcomes and enable those under our supervision to make positive changes to their lives. This will include more consistent management and delivery of sentence plans, better assessment and management of risk and more balanced caseloads and an improved case allocation process to support this.

For Unpaid Work, Accredited Programmes and Structured Interventions we want to drive up completion rates and deliver better outcomes. The model therefore puts an increased emphasis on making placements and programmes available locally, making improvements to the assessment and induction process, more regular reviews of active cases and ongoing professional development for staff delivering interventions.

Importantly, our operating model allows us to continue to utilise specialist service providers across our regions to deliver the most appropriate support to those under our supervision. The Dynamic Framework is our mechanism to source Commissioned Rehabilitative Services from expert organisations at a local and regional level. These will provide tailored support and address areas of need associated with reoffending or which provide the stabilisation that many of those under our supervision need.

To support these changes, we have implemented new regional probation leadership structures, reorganising probation services around 12 regions in England and Wales, each overseen by a Regional Probation Director and supported by their senior leadership teams. This will enable more local accountability, partnership working and delivery of services that more closely meet individuals’ diverse needs.

In recognition that our probation staff are critical to the delivery of the new model, we are investing in the skills, capabilities and ways of working they need to do their jobs to the highest standard. The model reflects the importance of modernising our estate and technology so that staff and those under our supervision have access to physical spaces that create positive working environments and we have more efficient digital systems that better capture information to enable more effective decision-making.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19 we have maintained a robust probation system thanks to the dedication and hard work of our staff and we are on track to start to deliver these much-needed reforms from 26 June 2021. I remain determined to ensure that the transition to the future system is implemented smoothly and with minimal disruption for staff or services.

We will continue to keep you informed of changes as they happen. As ever your input and feedback are invaluable.

3.1 PQiP learners

We are committed to recruiting 1,000 trainee Probation Officers in 2020/21, with 443 already started in July 2020 and further intakes planned for 2021. We are increasing our recruitment of new trainee probation officers to 1,500 in the new financial year of 2021/22.

We have also recruited 50 existing Probation Service Officers across four regions who will have the opportunity to follow an accelerated course to qualify as Probation Officers. This is an exciting opportunity for career progression for junior staff in the NPS.

In April we’ll be starting our next PQiP recruitment campaign with the aim of hiring 1,500 new probation officers during 2021/2022. I’d like to encourage anyone who is interested in applying or finding out more to visit our website.

4. Update from Ian Barrow, SRO, Recovery Programme

We continue to live and work under national restrictions across England and Wales and operate under the exceptional delivery model arrangements that we put in place last year for probation work. As Amy mentions, all our regions are using the range of supervision approaches we have available to decide how services can be delivered based on local circumstances.

Some aspects of our work remain temporarily paused and we are consulting with regions and CRCs on how and when we can safely re-introduce these. We have continued to deliver unpaid work on a restricted basis and one to one accredited programmes where possible. Our Approved Premises remain open and testing for staff and residents is being delivered.

Following a successful trial with staff testing in some of our offices, we are now preparing to roll out testing across a further 40 offices, before expanding across all our viable probation offices soon after. I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to setting up and implementing testing across our offices and Approved Premises.