Apparently yesterday was Probation Day
Probation Day celebrates the past, present and future of Probation. We chose the 21st of August, as it coincides with the Royal Assent of the Probation of Offenders Act in 1907, so it is in effect the birthday of the Probation Service!
Unlike last year, it seems HMPPS thought better of getting the cake and bunting out in view of the latest workforce figures neatly summarised by Russell Webster:-
Prison And Probation Staffing Picture Still BleakQuarterly workforce figures
I did know it was risky to headline last quarter’s HMPPS workforce quarterly stats as showing “shoots of recovery”. The fact that I should have known better is fully demonstrated by last week’s edition (17 August 2023) of the figures which covers prison and probation staffing numbers to the end of June this year. Full details of the figures are given below but we must remember to set them in the context of continuing restricted regimes in most prisons owing to lack of staff and ongoing poor performance in almost all probation areas.
Prison staffing
There were 22,426 FTE band 3-5 prison officers (which definition covers custodial managers, supervision officers and frontline prison officers) in post on 30 June this year. While, this is an increase of 701 FTE (3.2%) since 30 June 2022 it is only a slight increase of 139 FTE (0.6%) prison officers compared to 31 March 2023 with the pace of new recruitment slowing.
Similarly, there were 5,385 FTE band 2 operational support staff in post on the same date. This figure is an increase of 291 FTE (5.7%) since 30 June 2022 but again only a slight increase of 75 FTE (1.4%) operational support staff since 31 March 2023.
Most worrying is the leaving rate of 13.4% of band 3-5 prison officers, this means that more than one in eight staff leave every year making the challenge of increasing overall staff numbers particularly problematic. It is frontline prison officers in particular who are leaving in droves. The leaving rate for Band 3-4 prison officers (including specialists but not supervisors) was a staggering 14.8% for the year ending June 2023, more than one in seven. The comparable figure for the 2021/22 financial year was 16.1% but in 2020/21 it was “only” 10.1%
The same exodus can be seen among operational support staff where the leaving rate to this June was 17.1% (more than one in six). It was 18.3% for the 2021/22 financial year, again a big jump from 2020/21 when it was a paltry 11.9%.
Probation
There were 4,418 FTE band 4 probation officers in post (band 4 is POs, band 3 PSOs) on 30 June. This is a decrease of 124 FTE (2.7%) since 30 June 2022 and no substantial change of FTE probation officers compared to 31 March 2023. In addition to the band 4 probation officers, there were 6,801 FTE band 3 probation services officers.
This is an increase of 990 FTE (17.0%) since 30 June 2022 and a decrease of 149 FTE (2.1%) since 31 March 2023. The decrease is particularly worrying because the main reason the annual increase was so large is that the recruitment campaign to get more probation officers. HMPPS succeeded in recruiting 1,514 trainee probation officers in 2022/23 and these are classified as band 3/PSOs while in training. If a small but substantial percentage of these are leaving before qualifying, it will continue to be difficult to get enough probation officers in post.
The most recent (up to 30 June this year) leaving rates for probation staff are:
The reason for well over half (57.4%) of probation staff taking absence for sickness was mental and behavioural disorders.
There were 22,426 FTE band 3-5 prison officers (which definition covers custodial managers, supervision officers and frontline prison officers) in post on 30 June this year. While, this is an increase of 701 FTE (3.2%) since 30 June 2022 it is only a slight increase of 139 FTE (0.6%) prison officers compared to 31 March 2023 with the pace of new recruitment slowing.
Similarly, there were 5,385 FTE band 2 operational support staff in post on the same date. This figure is an increase of 291 FTE (5.7%) since 30 June 2022 but again only a slight increase of 75 FTE (1.4%) operational support staff since 31 March 2023.
Most worrying is the leaving rate of 13.4% of band 3-5 prison officers, this means that more than one in eight staff leave every year making the challenge of increasing overall staff numbers particularly problematic. It is frontline prison officers in particular who are leaving in droves. The leaving rate for Band 3-4 prison officers (including specialists but not supervisors) was a staggering 14.8% for the year ending June 2023, more than one in seven. The comparable figure for the 2021/22 financial year was 16.1% but in 2020/21 it was “only” 10.1%
The same exodus can be seen among operational support staff where the leaving rate to this June was 17.1% (more than one in six). It was 18.3% for the 2021/22 financial year, again a big jump from 2020/21 when it was a paltry 11.9%.
