X Marks the Spot

This blog might get lots more traffic over the coming weeks; almost 19.3 million visits to date. Well done sir!

So, in the event of so many casual visitors wanting to know more about probation & why it's in the pickle it is, I'd like journalists or interested parties to get their heads around &/or teeth into the managed decline of the probation service & the one name that pops up every time there's a key moment in the genesis of that managed decline.

Offender Management Act 2007, which opened the door to outsourcing/privatising probation services.

• "In 2006, X became principal private secretary to the Lord Chancellor – initially Charles Falconer, then from 2007 Jack Straw."

UK Ministry of Justice introduces the Revised Probation National Standards, 2011.

• "In 2011, after 18 months at the Cabinet Office, X moved back to the Ministry of Justice, taking on the role of Director General, Transformation."

In 2013, the most significant legislative and structural overhaul of probation occurred in England and Wales under the UK Ministry of Justice's Transforming Rehabilitation strategy.

• "in 2013 X became Director General, Criminal Justice"

The Probation Modernisation Fund (often referred to as the Mutuals Support Programme or specific probation spin-out funding) was an initiative driven by the Cabinet Office under Francis Maude during the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the early 2010s... The total amount of taxpayer cash deployed from this specific Modernisation Fund was allegedly £80 million, though critics and parliamentary evidence noted that exact, itemized figures were never fully disclosed by the government...

... Specifically, the *public funds* were utilized as a mechanism to cover pre-planned workforce restructuring costs, redundancy packages (which was supposed to offer up to 67.5 weeks of enhanced voluntary redundancy), and pre-planned job losses as staff transitioned to private-sector bidders, but much of it disappeared into the pockets of the multinationals, as confirmed here in Hansard:

"15 June 2015 - Andrew Selous, Written Answer: Under the enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme opened in advance of the transition of the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to new providers, probation staff were able to apply for voluntary redundancy on the basis that they would leave the service by 31 March 2016. The total cost of these redundancies was £16.4m."

Here's the tell that selous dangles before your very eyes:

"All remaining Modernisation Fund monies were awarded to CRCs. Redundancy funding was allocated pro-rata to CRCs based on their size and estimated future staffing requirements."

• Following the 2010 United Kingdom general election X transferred to the Cabinet Office as the Executive Director in the new Efficiency and Reform Group under Francis Maude."

X marks the spot. Every. Single. Time.

Anon