Good to see Napo Cymru continuing to make the case for a stand-alone probation service separated from HM Prison Service. This from Napo magazine:-
Veteran Napo Cymru member and staunch probation campaigner, Su McConnel, delivered a searing indictment of the state of the probation service when she gave evidence to MPs on the welsh Affairs Committee this week. Speaking with clarity and conviction, Su captured what many working in the system have long felt: probation is in deep crisis and policymakers must act before it collapses completely.
Overflowing, overlooked, and under pressure
Su was clear from the outset that probation is not just at capacity; it’s beyond it. With caseloads ballooning, staff struggling to cope, and public safety at risk, she argued that the system is dangerously close to breaking. “This panel is primarily focused on prisons. Prisons are very nearly full to capacity. Probation is already overflowing,” she said pointing out: “We have got a situation where 60 cases is the norm.”
Despite repeated promises, staffing remains inadequate, and the promised support has yet to materialise. “We are always told that the troops are coming over the hill, but they never seem to quite land and stay.”
Recruitment is tough but retention is worse
When asked why the workforce is struggling, Su pointed to a toxic mix of low pay, high stress, and disillusionment. “It is not just recruitment; it is retention. It is people staying.” Su explained: “We are burning through new staff,” and that “I have never seen so many people signed off with stress as I have done this year.”
Demoralised by a shift in culture
The profession that many joined out of a desire to make a difference is becoming unrecognisable. Rather than the previous motto of “advise, assist, befriend” Su said: “Actually, ‘Surveil ‘em, nail ‘em and jail ‘em’ does feel to a lot of new probation staff like what they are being asked to do, because there is no scope or room for the reasons they joined.”
“We have shifted so far from a model of supporting people to change to a model of enforcement that new practitioners are very quickly losing their belief that they can do anything positive,” she concluded.
The human toll
The emotional impact on staff was another key theme of Su’s evidence. “I know colleagues who are in their first year of practice and who are crying on a daily basis because they feel that they are not doing the job that they came into the profession to do.”
It’s a false economy
Su repeatedly challenged the government’s short-term thinking, from underfunded reforms to politically driven headlines that ignore the realities on the ground by saying: “Probation is largely invisible to the public, until we fail.” She called for proper investment — in people, not just systems — and demanded that MPs listen to the voices of those on the frontline.
The magic wand? A real review and independence
When asked what she would do if given a magic wand, Su was clear: “I would want a commitment to a root and branch review of probation, with a view to separating it from the Prison Service — as much as we respect our colleagues — to be a stand-alone organisation in its own right.”
The message to ministers is clear
Su McConnel’s appearance before the Committee didn’t just highlight problems, it offered a path forward. Her call for investment, professional trust, and workforce support resonated far beyond the hearing room. She didn’t ask for miracles. Just for leadership to listen.
This article is based on Su McConnel’s oral evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee on 14 May 2025. Watch here
I think Su McConnel was giving evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee on Wednesday 21 May 2025.
ReplyDeletehttps://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15967/pdf/
Jim, can I invite suggestions for catchy 3-strand slogans for 21st Century probation, as an alternative to the currently retired "advise, assist & befriend" ?
To start us off we have Su McConnel's "Surveil, Nail & Jail" (above)
A contribution on this blog suggested "Divide, Deride & Keep 'em Inside" (18 May)
Our cousins in HMPrisons might like to join in, e.g. "tag, bag & shag"?
Eyes closed, fingers crossed: The evidence free approach to reducing reoffending
DeleteA pedant writes:
DeleteLink provided by 07:57 is the oral transcript of the video link committee meeting, which is the source of the blogpiece, namely the Welsh Affairs Committee on Wednesday 21 May 2025. There wasn't a Justice Committee meeting on 14 May 2025.
There was one on 13 May 2025 - "Rehabilitation and resettlement: ending the cycle of reoffending" HC 469, with written evidence from witnesses:
Charlie Taylor (HM Inspectorate of Prisons) [RAR0091], Adrian Usher (Prisons and Probation Ombudsman) [RAR0033], & Independent Monitoring Boards [RAR0096]
Oral transcript here, with Elisabeth Davies, National Chair, speaking for Independent Monitoring Boards:
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15906/default/
And there was a private meeting on 21 May 2025 (no record available)
The Ministry of Justice has already spoken on this and nobody is objecting, all the sheeple are applauding.
