Dear Prime Minister, Andy
I've just watched your unscripted speech this morning in Enfield, the home of my formative years, and I believe you must earn considerable praise for your obvious determination to at last address the shame social care has become and deliver a solution. Well done for bringing forward Dame Louise Casey's Review, even though I've personally never forgiven her for further stigmatising offenders on Community Service by making them wear orange high vis jackets.
You clearly speak passionately on the subject of social care and this is to be welcomed, but seeing as we are still awaiting the appointment of a Probation Minister, one is left pondering firstly regarding your knowledge of the criminal justice system, and secondly your appetite for addressing a topic that the public has come to regard as requiring 'reform' by means of locking more people up, for longer?
You quite rightly highlighted the wisdom of trying to work collaboratively with other political parties in the hope of finding common ground rather than resorting to irritating point-scoring, but you are going to have to have rather more 'bottle' to tackle criminal justice which is equally crying out for reform, but with little or no hope for political consensus or indeed public understanding. But the cost savings and benefits to society could be enormous as our European neighbours have discovered with prison numbers significantly falling. Yes, falling!
May I be so bold as to suggest now would be a very good time to fulfill the Labour manifesto pedge of a thorough Review of the role, organisation and functioning of the once gold standard Probation Service and ensuring it returns to being part of a solution rather than part of the problem it's become under centralised HMPPS command and control. It has to break free of HM Prison Service subjugation and the civil service and return to local control as it was prior to part-privatisation. The current model is utterly failed and long-past regarded by many informed commentators as unfit for purpose.
Unlike social care, you may not have personal experience of the criminal justice system, but I urge you to appoint a suitably experienced person to undertake a Review of probation at the earliest opportunity because this vital public service is close to collapse.
I will end by applauding your Downing Street words on assuming office and particularly the pledge to treat people with decency and end rough sleeping. Of course these should be honourable aims of any government, but is particularly striking because you chose to 'say it out loud'. One of the main routes to rough sleeping is of course via the criminal justice system, so this should fit perfectly with your core belief and of course desire for devolution.
That is extremely well written but it is sad that it is unlikely to be read by anyone with any political weight to drive some action.
ReplyDeleteI can’t say it enough. Send him some reading material. Not that glossy HMPPS stuff either.
ReplyDeleteIssue 40 of Probation Quarterly brings together a diverse range of voices to explore:
How technology and artificial intelligence may shape the future of probation and criminal justice.
The human realities of practice, including burnout, menopause, leadership and professional identity.
Supportive meaningful change, from desistance and Community Payback to youth justice, domestic abuse and community partnerships.
https://www.probation-institute.org/news/probation-quarterly-issue-40
https://doi.org/10.54006/TSOZ4582
The commitment to end rough sleeping was one of the prime ministers first targets when he took over as mayor of Manchester, a walk around the city centre shows how well this has been achieved, without root and branch reform and investment at a local level level this is unlikely to be a target that can be achieved at a national level. Similarly probation is crying out for a return to local control, a new SLOP, as it were……anyone who works in it can see the destruction that a move to central command under the Civil Service has brought about. Probation staff are only ever civil servants when it suits the civil service, I would question what central control can do what local cannot….
ReplyDeleteA bit unfair, he actually massively reduced rough sleeping in Manchester but when national crisis appear, Ukraine war, austerity, lack of social housing, Increase in Asylum seekers etc it soon became obvious that with powers to change or dictate policy nationally, local powers are useless. Now he's in charge and also promising new devolution powers he has zero excuse not to finish what his stated aim was.
DeleteNapo news today:-
ReplyDeleteThe new prime minister is under pressure.
The government’s early release plans have dominated the headlines, with victims’ groups, politicians and criminal justice leaders all weighing in on what should happen next. But among the noise, something significant has happened.
Probation has become part of the national conversation.
For years, Napo has been taking the realities of probation into parliament, to ministers and into the media. We’ve consistently warned that excessive workloads, chronic understaffing and relentless pressure don’t just affect probation staff – they affect public safety.
Now those warnings are being heard.
On Channel 4 News, Napo National Official Tania Bassett joined a panel to debate the future of the early release scheme alongside former prison governor Paul Fetherstone and Brian Booth, Deputy National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales.
It was an important reminder that every part of the criminal justice system is under pressure.
Prisons need investment. Policing needs investment. Probation needs investment.
All three services have compelling arguments. All three will be making their case to government as decisions are taken over the coming months.
The difference is that probation has too often been expected to do more with less.
We’ve seen prisons receive emergency funding. We’ve seen policing become the focus of political debate. Meanwhile, probation has quietly absorbed more responsibility, more complexity and more risk, without the resources needed to keep pace.
We cannot allow that to happen again.
While others on the panel focused on prison capacity and the wider pressures across criminal justice, Tania brought the discussion back to the question ministers cannot avoid: can probation actually cope?
Tania’s answer was unequivocal.
