Better Late Than Never

Here we have some uplifting words from HQ Command and Control, Amy Rees HMPPS Director General CEO. I wonder what will get 'stopped' in 2023? 

Firstly, a very happy 2023 to you all.

Across HMPPS, in whichever role you play, we are all here for the same purpose: to protect the public and reduce reoffending. Thank you for the work that you do every day, I am very proud of you all.

My absolute priority as CEO is delivering the very best prison, probation and youth custody services possible at the frontline – everything we do should be focused on that.

We dealt with many challenges last year and there is still more to do. New Year is a time of reflection as well as forward planning and I am delighted with the progress your hard work is delivering.

I know that in some parts of HMPPS workloads are still too high. This year we will continue our work to address this by focusing relentlessly on recruitment and retention. We are also working to improve working environments across HMPPS to improve staff wellbeing. We are investing in your development and in making sure that you have the tools to help you do your jobs brilliantly now and in the future.

I will be setting out in more detail how we will take forward these commitments in our refreshed business strategy, now being developed in partnership with colleagues right across the agency. This will be our manifesto for change for the next two years, putting HMPPS in the best possible place to confidently face the future, setting out what we want to achieve, by when, and ultimately how we together will protect the public and reduce reoffending.

Progress in 2022

In the 12 months to September 2022, we recruited nearly 4,000 new prison officers, over 1,700 operational support grade staff and 2,913 new colleagues joined probation.

We also made a big investment in our probation estate with 19 new buildings, as well as major refurbishments worth £30 million, including a new HQ for West Midlands Probation and numerous satellite offices. We expanded our approved premises capacity by 58 beds.

We also spent £10 million on more than 100 smaller scale refurbishments, helping to make our places of work more comfortable and modern. This work continues apace in 2023, with a further 21 new build and refurbishment projects due to be completed at an investment of around £35 million.

Ensuring prisons have enough capacity to meet demands remains a top priority for us and the 20,000 prison-build portfolio is a crucial part of delivering that ambition. We have delivered 3,100 of these new places to-date including the opening of HMP Five Wells in February, the first of its design to be built.

We also created over 640 additional cells to replace units we had to stop using due to fire safety concerns. We have continued work to deliver major refurbishments at HMP Birmingham, HMP Norwich and HMP Liverpool, delivering around 800 places between them.

Looking ahead, HMP Fosse Way will open this year, and construction has started at Full Sutton in Yorkshire, delivering over 3,000 places between them. Houseblocks at HMP Stocken, HMP Hatfield and HMP Sudbury are under construction, delivering approximately 400 additional places between them. To enhance our youth custody estate, we are also on track to deliver our new secure school provision by early 2024.

Resolutions for 2023

We achieved some great things in 2022 but I know significant challenges remain regarding staffing and delivery on the frontline. Our new year’s resolutions for 2023 are all about addressing these challenges and prioritising delivery: 

• we will work with you to complete the key structural changes for One HMPPS before October, with a particular focus on having a more efficient HQ and having our new operating area executive directors in place
• we will improve probation performance nationally and in turn our inspection results – supported by prioritising where we invest our resources so that they better support you
• across prisons, we will focus on maintaining order and control in the face of population and staffing challenges; developing regime and purposeful activity to the fullest extent that local staffing and resourcing allow, particularly offender management in custody (OMiC) and education and skills; and in these ways improving safety, employment and accommodation post release and making reoffending reductions
• we will tackle head-on the challenges of prison staffing and continue to increase staff numbers
• we will agree a sustainable, long-term plan to tackle prison population pressures and publish a prisons target operating model. This will set out in one place how we want prisons to run
• we will stabilise performance in the Youth Custody Service, enabling us to focus on reducing reoffending among the young people in our estate

People Survey

We were pleased with the improvements we saw in the 2022 People Survey scores but have also carefully reviewed your feedback, including reading all of the free text comments you wrote, to ensure we prioritise the issues you have highlighted in our plans for 2023.

We have identified two national priorities, based on your feedback: 

• making sure you have trust and confidence in reporting incidents of bullying, harassment and discrimination and know how to do so. We will shortly launch a review of professional standards and procedures, creating an environment where everyone who works in HMPPS can trust that where poor behaviour is reported, it will be investigated and followed-up appropriately. We will increase the support our Tackling Unacceptable Behaviours Unit (TUBU) are able to provide and launch recruitment for more investigators
• we want HMPPS to be a truly great place to work and will be looking at how we can keep improving and celebrating the fantastic work you all do every day

Diversity, inclusion and belonging will continue to underpin all that we do. We will continually challenge ourselves to make sure we are creating an environment where you can be yourselves, and in turn do your best work.

Stopping things so we can focus

To deliver the priorities outlined above, we need to stop work that does not support effective frontline delivery, or where the activity is positive but cannot be absorbed at the frontline. I have set a target of at least halving the amount of change activity we are currently delivering.

I recently met all executive directors across HMPPS to progress this. We had positive conversations about what steps we will take to ensure our resources are being prioritised for the frontline and which specific activities to stop. The executive directors and I will continue to challenge one another; we are collectively making a commitment to prevent ourselves from starting new things that may be great ideas but will not help us achieve our delivery priorities.

I look forward to working with you in 2023 and hopefully getting the opportunity to meet many of you in-person. I will continue to keep you updated on the work we are doing and the progress we are making through the year. Please do look out for the start of the refreshed business strategy coming out at the end of March.

Thank you for your service.

Amy Rees
DG Chief Executive Officer, HMPPS

Published 20/01/2023