Delete“Prison outside a prison”.
There are some serious matters exposed, yet hidden, in the 13 May meeting. For example:
DeleteAdrian Usher: I expressed my views on leadership training in the Prison Service to Phil Copple a number of times. I was a serving police officer for 35 years and was promoted seven or eight times. Every single time I was promoted I received bespoke training...Prison staff get none and I am stunned by that.
Q224 Pam Cox: I feel a letter to the Prison Service coming. We have heard from prison officers on our various visits, and from other people presenting to us, that there are a vast number of contracts operating in any given prison. How many different contracts are there in an average prison, to your knowledge?
Adrian Usher: I cannot answer that, but what I can say is that prison governors and staff spend a lot of their time managing contracts that are either defective or not delivering, and they are therefore not governing.
Adrian Usher: My entire professional experience in public service has been that the public sector is very poorly served by the contracts it signs. It tends to be lack of experience. A prison governor, who will be nameless for obvious reasons, explained to me that he had spent three days trying to get his soup machine fixed using the maintenance contract that HMPPS had with the company. Eventually he found a way around it — it is often the case that successful prison governors find ways around contracts — by having a friend intervene in order to fix the soup machine. It sounds like a trivial point, but for many prisoners that is their only hot meal of the day.
Or:
Q227 Mrs Russell: You have described a recruitment system that sounds frankly batty. You have described a training system that sounds problematic, in particular in terms of ongoing training for staff at multiple levels. Are there areas of training that you think are functioning effectively?
Charlie Taylor: Training on physical restraint of prisoners tends to be kept up to date. Prison officers are obliged to be retrained and have refreshers and that, by and large, does happen. But elsewhere, no.
...............................................................................
"for many prisoners that [soup] is their only hot meal of the day."
Presumably they're the prisoners preparing for release into the community?
A gem from Elisabeth Davies, IMB Chair:
DeleteElisabeth Davies: I would go back to the point I have tried to make this afternoon about the cultural lack of focus on rehabilitation. If you think about it, HMPPS was brought together to mean a seamless journey and a focus between prison and probation, but they are still thought of as separate issues. We still think of somebody as a prisoner, and then they are on the probation case load. We do not think of them as intertwined. The solution is something we are looking at. We need to recognise that rehabilitation is about having the right support on release, whether that is to do with family connections, a job or a home. It does not matter how long that person has been in the cell or the condition of the wing they were on if they are set up to fail. There is something about that rehabilitation culture that we need to absolutely focus on.
minutes of a Nov'24 Justice Committee meeting entitled " Work of the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending" HC 369
Deletehttps://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15028/pdf/
Witnesses
* Lord Timpson, Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, Ministry of Justice;
* Amy Rees, Chief Executive, His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service; and
* Ross Gribbin, Director, General Policy Group, Ministry of Justice.
Lord Timpson: I am very clear that prison has a very important purpose—to lock up dangerous people: terrorists, rapists, murderers and people who commit very serious crimes. I am also aware that there are many people in prison who reoffend continually... The independent sentencing review that David Gauke is leading is really important, because we cannot have more prisoners than prison places. It is dangerous...
... I have seen some really good examples of community sentencing. As I said previously, there is evidence that if you pick the right offender with the right offence, at the right time, community sentencing can be very powerful. I will give you two examples, one of which is electronic monitoring. That has significant success rates. It can reduce reoffending by half from what happens without electronic monitoring... As to the other example, probably the most interesting day I have had in this job since I took it on was spent in Birmingham at the intensive supervision court for female offenders... The judge, who works with them all the way through their intensive supervision, was working alongside mental health, addiction and housing experts, and diverting a number of them—not all—away from custody.
Q25 Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst: Alongside the announcement of SDS40 was the announcement that there would be 1,000 newly trained probation officers by March of next year. Where are we on that? Are we on track for that?
DeleteAmy Rees: Yes, I am confident that we will hit that figure of 1,000. It is worth saying—you have asked a lot about workload—that recruitment alone will not be enough in terms of probation. We need to look again at the work we are asking probation to do. Colleagues will know that we did a reset where we looked again at the work we were asking probation to do, in particular to try to make sure that probation officers spend the right time at the right point in the sentence with those most at risk. I think we need to keep asking ourselves: what work do we really want probation to do? In particular, where do we best target the efforts of our fully qualified probation officers?