“The focus has been on the prison crisis, but I think the question needs to be, can probation actually cope with this workload and manage people safely in the community? At the moment, it’s not in a state fit to do that.”
Tania explained that the challenge extends far beyond early release. Changes under the Sentencing Act will place even more people under probation supervision through greater use of community sentences and suspended sentence orders, increasing pressure on a workforce that is already stretched beyond its limits.
She also highlighted the human cost of the crisis, pointing out that 65% of staff sickness is caused by work-related stress, with burnout fuelling vacancies and creating a vicious cycle of ever-increasing workloads.
Most importantly, she made clear that this is not simply about staff welfare.
It is about public protection.
“There has to be… a focus on the workload crisis in probation which at the moment is preventing our members from doing the job that they’re meant to do and to do it safely.”
This is exactly why your vote in Napo’s indicative workloads ballot matters.
Everyone with a stake in the justice system is vying for attention and probation must make sure its voice is heard just as loudly.
If we don’t, there is a real risk that history repeats itself: prisons receive the headlines, policing receives the attention, and probation is left to carry the extra workload with whatever resources remain.
A strong YES vote sends a different message.
It tells government that probation practitioners are united and public protection depends on giving staff the time, resources and support to do the job safely.
We’ve fought hard to get probation into this national debate.
Now let’s make sure we don’t leave it empty-handed.
some easy listening for burn'em & co
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002zggx
Confessions of a Performative Male by Darren McGarvey
Book of the Week. The Orwell Prize-winning author asks hard questions about the crisis of masculinity, probing the fears and uncertainties that arise from self-examination.
The Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending in Andy Burnham's government is Catherine McKinnell.
ReplyDeleteThat'll teach me to check Napo stuff! This from InsideTime:-
DeleteLabour MP Catherine McKinnell has been appointed as the Minister for Prisons and Probation to replace Lord Timpson, who resigned on the day Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
Ms Kinnell, 50, is a former employment solicitor who has been the MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne North since 2010. She was the Minister for School Standards from July 2025 to September 2025. She previously held posts on Labour’s front bench as shadow solicitor general under Ed Miliband, and as shadow attorney general under Jeremy Corbyn.
On 11 May, as Sir Keir Starmer battled to stay in Downing Street, she did Mr Burnham a favour by breaking ranks to call on Sir Keir to stand down. Sir Keir announced his resignation six weeks later.
Ms McKinnell was appointed on 21 July as a Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, a middle-ranking ministerial position. The MoJ told Inside Time on 24 July that she would be taking up the prisons portfolio within the ministry.
The appointment of an MP with little obvious experience of prison issues to the role of Prisons Minister marks a return to the regular pattern, following Sir Keir’s experiment in 2024 when he appointed James Timpson – a businessman and non-politician with extensive experience of visiting prisons and employing ex-prisoners – and elevated him to the House of Lords.
Between 2010 and 2024, the post of prisons minister was filled by 13 different Conservative MPs. The job was often seen as a stepping-stone towards a more senior ministerial post.
Lord Timpson has yet to explain his decision to resign on 20 July, as Mr Burnham moved into Downing Street and began appointing his line-up of ministers and officials. He had served as prisons minister for two years, making him the longest-serving holder of the post for 15 years.
The BBC reported that he had left of his own volition, stating that “it is understood he feels he has done as much as he can in the role”.
However, in an exclusive interview with Inside Time on 15 July, just five days before he resigned, he had indicated that he hoped to stay on in the role, whilst acknowledging that it would be a decision for the new Prime Minister. He said: “It’s not in my gift.”
In a resignation statement, Lord Timpson claimed he had left “our prisons and probation service in a much healthier and happier state than two years ago”.
He said: “I’m proud to have become the longest-serving minister in this role for 15 years. I’m also proud that 75 per cent of prisons and 90 per cent of probation teams are now performing better than when I started. “Self-harm, violence and assaults on staff are all down, and fewer people are leaving prison without a home to go to, a measure of dignity I care about deeply.”
One of Ms McKinnell’s first challenges in her new role will be dealing with the early release scheme which Parliament approved in the Sentencing Act 2026. The scheme was due to see an estimated 6,000 prisoners released early in monthly tranches from 2 September – but was halted for review by Mr Burnham on 23 July, amid criticism that it would benefit people convicted of serious offences including manslaughter.
Saw this on Channel 4. I’m surprised to hear Napo’s Tania Bassett end on a note of support for early release. Whatever criteria are applied, it isn’t a sustainable solution. Probation shouldn’t be the bucket placed under the prison overflow tap.
ReplyDeleteWithout investment in housing, employment, health services and probation staffing, it’s misleading to keep presenting probation as an alternative to custody. Electronic tagging doesn’t solve those underlying problems either—it simply changes where the sentence is served.
https://www.channel4.com/news/what-do-experts-think-of-the-early-release-of-some-prisoners