Probation
There were 4,418 FTE band 4 probation officers in post (band 4 is POs, band 3 PSOs) on 30 June. This is a decrease of 124 FTE (2.7%) since 30 June 2022 and no substantial change of FTE probation officers compared to 31 March 2023. In addition to the band 4 probation officers, there were 6,801 FTE band 3 probation services officers.
This is an increase of 990 FTE (17.0%) since 30 June 2022 and a decrease of 149 FTE (2.1%) since 31 March 2023. The decrease is particularly worrying because the main reason the annual increase was so large is that the recruitment campaign to get more probation officers. HMPPS succeeded in recruiting 1,514 trainee probation officers in 2022/23 and these are classified as band 3/PSOs while in training. If a small but substantial percentage of these are leaving before qualifying, it will continue to be difficult to get enough probation officers in post.
The most recent (up to 30 June this year) leaving rates for probation staff are:
- Senior Probation officers 4.3%
- Probation Officers 7.4%
- Probation Service Officers 11.8%
The reason for well over half (57.4%) of probation staff taking absence for sickness was mental and behavioural disorders.
So we get a brief message on the 18th in the afternoon that Monday 21st is in fact Probation day….on the 21st nothing from SPOs, nothing from Head of Clusters office, no official events, no offer of lunch, no official local recognition, the way it was arranged is symptomatic of the esteem that main grade staff are held in, namely treated like shit…….but wait there is a photographic competition and at the end of there was an exhortation from the top to ‘enjoy the events in your own office’…..bad management from the top down as evidenced by the significantly reduced comments in the sidebar…….the return of the omnishambles ………
ReplyDelete" we must remember to set them in the context of continuing restricted regimes in most prisons owing to lack of staff and ongoing poor performance in almost all probation areas."
ReplyDeleteI've read & re-read that sentence. Despite 34 hmi probation inspection reports returning an average performance score <20%, I'm guessing the author did NOT intend to suggest poor probation performance is responsible for restricted prison regimes?
In our area the workload as measured is now below the threshold of overload, allegedly. Quick glance shows that qualified staff and PSOs who have been in post for more than a year are still excrutiatingly overloaded, with the balance made up by newly recruited trainees and PSOs, That might offer some hope if the qualifieds werent looking for every available escape route, be that other work, early retirement or just collapsing into a sick-bed, and the newly recruited were staying. Its no different in the NHS, from what I hear from friends on the front line there. The pay is awful and deteriorating, but if the work was meaninful and rewarding, if there was a sense that things would get better if we stuck at it, I wouldnt feel so broken.
ReplyDelete"There were 4,418 FTE band 4 probation officers in post (band 4 is POs, band 3 PSOs) on 30 June. This is a decrease of 124 FTE (2.7%) since 30 June 2022 and no substantial change of FTE probation officers compared to 31 March 2023."
ReplyDeleteBUT hmpps say:
"HMPPS workforce as at 30 June 2023. As at June 2023, there were 62,801 FTE staff in post, an increase of 4.458 FTE compared to June 2022. This increase was mainly due to increases in staff in Probation Service which saw an increase of 2,337 FTE since June 2022."
So who are the 2,461 staff if they're not POs?
"Thanks to an extra £300 million investment in the Probation Service over the last 2 years, a further 1,500 trainee probation officers will be taken on in 2022-23" - MoJ, 2022
Even if one is generous (as hmi probation seem to be recently) & allow for the 1500 trainees to be used as & counted as POs, who are the extra 961 staff?
Managers, perhaps?
"We are now investing an extra £155 million into the Probation Service every year and have recruited a record number of trainee probation officers to keep the public safe." MoJ, 2023
Agency staff?
DeleteI have a day off today, and I intend to spend it all in the pub, and I'll celebrate probation day.
ReplyDeleteI'll tip my glass to all those I'll pass on the way there sitting in doorways, all homeless, all on the gear and all on probation aswell.
I'm guessing non of them will feel like celebrating probation day with me because for them probation has become an albatross and an accelerated route to custody with no benefit whatsoever for them, society or even the probation service itself.
By mid afternoon I reckon I'll be trying to think of an alternative name for the institution that calls itself probation, but practices anything but.
I think it misleading to call this modern day service "probation", so probation day isn't about today or tomorrow for me, it's a term of remembrance.
'Getafix
They were actively pushing Probation day and cake baking on the ‘Probation Teams ‘ channel. I suspect that someone on high read your blog piece from 9th August on ‘managerialism’ and the subsequent comments.. hence they toned it down. Optics weren’t good!!!