Lord Timpson: I will add two more points on that. It is good news that we are on track on recruitment, but I am also aware that it takes time to learn the skills to do this job well. A lot of them are not just the technical ones you need to know to do the job; it is the softer skills; it is how you build trusting relationships with the offenders you are working with, often for a long time. We cannot just put someone in a job and expect everything to be great to start off with. It takes time. One of the things I am interested in—it fits in a little bit with what Amy was saying—is technology and how we focus our expertise on the people at highest risk at the right time in their journey through probation. What can we do to enable our probation staff to have more face-to-face time rather than time doing administration?
timpson's not quite the sharp tool we've been led to believe he is, is he? And he's obsessed with tags; perhaps he thinks they're 'tacks'?
Delete"Searching for shoe tacks and shoe repair nails? Explore our full range now".
"we cannot have more prisoners than prison places. It is dangerous... community sentencing can be very powerful. I will give you two examples, one of which is electronic monitoring... One of the things I am interested in is technology... It can reduce reoffending by half"
Really?
https://hmiprobation.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/our-research/evidence-base-probation-service/specific-types-of-delivery/electronic-monitoring/
"A 2017 systematic review of 17 relevant studies found that EM had no statistically significant effect on reducing reoffending... Economically, EM was found to be cheaper than prison but more expensive than ordinary probation/parole."
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68134a65ee9d78cbe60117fe/electronic-monitoring-pnc-report.pdf
"Approximately 40 per cent of offenders serving a community order that included a curfew requirement with RF EM reoffended within 12 months of the start of the disposal, compared to 51 per cent of offenders where the community order did not include RF EM... Approximately 32 per cent of monitored offenders reoffended within 12 months of the start of the disposal, compared to 40 per cent of those not monitored... The results were therefore consistent with, but not conclusive of, RF EM acting as a situational barrier to reoffending."
Can prison staff and prison probation stop telling offenders of how Probation Reset is supposed to go. it's not for them to decide or preempt how community probation are going to manage those cases upon release. Doing so can make managing the cases in the community more cumbersome. Community Probation don't make assumptions about previewing or teeing up an offender's treatment in custody upon recall by prison staff. There are exceptions and exclusions within Probation Reset that are not the responsibility of the prison. Your primacy ends at the gate, as does your authority. Please be mindful of that when speaking to those being readied for release. Besides, Probation Reset was invented to reduce pushback from Community Probation and to supposedly reduced overcrowding in prisons, so you've gotten what you wanted. Let probation take it from there. The sooner probation is a stand-alone organisation not dictated or led by the Prison Service, the better it will be. Our identity will be reinforced as will our autonomy and workloads can be based on our needs not the prison's capacity and it will reduce internal squabbles and the cannibalising of itself.
ReplyDeleteAs Su said, the answer is in “separating Probation from the Prison Service”. Until then, nobody is listening.
DeleteSu MC c it won't happen as one old campaigner to another. I know from the current mis direction. Brave talk is easier in Wales as it's small broken across the middle and is marginalised by it's own desire as cymru . It will only be seen as Wales in Whitehall time to grow up across there. It won't happen in test or practice or any other way because any change is admission of error. They won't do that. Until you understand confrontation might really work but has to tried and that can't happen given your unions castration. What might work in the long haul is the process of a collaborative change in sequencing a range of testing models to help improve all performance . May not mean people may not be software or ai but you must staying we won't rule anything out that helps both sides deliver. You'll need a brain better than the duffers in the chair or branch leadership roles . Conciliation to learn from wider private provider as some cover and mainly let go of the claim your different because your just not. Rurality towns cities are almin the same spread across UK. Also same low pay over work and fed up Wales you don't have the answers as you don't have any clear strategic aims no joint venture with the employers to support and yet confrontation banging along the slammed doors won't open them. Get smarter get some stretch objectives in there some reward to the power brokers to want to do things differently. For sure you won't get it like this despite Sus long career in media and genuine passion in reality this won't shift the orbit in the ways you seek.
