Who Is The Audience?

This from Napo published yesterday in the house magazine, but it's surely not for internal consumption is it?

They don’t wear uniforms. But they keep you safe every day.

Probation staff manage some of society’s most dangerous offenders – but they're being paid less than prison and police colleagues. As staff walk away, the cracks in public protection are growing. This is a crisis. If government won’t act, probation workers will. And you’ll feel the impact.

Respect Probation. Pay Probation.

You probably don’t know the name of any of your local probation officers. But they might be the only reason the man who served time for domestic abuse – who now lives three doors down – hasn’t hurt anyone again. You rarely see them on the front pages. But they are there, quietly working late, managing the release of someone convicted of serious sexual violence back into the community, ensuring conditions are tight, victims are protected, and risks are controlled.

Probation staff don’t wear uniforms. They don’t chase headlines. But they are the last line of defence between high-risk offenders and the public. And now, they’re walking towards the edge as ballot papers are currently landing on their doormats.

A service in crisis is a risk to us all

These are the people who:

• Supervise individuals convicted of rape, stalking, terrorism, and child abuse
• Monitor those released early from overcrowded prisons
• Intervene when people spiral back into violence
• Spend their days surrounded by trauma, navigating risk, and making life-or-death judgement calls

And they’re doing it on pay that in many cases qualifies them for universal credit. Many are now turning to food banks. Some are walking away altogether. Would you trust a system like that to keep your family safe?

Public safety shouldn’t be this fragile

Since 2010, probation staff have lost around 60% of their pay in real terms. One in five have used a food bank in the past year. Over 103,000 working days were lost last year to stress-related illness. Meanwhile, workloads have exploded. Experienced staff are leaving in droves. New recruits are being thrown in at the deep end.

While police staff received pay rises of 20%, and prison officers saw 16.8% increases in recent years, probation workers were handed just 9.9%.

The government has found ways to reward others in the justice system – and rightly so – but probation is always last in line. This is despite the fact that probation staff are now picking up the slack caused by overcrowded prisons and rising police workloads. The people expected to carry the burden of everyone else’s crisis are being paid the least to do it. And the public? You’re being told the justice system is working while it quietly crumbles around you.

Probation doesn’t make the news until it fails

Probation only hits the headlines when something goes wrong. When someone is murdered.
When a high-profile case is mismanaged. When the question on every journalist’s lips is: “Why wasn’t this stopped?” The answer is often the same: the risk wasn’t picked up, or wasn’t followed up, because there weren’t enough staff. Because someone was covering 60+ cases. Because the system was at breaking point.

You don’t see the hundreds of success stories every day. The people turned away from crime, the plans carefully managed, the victims kept safe. But if probation staff walk, if the government keeps refusing to invest, those success stories will stop. And you will feel it. In your community. On your street.

This is about survival for all of us

Probation isn’t just about punishing people after they commit crimes. It’s about stopping them doing it in the first place. It’s about rehabilitation. Risk. Prevention. It’s the difference between a near-miss and a national scandal. And right now, it’s being run on the fumes of goodwill.

The people who do this work are voting on whether to take industrial action. Not because they want to walk out but because they have no other choice.They’ve tried being patient. They’ve tried explaining. They’ve been promised recognition, reward, and respect. What they’ve received is silence.

The government knows what’s coming. Do you?

The prisons are full. Police are overstretched. And the government is relying on probation staff to carry the burden. But probation staff are saying: enough. This is not just a warning from workers. It’s a warning for the public. The justice system cannot function without them. And public safety depends on their ability to do their jobs. They are protecting you. But who is protecting them?

Follow Napo’s probation pay campaign here: https://www.napo.org.uk/respect-probation-pay-probation