ReplyDeleteGetafix is right! It would not surprise me that the direction of travel is that we are rebranded again… Renamed the ‘Enforcement and Monitoring Agency ‘ with uniforms et al.. Maybe moved lock stock to capita with curfew, alcohol monitoring and GPS… It would not surprise me somewhere in the bowels of HMPPS there is a working group looking at it!!
ReplyDelete"10 year contracts were awarded following a competitive procedure. GEOAmey Ltd and Serco Ltd offered the best overall bids in terms of quality and cost and the contracts will start from 29 August 2020."
DeleteWonder how sunak's new make-prisoners-face-the-music legislation will impact these contracts? Will staff have to administer sedatives? Or fit full body restraints, including gags?
Maybe the contracts could be amended to incorporate probation staff?
From Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Knew an excellent member of staff, caseload of 200%, goes of sick, on return told she would be dismissed if she went absent again. Humanity has disappeared in large chunks of the NPS."
From Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"There will be AI-generated profiling of people on licence connected to risk tolerance matrices. Those deemed 'likely to reoffend' will be recalled prior to offending. These theoretical models are already in development around the world but the UK will put them into practice."
OneHMPPS is likely to be the harbinger of the UK Correctional Agency (formerly the probation service) as it aligns itself with prison (in the community) policy. The removal of ACE and above ranks to be replaced with Governor 6 designation, (community management) answering directly to the number one in the designated hub (prison). Probation practitioners to be re branded community correctional officers with a raft of new policies including, Day detention to replace long drawn out breaches and more agile management of licences. PSS to be phased out and IPP to be replaced by Necessecity Detention Order (which will become known as Neddy ). Only those deemed most dangerous to be placed on a NDO, IPPs placed on immediate three year license and released. Those already in the community to be terminated within one calendar year of the changes being implemented.
ReplyDeleteAll to be achieved by 2030 bringing all CJ agencies under the Correctional Agency banner. Community staff given the option (at first) to wear uniform the establishment if which gives scope for more movement for staff between custody and the community. The establishment of community jail ( in reality enhanced APs ) specifically for female offenders. Community orders to start at 3 months,6 months,9 months. 12 month orders to become rare. Greater use of the SSO with a built in provision for administrative detention instead of breach, to be confirmed by a Governor 7 (spo) for a 3 month period.
Unpaid work in the community to include in custody work (cat d to begin with) and to invite the public to request geographical work.
Fantasy or part of a discussion around the future as to how One Hmpps will go…..?
"answering directly to the number one in the designated hub (prison)"
DeleteAnd here are those 11 regions for 1hmpps:
NE, NW, Y&H, EM, Wales, WM, EastEng, SW, SC, London, KSS,
https://i0.wp.com/doingtime.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/prisons-map-page-0012.jpg?ssl=1
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1059094/Probation_maps_2022_-_Web.pdf
Don't read like a fantasy and the culture of the staff group shift will welcome this dream it's already done the structuring shift I have this from a top source so the rest is coming . Perhaps if we had an able union leader instead of the absolute cretin we might have kept our parliamentary support. All long lost now . Once in prisons though we can join the poa and get rid of Napo. The fool will have bailed by then to his incredibly generous pension and swiped a redundancy payout.
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Numerous people have given me anecdotes of being put on performance improvement measures after long term absence- for things such as having a brain tumour or their child dying. No compassion or understanding that to do so just adds more stress and pressure. I saw a communication which said they picked foxglove as the ‘probation day’ flower but have just been informed it’s poisonous if ingested so please don’t bring it into the office. This is the level of competence generally demonstrated by the bureaucrats bloating the wage bill."
Sscl are a bunch of nasty shite across the service they have no idea of values care just there to avoid responsibility and abuse worn out staff. The first two letters are symbolic of their function . Just have to say monsters heil.
DeleteBe grateful as in NE we’ve had to put up with one PDU head writing a poor man’s version of a Churchill speech aimed at rousing us for Probation Day. Everyone really angered by the pretentious tone and lack of insight he shows into his own behaviour to staff.
ReplyDeleteAnon 20:24 So any chance of the full text?
DeleteProbation managerial idiots have been banging on about foxgloves being the probation day flower. It’s a poisonous flower representing danger, insecurity and death. A most appropriate choice.
ReplyDelete20:24 this man is an embarrassment but so thick skinned and full of self importance that he will not change
ReplyDeleteOur Head that led on Probation Day and wanted a whole week of this BS decided to take the whole week, how convenient!
ReplyDelete