Deletelawrence speaks:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/prison-probation-crisis-underfunding-pay-spending-review-napo-bold-investment-decisions
Call for 'bold investment decisions' to address prison crisis
Head of probation staff union also questions if ministers understand the extent of the "operational crisis" in probation services
(its basically a rehash of the bbc stuff)
also:
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/gauke-sets-out-plans-to-cut-prison-population-by-9800
"The review notes that there was a shortfall of 1,854 full-time-equivalent probation officers as of December last year, compared with target staffing levels. Probation officers would have a key role in ensuring any expansion of non-custodial sentencing is a success."
"We are hiring 1,300 new probation officers, investing in technology to cut back on admin, and increasing focus on those offenders who pose the greatest risk to the public," the MoJ spokesperson said.
Many years ago my dad was the Chief Solicitor and had to take a Judicial review on a case where the PO decided he couldn't and wouldn't provide an RMP on a Parole report for a prisoner he believed to dangerous to be released, thereby styming the ability of the Parole Chair to release the prisoner (they can't release without an RMP) the Prisons and the Parole Pannel were incensed that Probation had pushed back and took us to the High Court. The High Court backed Probation all the way. Maybe this small act of independence and defiance at a time when we we're employed part by the Courts and the Local Authorities herelded the start of Probation being consumes by the Prisons....probably not, but it does remember a time when Probation leaders thought for themselves and the service and staff they were responsible for!
ReplyDeleteMany years ago probation leaders knew what probation was.
DeleteI am not certain what "RMP" means but back in the 1990s - I was doing a Home Circumstances report on a man convicted of manslaughter - he seemed psychiatrically unwell to me but that was not picked up in the medical assessment - I had made recommendations for a Forensic Psychiatric Assessment (as a remand prisoner he had been detained in Rampton Hosital) but my recommendation was not taken up - when I was asked to suggest conditions on release and give reporting instructions - I refused - the resulting Forensic psychiatric Assessment diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome and supported by suggestion that pyschiatric oversight should be part of the release conditions - which it was - the poor bloke got through the licence but needed a lot of support and had many problems - fortunately I was able to work with the supervising psychiatrist.
DeleteSomebody has not had their weetabix
ReplyDeleteOffenders ? Are you converse with labelling theory ? I assume not if you did the pqip
ReplyDeletewell said "31 May 2025 at 18:41" - I gave up the broken record assertion about this - same can be said for considering supervisees as "clients" because once they are out of prison they cannot be forced to do anything - but this is basic social work/probation - so please forgive me stating - what to me is obvious.
Delete18:41. Get off your armchair high horse and go and speak with Any Rees about labelling.
DeleteWhat we do
The Probation Service is a statutory criminal justice service that supervises offenders serving community sentences or released into the community from prison.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/probation-service
What the day looks like
Day to day, you’ll handle everything from going to hostels, visiting prisons and attending courts – all to make interventions with offenders that enable them to understand their behaviour and want to change it.
https://prisonandprobationjobs.gov.uk/roles-at-hmpps/overview-of-the-probation-officer-role/life-as-a-probation-officer/
We should start calling offenders transgressors or people that have strayed the righteous path- strayers? They are offenders- as negative as that phrase is. POPs and clients don't work. I mean, collectively they're offenders, but if they're on our caseload, we humanise them with their first and last names. Not a number like prisons used to do.
DeleteHaha we cannot call anyone trans it will trigger violence.
DeleteSo why is no one talking about Kilvinder Vigurs being given her marching orders from Probation? An individual who is seriously unhinged. A narcissist bully who only needed to give two weeks notice? Something doesn’t add up. Do a bit of digging and there is a story there…
ReplyDeleteStop the witch hunt.
DeleteKilvinder was ok. As first ethnic minority chief of London probation and one of few ethnic minority chiefs ever, she deserves credit not defamation.
Good luck to her.
Not really when you consider the impact on the staffing from her piss poor management and aggressive leadership where staff were fearful. Vigurs damage includes people and service delivery. You might be on first name terms but anyone else is till celebrating she has gone. The review findings might well point to other reasons .
Delete15:54 the entire probation service has failed in service delivery and there are “aggressive” leaders everywhere. Stop trying to defame and single out this one online.
DeleteShe will have been able to use up annual leave and have a shorter notice period. I found her useful when she came up to YaTH, I’d never seen an RPD interact with staff on ground level so often, it was refreshing to see. I worry about who YaTH will get next, the current potentials are scary and don’t care at all about frontline staff. I agree stop using her as a scapegoat, focus on the horrific politicians who have got us into this long term nightmare of being part of the civil service!!
DeleteNo she wasn’t ok. As a person of colour she could have done so much more to use her position as a point of leverage for those of an ethnic minority background. Instead, she adopted the Pretty Patel style of ‘nothing to see here’ and instead demoted the topic of culture and diversity. With comments like “I’ve got nothing in common with those people” to “I had to pull myself up by my bootstraps and so should they” she was a poor example of a leader. Ruling with fear and division,
DeleteI’ll caw celebrate her departure.
Your not alone in that despite the support crew turning out to re spin comment notice they are absent of her abusive style and total lack of achievement. More accelerate support gone wrong. Meritocracy is what builds real leaders not opportunism and special adjustments the results show who they are .
DeleteFinally someone has spoken out. Simply a bully. Should have been addressed before she moved on.
DeleteNo accounting for her protected status.
DeleteIt's extremely humiliating and concerning that when critique is made of an ethnic minority person, that is either given as a reason to discredit (she was the first ethnic minority RPD so this should protect her from criticism) or worse, the insinuation that such comments are grounded in unfairly singling out a person of colour. I didn't write any of the above comments, but a few posts back did write my own views about her leadership at london....I'm also glad people are speaking up as I too found her to be bullying and belittling in management style and this infested other parts of the organisation. Yes, you might say this is true across the board but I don't find this with the current London RPD who replaced kilvinder who, in case you didn't know, is also a woman and from an ethnic minority.
Delete
ReplyDeletefrom the Morning Star
"Probation Service / 30 May 2025
Real change is needed in probation – not gimmicks
IAN LAWRENCE welcomes the government sentencing review but warns past experience shows such words rarely translate into meaningful action
AFTER years of warnings from Napo, the government’s sentencing review has finally acknowledged what our members have known all along: probation is in crisis.
There are proposals here that deserve recognition. The review picks up many of the changes we’ve been demanding for years. More professional discretion, a renewed focus on rehabilitation and an end to the culture of endless tick-boxing.
But as ever, the real question is — will anything be different? We have been asking His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to make many of these changes over the last two years to little avail.
Probation must return to its roots
The review rightly identifies that probation has drifted away from its purpose. Decades of underinvestment and political interference have pushed us into a model that prizes enforcement over engagement.
But our members aren’t enforcers. They’re professionals working with people whose lives are often complex, chaotic and marked by trauma. They need systems that support that work, not structures that hinder them.
One of the more encouraging proposals is the plan to revoke rehabilitation activity requirements in favour of a single probation requirement that can be shaped to individual need. Done properly, this could help restore professional judgement to the frontline.
A broken structure needs more than tweaks
These problems aren’t just about policy, they’re structural. Trust in HMPPS leadership is low. The Rademaker Review made that clear, and our own submission to this review echoed it.
The reality is that probation, in its current form, isn’t working. It cannot continue as a Civil Service agency run through a prison-focused HMPPS.
If the government really wants an effective probation service that delivers on its rehabilitative and public protection objectives, it needs to invest in the right things. Not in more private contracts or shiny tech, but in people.
That means pay. Not vague pledges. Not promising words. A proper pay rise for staff who have kept this service going and the public safe under impossible conditions.
Early signs are not encouraging
Not long after the review was published, we saw two worrying developments from government, both of which risk undermining any sense of progress.
First, the proposed expansion of pilot schemes involving medical intervention and so-called “chemical suppression” for some people convicted of sexual offences.
The existing pilot hasn’t even finished, yet the government appears keen to press ahead. And worse still, there are suggestions it could become mandatory.
This would be a deeply unethical step. Those pushing it should reflect on one of the most shameful chapters in probation’s history. It has no place in a modern justice system.
Second, the suggestion that unpaid work could be delivered through private-sector companies. Let’s be clear: that’s forced labour for profit.
Napo cannot and will not support any scheme that uses unpaid labour to replace real jobs.
This government may be happy to swap low-wage work for no-wage exploitation. We are not.
The choice is clear
The sentencing review gives us a chance to do things differently but only if there is real change. Structural reform, front-line investment and a clear rejection of headline grabbing gimmicks must follow.
Our members are doing everything they can to keep the service afloat and the public safe. Now it’s up to the government to deliver.
Ian Lawrence is general secretary of probation union Napo.
Morning Star Conference - Race, Sex & Class"
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/real-change-needed-probation-not-gimmicks
2025: "The reality is that probation, in its current form, isn’t working. It cannot continue as a Civil Service agency run through a prison-focused HMPPS."
Delete2021: "Napo, the largest Trade Union in the Probation Service for England and Wales, today welcomed the reunification of the service into full public ownership and control on 26th June."
2021: "The three main unions that organise in the service - NAPO, GMB and UNISON - were all celebrating the decision to end privatisation.
____________________________________________
https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1954381
Director of Probation and Reoffending
Ministry of Justice
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 15th June 2025
Reference number - 408736
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £100,000, Ministry of Justice contributes £28,970 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
Access to learning and development
A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Annual Leave
Public Holidays
Season Ticket Advance
ob summary
This position can be based at any of the following locations:
102 PETTY FRANCE (MOJ) LONDON, SW1H 9AJ
5 WELLINGTON PLACE, LEEDS, LS1 4AP
Job description
For full details about the Role, Key Responsibilities and Person Specification, please download and review the Candidate Information pack
Morning star Lawrence can anything noone reads it sadly I wish Lawrence just said nothing at all . Talking about a decade of no investment in probation he didn't do anything for his wage paying members just a hypocrite.
DeleteSo the Top Dogs in Probation get offered the better CS pension but not us bog standard Probation staff, even though we have to jump through the CS hoops for everything else...
DeleteIt’s been said time and again. Even by former probation chiefs who sold us out during Grayling’s Transforming Rehabilitation. Nobody is listening.
ReplyDelete“Time for a change in the narrative for probation and public expectations?
I question whether we have shifted the expectations and balance too far in the direction of control, raising the bar for public protection measures so high for so many that we have lost sight of the imperative to support and nurture rehabilitation.”
https://revolving-doors.org.uk/time-for-a-change-in-the-narrative-for-probation-and-public-expectations/
I find it difficult to think of probation as being in crisis as I don't recognise the current service or the way it operates as having anything at all to do with probation at all.
ReplyDeleteAs Su Mc Connell states, today's service has become unrecognisable. The sign above the door still says 'probation', but probation has long left the building.
I don't think in terms of saving probation anymore. I think in terms of bringing probation back.
https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/27123/1/FullText.pdf
'Getafix
I been saying this before I left 8 years ago but gtx says it better that has resonance.
Delete"This article will briefly outline three current
Deletechallenges probation is facing, including: the
straight-jacket imposed by a monolithic civil
service culture; the further domination of
prisons arising from the ‘one HMPPS’ leadership
restructuring, and; the diminishing voice of
probation in court work and parole hearings."
The same three issues that have been around for a quarter of a century at least:
"monolithic culture" - see New Choreography
"domination of prisons" - see NOMS
"diminishing voice of probation" - see Trusts, which allowed egomaniac CEOs to diminish probation's professional structure by replacing a significant number of the qualified PO complement with cheaper (in salary terms) PSO staff. This included reducing or removing a court presence & preventing staff from attending prison-based meetings on the pretext of cost; yet another fuckwit false economy we are now reaping the costs of.
That was from issue 27 in March 2023
ReplyDeleteFrom the current issue:
https://www.probation-institute.org/news/probation-quarterly-issue-35
Reviving Probation: Ten Evidence-Driven Strategies
(aka the bleedin' obvious that hmpps isn't remotely interested in, by an academic)
1. Develop the interpersonal skills used by staff in supervising people on probation.
2. Move urgently towards appropriate caseloads.
3. Ensure appropriate supervision of front-line staff by experienced colleagues, managers or peers to sustain and develop skills.
4. Reset post-custodial supervision for short-sentence prisoners.
5. Work locally
6. Renew engagement with sentencers in the criminal courts.
7. Renew probation's mission by aligning the service with government-led decarceration policies.
8. Introduce separate management and governance for probation.
9. Embrace appropriate technology.
10. Finally, evaluate everything and build the evidence base.
Followed by some corporate bollox from hmpps' Probation Improvement Priorities, Probation Operational Directorate & Community Sentence Management, Probation Operations Directorate
"“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight”, we would add, ‘’and insight into action’’."
"Conclusion - To bring the framework to life we have created a multi-faceted visual (a tetrahedron) to illustrate that whilst you may not see all the faces at the same time, they are always present and intrinsically connected.
Our hope is that this will enable practitioners to identify the interconnections of each aspect and focus more holistically on all elements within their work, as all coexist and complement each other."
"So, while the little practitioners struggle to work out what the fuck we mean by illustrated tetrapacks that "coexist & complement each other", up here in The Directorate we're having a lovely time complimenting each other & trousering generous salaries & pensions."
Deletehmpps show their true commitment to...
ReplyDeletehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68383f57210698b3364e865c/12_month_update_-_HMPPS_response_action_plan_-_The_quality_of_work_undertaken_with_women.pdf
* Recommendation - Ensure that all staff involved in women’s resettlement and sentence delivery have access to all relevant case management and assessment systems
The recommendation is partly agreed - whilst HMPPS agree that all staff involved in women’s resettlement and sentence delivery should have access to all the information needed, the long-term ambition is to have a set of modern digital services
* Recommendation - Evaluate all interventions being used with women to properly understand their impact.
This recommendation is partly agreed as whilst future research priorities are still to be determined, it is not possible for HMPPS to commit to evaluating all women’s interventions
* Recommendation - Include domestic abuse and sex working in the available pathways within the women’s CRS provision.
The recommendation is partly agreed. The intention of women’s services contracts is that the whole service takes a holistic approach to seeing the impact of these experiences through all needs and pathways, rather than considering these aspects in isolation.
* Recommendation - Simplify the CRS provision in prisons to ensure all staff and senior leaders have clarity on roles and responsibilities
The recommendation is partly agreed for commissioning reasons.
* Provide prison leaders with data on the outcomes achieved by CRS providers.
The recommendation is partly agreed for commissioning reasons
* Recommendation - Ensure data is available to track the accommodation status of all women released from a particular prison at12 weeks after release, so that outcomes for each establishment can be monitored and improvements made where needed.
HMPPS does collect data about the number of prisoners in accommodation of all types three months following release... HMPPS does not consider this a useful measure to share with prisons... HMPPS will continue to consider the measure of accommodation on first night of release to help inform prison activity.
* Recommendation - Ensure that, on the day of release from prison, the number of appointments women are expected to attend are realistic and they have access to sufficient practical help, e.g. a basic mobile phone if they do not have one
This part of the recommendation is not agreed for affordability reasons
??? Why ??? Hmmm, let's have a thunk:
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/prison-and-probation-service-spent-almost-100m-on-case-management-system-only-to-scrap-it
HM Prison and Probation Service spent £98.2m on a new case-management system, only to scrap it before it was finished, the Ministry of Justice's annual report and accounts have revealed.
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/3970/transforming-rehabilitation-progress-review-inquiry/news/98308/rushed-prisoner-rehabilitation-reforms-causes-higher-costs-and-poorer-outcomes/
The Ministry's attempt to stabilise the contracts, and its decision to terminate them in December 2020 - 14 months early - will cost the taxpayer an additional £467 million.
So that accounts for £half-a-billion spaffed up the wall.
MoJ statistics show:
DeleteIn March 2025, there were 3,546 women in prison in England and Wales, around 4% of the prison population
There were 14,920 releases from sentences between July and September 2024.
If we apply the 4% rule, that means approx 600 women might have been released in that quarter; so roughly 200 each month, perhaps?
A sim-free mobile phone can be bought at argos for £30; a 5Gb lyca sim can be bought for £5 from argos.
Potentially just £80,000 could buy every woman released each year a burner phone & a 1 month's worth of calls on a sim.
That's the same amount as the BONUSES handed to hmpps senior management team in 2022/23.
"This part of the recommendation is not agreed for affordability reasons"
Perspective. Context. Reality.
Three key concepts missing-in-action at hmpps.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024cp6/episodes/player
ReplyDeleteGive any episode a listen. The "Announcement President" edition is especially entertaining.
Daily Show host Jon Stewart: "this is why I'm optimistic... the needs of the people haven't changed...The delivery systems may have changed, the gravitas of the individuals... but if the needs of the people don't change it means they can be met. Somebody can meet the needs and in a way that is not morally reprehensible or completely kleptocratic or corrupt. It means it can be done."
ReplyDeleteProbation - its time to step up to the oche, to take guard, to kick off (etc etc etc); its time for you to be ***that*** somebody.